Six New Things – Week of March 20, 2023
We inch toward New Life embracing every day; celebrating the inherent worth of all creation; fostering fresh faith practices; reimagining communal expressions; healing wounded souls; and appreciating the living dead.
ONE
With ‘glowing’ art and a poignant text, Caldecott Honor-winner Marla Frazee celebrates the moments – big and small – that make up a life: all ages will enjoy, In Every Life (Simon & Schuster).
TWO
Woodland Friends characters return as Doe learns that ‘all things – even dandelions – have worth’, in Doe’s Dandelions (Beaming); includes tips for planning a Petal Parade.
Let the whole community learn about inherent worth – and that ‘everyone can make a difference in the world’ – with MennoMedia’s Changemakers Lab – VBS
THREE
Just want to make it through Easter and Earth Day?
Traci Smith’s 50 Days of Spiritual Practice for Easter to Pentecost is full of at-home faith practices for the whole family.
Finding Calm in Nature: A Guide for Mindful Kids (Beaming) offers another take on practices for all, with an emphasis on outdoor exploration and wonder: a great Earth Day offering.
Find additional Easter and Earth Day resources in our lib guides, including our Earth Day Sunday RCL Commentary Conversation with MNIPL Director of Faith Networks, Buff Grace.
FOUR
Reimagine worship with the Convergence Music Project. This looks AMAZING – with loads of artists, musical styles, and access to downloadable, shareable worship/gathering music. Watch the trailer here.
Prep for sermons with a new twist listening to The Faith and Science Podcast: a science-lens discussion of each week’s RCL texts.
Reimagine the whole ‘church’ thing with Faith+Lead’s Pivot Podcast. Season 4 kicks off with Fresh Expressions: The Modern Approach to Christian Community, an exploration of ‘innovative micro-Christian communities that have arisen as a response to dwindling attendance in traditional churches’.
Find additional inspiration for Reimagining Church in our lib guide.
FIVE
Modern Christians and spiritual seekers will find a balm for their souls in Post-Traumatic Jesus: A Healing Gospel for the Wounded (WJK), an exploration of Jesus’ life story ‘through the post-traumatic lens with which the Gospel writers first wrote it’.
Find additional support for offering care for Grief & Trauma in our lib guide.
SIX
If trauma and despair have you feeling like a zombie, The Living Dead: Fantasy and Fear, Holiness and Hope (Cascade) offers a fresh take on ‘salvation’, ‘possession’, and faith – and concludes that we might all become ‘the living dead’.
Find other Pop Culture resources in our lib guide.
