Six New Things – Week of June 5, 2023

With Memorial Day in our rearview it must be SUMMER – a season to follow our imagination into PRIDE Month, courageous leaps of faith, and rest…

P.S. We’ll be taking a few Monday’s off in the next few weeks, so if we miss a Monday/Six New Things, we will hope for your grace – and that you, too, are taking needed times for rest and renewal.

ONE

Duck, Duck, Tiger (Beaming) is a beautifully illustrated, imaginative exploration of, ‘the difficulties those with marginalized identities face from an early age’ as it follows one little girl’s ‘journey from uneasy feelings to understanding and pride’.

Find a whole pile of resources for PRIDE Month in our Relationships & Identity, Pastoral Care: Sex/Sexuality, and Inclusive Worship and National Observances: PRIDE lib guides.

TWO

A Dive into the Blue (Beaming) follows another young girl who uses her imagination to overcome her fears and learn to believe in herself.

For youth/young adults struggling with mental health concerns, Mind Over Monsters: Supporting Youth Mental Health with Compassionate Challenge (Beacon), encourages ‘creating… environments characterized both by compassion and challenge’.

THREE

Illustrated Ministry’s companion music for Compassion Camp: What Every Living Thing Needs inspires courage and compassion through a strong sense of belonging, self-awareness, and purpose. Jump start get-togethers with inclusive, progressive music like: Welcome Home; When We Breathe; Our Hallelujahs; There’s Enough; Living Water; and A Creation Hymn; also available on Spotify and AppleMusic or anywhere you stream music; check out their CCLI licensing on the SongSelect website.

FOUR

Develop compassion and courage within your congregation through the Innovation Culture Index and the expanded facilitation of the Innovation Lab cohort: Discover your unique grounding theology for change, develop a common vocabulary, strengthen resilience, map assets, and get ready for transformation through this 40-question survey and/or the 18-month cohort.

Watch an introductory trailer here.

Watch testimonials from cohort participants here.

Learn more here and get your cohort registration in by June 9 by emailing Rev. Emily Meyer.

FIVE

Take that development to the broader community with We Need to Build: Field Notes for Diverse Democracy (Beacon), from Eboo Patel, former faith adviser to President Obama, who inspires and guides communities ‘to promote positive social change’.

SIX

But don’t let any of this get you down, dear leader: you, too, can enjoy some levity and self-care! Rethink not only your sermons, but your whole approach to leadership:

Humor Us! Preaching and the Power of the Comic Spirit (WJK) will inspire you to lighten up in your sermons and preaching prep; and Only Work Sundays: A Laidback Guide to Doing Less While Helping Your Church Thrive (Pilgrim) ‘offers an opportunity to break the anxious cycle of busyness by embracing the spiritual wisdom of laziness’.

It’s summer – time for some R&R!!