Six New Things – Week of September 02, 2024

Jesus calls us to a radical love that celebrates differences and embraces commonalities. In humility, we find courage and grace for creating Beloved Community as we deepen awareness of our interconnectedness.

ONE

An unhoused girl seeking financial support from strangers wonders, ‘Where Are You Going, Butterfly?‘ (Reycraft) In pursuit of the butterfly, she manages to help several neighbors – who return her kindnesses. The book, ‘is informed by [the author’s] experiences with homelessness and her belief in interconnectedness’.

Walter Brueggemann’s, Poverty in the Promised Land: Neighborliness, Resistance, and Restoration (Fortress) expounds ‘biblical evidence’ for understanding poverty as systemic and structural and ‘the biblical mandate of neighborliness as both a personal and a corporate response to systemic poverty’. To Love Our Neighbors: Radical Practices in Solidarity, Sufficiency, and Sustainability (Orbis) ‘shows how true neighbor love is the long-term work of forming and maintaining more just communities’.

Find more reading and action prompts for all ages in our Social Justice: Poverty, Hunger, & Unhoused and Neighborhood Revitalization lib guides.

TWO

The Different Tree (Reycraft) considers a backyard oak that is ‘different’ from other tree as the seasons unfold. The metaphor intentionally extends to people who are neurodivergent and who do things at their own pace – and can broaden our welcome of any people who are deemed ‘different’. See also our Faith Formation: Identity & Diversity – Different Abilities lib guide.

Practice a warmer welcome toward all God’s children with The Art of Hospitality Revised Edition: A Practical Guide for a Ministry of Radical Welcome (Abingdon), which invites congregations to ‘create a culture of radical hospitality that delights guests beyond their expectations’. See also our Congregational Life: Outreach & Hospitality lib guide.

Deepen that commitment to awareness and welcome through Trauma-Informed Spiritual Care: Interventions for Safety, Meaning, Reconnection, and Justice (Fortress), ‘a crucial resource’ for every pastoral care provider. See also our Pastoral Care: Grief & Trauma – Adults lib guide.

THREE

Flyover Church: How Jesus’ Ministry in Rural Places Is Good News Everywhere (Herald), traces ‘Jesus’ ministry and bountiful work among the small-town people and places in the gospel of Mark’, offering ‘a hopeful message into the distinct challenges—and promises—faced by rural communities’ that will resonate with ‘the church in every place’

In a similar vein, Everywhere Is Jerusalem: Experiencing the Holy Then and Now (Abingdon), ‘will take you on a spiritual journey to the places… most important in our faith, and you’ll discover that the most important place of all is the place where you are, right now’. [Includes Leader Guide, DVD, and Participant Book.]

Find more in our Reclaiming Rural/Small and Spiritual Practices: Pilgrimage lib guides.

FOUR

Encourage a sense of exploration with Celebrate Wonder: All Ages Digital Bundles (Cokesbury Kids), ‘designed to empower mixed-age group or separate-age ministry with children ages 3-12. The Bundle includes One Room Sunday School, interactive stories, activities, reproducible kids’ pages, and printable posters. Find more options in our Sunday School – Curricula lib guide.

Supplement any curriculum with at-home Prayer and Conversation Cubes from Traci Smith. The prayer cube contains five simple family prayer ideas and one ‘choose your own or roll again’. The conversation starters provide six easy ways to get kids talking. Blank cubes and a tip sheet are also included. Find additional ideas in our Spiritual Practices: Family, Small Group, & Congregation lib guide.

FIVE

Illustrated Ministry’s new Youth Ministry Curriculum, Tell Me About the Bible: Extraordinary Leaders, Volume 1, promises to ‘ inspire and engage young minds’ in both faith and leadership by ‘exploring the lives and legacies of extraordinary women in the Bible’. Other options can be found in our Youth Ministry: Curriculum lib guide.

Youth can be leaders in building relationships with Indigenous neighbors. Develop awareness of Indigenous peers’ realities with Minnesota author Marcie Rendon’s works, particularly Where They Last Saw Her: A Novel (Bantom), a story of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, which, ‘asks searing questions about bystander culture’ and ‘the reverberations of even one act of crime’. Further engagement opportunities can be found in our Antiracism: Teens & Tweens – Perspectives & Stories and Social Justice: Indigenous Peoples lib guides.

A completely different tack with Youth might be What to Wear and Why: Your Guilt-Free Guide to Sustainable Fashion (Broadleaf). Fashionistas who care about sustainability, environmental advocates who want to learn more about fashion’s impacts, and kids who want to be the change they want to see, will be inspired by this ‘guide to a more sustainable future’.

SIX

Youth and adults are anxious about the upcoming elections and their aftermath. Matthew Fox shares a timely look at Trump & the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ (self published). It’s partisan, so not supportable in congregations, but individuals may appreciate Fox’s concern about ‘the (mostly) religiously illiterate press’ and its portrayals of ‘Christianity’ as he highlights, ‘the values of the Christ that underscore the meaning of democracy’, including ‘the dignity of the individual… commitment to community, solidarity, and the common good’.

Texas State Senator, Rev. James Talarico’s excellent – and congregationally shareable – video sermon on the Separation of Church & State – is ‘a must-view for Christian Nationalism discussions’. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Find more on the Census, Elections, & Voting and Church & State/Christian Nationalism in our lib guides.

SEVEN

And just because they’re starting to pop up already, here are some ideas for Advent – for those who are already planning:

  • Season’s Greetings: Christmas Letters from Those Who Were There (Upper Room) is ‘twelve vividly imagined letters… that speak to the many meanings of Christmas: Awe. Wonder. Disruption. Scandal. Hope.’ which together invite the reader ‘to add their own voice to the conversation; to put Christmas into your own words’.

 

Find regularly-updated Advent resources in our lib guides: