The only things I like better than reading books are talking about books and writing books. That’s what made my first book-length writing project, Besides the Bible: 100 Books that Have, Should, or Will Create Christian Culture (InterVarsity Press, 2010), which I co-wrote with a couple of friends, so much fun. It gave me a chance to do all three. Our goal was simple: to get Christians talking about really good books. Besides the Bible was a collection of 100 essays about 100 books we think every Christian should read. My co-authors and I wrote 70 of the essays. The remaining essays were written by 30 of our favorite writers, thinkers, pastors, and artists, including the authors of Blue Like Jazz and The Shack.

C.S. Lewis said, “We read to know that we are not alone.” Anne Lamott echoes this sentiment in Bird by Bird when she says that writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation, while deepening and widening and expanding our sense of life. Reading, writes Lamott, gives us “a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It’s like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can’t stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.”

Now that the Besides the Bible project is over, I’m still reading and writing books – my second book, Slow Church, will be published by IVP in 2013 – but I miss talking about them with friends. I miss singing together on the ship, so to speak. Suspecting I might not be alone, I recently talked to the elders about starting a book club.

The Besides the Bible Book Club (so named because it shares the same goals and spirit of the book) will be a conversation about really good books, and about reading and the power of language. Though the books we discuss will vary in kind – fiction, nonfiction, essays, and poetry; explicitly Christian and not – what they have in common is that they will be books of substance, with the power to surprise, delight, challenge, and change us.

Here are the logistics: We’re going to meet the third Saturday of every month from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m. at Gear-Up coffee shop. Our first gathering will be June 16, when we will be discussing Marilynne Robinson’s profoundly beautiful novel, Gilead. The second gathering will be on July 21 and the book will be Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard. Bring your book ideas to the June 16 gathering; that morning, we will vote on books for the rest of 2012. I’m also going to provide the church library with two copies of each month’s books.

All this information will appear again as a flyer in this week’s bulletin, along with a short excerpt from Gilead.  If you have questions, please feel free to email me at johnepattison@gmail.com.

Happy reading!  – John Pattison

This year the Northwest Yearly Meeting Administrative Council has provided us with a 50 Day Prayer Journal—a tool to help us prepare as we draw closer to our annual sessions in July. The focus of this journal is not solely on our Yearly Meeting Sessions, but to draw us into a space of prayer across all the Northwest, therefore preparing us for our time together.

The Yearly Meeting sent out copies to individuals and meetings/churches, just like their newsletter (Connection). If you are not on that list and would like a copy of the 50 Day Prayer Journal you can either view it online or download a copy (Click Here). The PDF you download can be printed for your own book.

Please join us as we create consistent space for prayer in our lives as a whole yearly meeting.

Join us this Sunday as we welcome DK and Choity Sarkar, Evangelical Friends Missions (EFM) missionaries to India.  D.K. and Choity will be sharing of their work during our children’s message and sermon time this Sunday.  

When Diptendra Kumar (D.K) felt God’s Call for the ministry he resigned from the State Electricity Board and became a full time evangelist.  He leads a team of evangelists who start home groups for Hindus interested in Christianity. D.K. and Choity work among the Bengali people in and around Kolkata, India. They joined EFM in 2003 and brought with them a group of evangelists who supervise house churches and evangelistic cell groups. They serve in the slums and poor island areas as well as in other areas of West Bengal state. This is a growing movement and one with compassionate income-generating projects for the very poor.

Ministry  Evangelical Friends Mission Kolkata started working in Kolkata and in its suburbs since 2003.  Kolkata is known as the city of slums, there are approximately 3000 slums in and around this metropolis.  We initiated our very first task in some of these slums.  God blessed us with five slum fellowships.  Gradually by his grace, the work multiplied in six different districts.  Away from Kolkata, these districts stretch over an area over 400 miles. Kolkata used to be known as slums. Now the builders are buying the slums and making buildings. To some people they give a place to stay in the buildings but to many they just cheat. Now it is not knows as the city of slums.

For more information on the Sarkars – click here

We are now about half-way through our current sermon series, “Seeing Spiritual.”  We have already looked at things, places, and this past week we talked about relationships.  In doing that Pastor Bob has shared several books each week to help resource those who would like to delve a little deeper into developing their spiritual literacy.   Below are a few of the books that have been suggested (descriptions of books from Amazon.com):

The Shack by William P. Young:  In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant The Shack wrestles with the timeless question, “Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?” The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You’ll want everyone you know to read this book!

 

Dakota: A Spiritual Geography by Kathleen Norris: Kathleen Norris invites readers to experience rich moments of prayer and presence in Dakota, a timeless tribute to a place in the American landscape that is at once desolate and sublime, harsh and forgiving, steeped in history and myth. In thoughtful, discerning prose, she explores how we come to inhabit the world we see, and how that world also inhabits us. Her voice is a steady assurance that we can, and do, chart our spiritual geography wherever we go.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer:  Nine-year-old Oskar Schell has embarked on an urgent, secret mission that will take him through the five boroughs of New York. His goal is to find the lock that matches a mysterious key that belonged to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11. This seemingly impossible task will bring Oskar into contact with survivors of all sorts on an exhilarating, affecting, often hilarious, and ultimately healing journey.

Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller: In Donald Miller’s early years, he was vaguely familiar with a distant God. But when he came to know Jesus Christ, he pursued the Christian life with great zeal. Within a few years he had a successful ministry that ultimately left him feeling empty, burned out, and, once again, far away from God. In this intimate, soul-searching account, Miller describes his remarkable journey back to a culturally relevant, infinitely loving God.

Love Does: A Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World by Bob Goff:  Bob Goff has become something of a legend, and his friends consider him the world’s best-kept secret. Those same friends have long insisted he write a book. What follows are paradigm shifts, musings, and stories from one of the world’s most delightfully engaging and winsome people. What fuels his impact? Love. But it’s not the kind of love that stops at thoughts and feelings. Bob’s love takes action. Bob believes Love Does.

Click here for Pastor Bob’s personal review of “Love Does”

Here is the beautiful video that began our open worship this past Sunday.  Let it be an opportunity for worship this week!