Book Study Options 2023

Below you'll find some options for our late summer 2023 book study. We invite you to take time to look through the descriptions and decide which ones you would be most interested in reading and discussing. A poll will be put out later on once the list of options is finalized.

For fuller descriptions of the books please click the arrow next to the title.

To vote on your preferred books please CLICK HERE. Voting is open until Friday, August 18th, 2023.

Books

Transforming: The Bible & the Lives of Transgender Christians – Austen Hartke

In 2014, Time magazine announced that America had reached "the transgender tipping point," suggesting that transgender issues would become the next civil rights frontier. Years later, many people--even many LGBTQIA+ allies--still lack understanding of gender identity and the transgender experience. Into this void, trans biblical scholar Austen Hartke brings a biblically based, educational, and affirming resource to shed light and wisdom on gender expansiveness and Christian theology. This new edition offers updated terminology and statistics, plus new materials for congregational study, preaching, and pastoral care.

Transforming deftly weaves ancient and modern stories that will change the way readers think about gender, the Bible, and the faith to which Jesus calls us. Hartke helps readers visualize a more inclusive Christianity, equipping them with the language, understanding, confidence, and tools to change both the church and the world.

Supper of the Lamb – Robert Farrer Capon

Writing with a light and easy style that belies his gusto for food and for life, Father Capon has produced a wholly delightful book that is filled with the wisdom of a man in harmony with himself, his world, and, as 'The Supper of the Lamb' amply demonstrates, with his table.

Freeing Jesus – Diana Butler Bass

How can you still be a Christian?

This is the most common question Diana Butler Bass is asked today. It is a question that many believers ponder as they wrestle with disappointment and disillusionment in their church and its leadership. But while many Christians have left their churches, they cannot leave their faith behind. 

In Freeing Jesus, Bass challenges the idea that Jesus can only be understood in static, one-dimensional ways and asks us to instead consider a life where Jesus grows with us and helps us through life’s challenges in several capacities: as Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence. 

Freeing Jesus is an invitation to leave the religious wars behind and rediscover Jesus in all his many manifestations, to experience Jesus beyond the narrow confines we have built around him. It renews our hope in faith and worship at a time when we need it most.

My Body is Not a Prayer Request: Disability Justice in the Church – Amy Kenny

Much of the church has forgotten that we worship a disabled God whose wounds survived resurrection, says Amy Kenny. It is time for the church to start treating disabled people as full members of the body of Christ who have much more to offer than a miraculous cure narrative and to learn from their embodied experiences.

Written by a disabled Christian, this book shows that the church is missing out on the prophetic witness and blessing of disability. Kenny reflects on her experiences inside the church to expose unintentional ableism and cast a new vision for Christian communities to engage disability justice. She shows that until we cultivate church spaces where people with disabilities can fully belong, flourish, and lead, we are not valuing the diverse members of the body of Christ.

Offering a unique blend of personal storytelling, fresh and compelling writing, biblical exegesis, and practical application, this book invites readers to participate in disability justice and create a more inclusive community in church and parachurch spaces. Engaging content such as reflection questions and top-ten lists are included.

Dear Church: A Love Letter from a Black Preacher to the Whitest Denomination in the US – Lenny Duncan

Lenny Duncan is the unlikeliest of pastors. Formerly incarcerated, he is now a black preacher in the whitest denomination in the United States: the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Shifting demographics and shrinking congregations make all the headlines, but Duncan sees something else at work -- drawing a direct line between the church's lack of diversity and the church's lack of vitality. The problems the ELCA faces are theological, not sociological. But so are the answers.

Part manifesto, part confession, and all love letter, Dear Church offers a bold new vision for the future of Duncan's denomination and the broader mainline Christian community of faith. Dear Church rejects the narrative of church decline and calls everyone -- leaders and laity alike -- to the front lines of the church's renewal through racial equality and justice.

It is time for the church to rise up, dust itself off, and take on forces of this world that act against God: whiteness, misogyny, nationalism, homophobia, and economic injustice. Duncan gives a blueprint for the way forward and urges us to follow in the revolutionary path of Jesus.

Rescuing The Gospel From The Cowboys: A Native American Expression of the Jesus Way – Richard Twiss

The gospel of Jesus has not always been good news for Native Americans.

The history of North America is marred by atrocities committed against Native peoples. Indigenous cultures were erased in the name of Christianity. As a result, to this day few Native Americans are followers of Jesus. However, despite the far-reaching effects of colonialism, some Natives have forged culturally authentic ways to follow the way of Jesus.

In his final work, Richard Twiss provides a contextualized Indigenous expression of the Christian faith among the Native communities of North America. He surveys the painful, complicated history of Christian missions among Indigenous peoples and chronicles more hopeful visions of culturally contextual Native Christian faith. For Twiss, contextualization is not merely a formula or evangelistic strategy, but rather a relational process of theological and cultural reflection within a local community. Native leaders reframe the gospel narrative in light of post-colonization, reincorporating traditional practices and rituals while critiquing and correcting the assumptions of American Christian mythologies.

Twiss gives voice to the stories of Native followers of Jesus, with perspectives on theology and spirituality plus concrete models for intercultural ministry. Future generations of Native followers of Jesus, and those working crossculturally with them, will be indebted to this work.

Free of Charge – Miroslav Volf

We are at our human best when we give and forgive. But we live in a world in which it makes little sense to do either one. In our increasingly graceless culture, where can we find the motivation to give? And how do we learn to forgive when forgiving seems counterintuitive or even futile?

A deeply personal yet profoundly thoughtful book, Free of Charge explores these questions--and the further questions to which they give rise--in light of God's generosity and Christ's sacrifice for us. Miroslav Volf draws from popular culture as well as from a wealth of literary and theological sources, weaving his rich reflections around the sturdy frame of Paul's vision of God's grace and Martin Luther's interpretation of that vision.

Blending the best of theology and spirituality, he encourages us to echo in our own lives God's generous giving and forgiving. A fresh examination of two practices at the heart of the Christian faith--giving and forgiving--the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lenten study book for 2006 is at the same time an introduction to Christianity. Even more, it is a compelling invitation to Christian faith as a way of life.

Online Courses

The Way of Love – The Episcopal Church

More than a program or curriculum, it is an intentional commitment to a set of practices. It's a commitment to follow Jesus: Turn, Learn, Pray, Worship, Bless, Go, Rest

Surprised By the God of Hope – N.T. Wright

Many people have questions about what happens after we die and wonder if hope is simply about our ultimate future destination. It is a common assumption in Western Christianity that the primary message is about 'going up to heaven to be with God'. What if there is so much more to Christian hope than something that is going to happen later that will take us away from this world to a ‘better place’? What if there is more to the Good News that Jesus proclaimed than just 'life after death'?

This course addresses many questions people ask about 'where we go' after we die, including ideas about heaven, hell, and purgatory. Those who have read 'Surprised by Hope' will appreciate a fresh take on lasting themes and content from the book. However, this course also presents new ideas and material about the Christian virtue of hope in the present time. Professor N.T. Wright explains why Jesus' resurrection offers surprising answers by the God of hope who came to take charge of his world and dwell with his people in Jesus of Nazareth and through the Holy Spirit. Over a series of 24 lectures you will learn how the Christian hope for life in God's new creation should inspire and inform the mission of the church and individual followers of Jesus today.

In this course you will be encouraged to learn the reasons for our hope right here and right now. We invite you to explore these ideas and to be refreshed and renewed along the way, and perhaps, even surprised by the God of hope.