Adult Ed, Circles, and Wednesday Bible Studies are on summer break, but that doesn’t mean we can’t challenge ourselves to keep learning and growing during this time off from our regular schedules. We asked our Hope Church pastors to give us a few suggestions for our summer reading list. Their responses are below.
According to Pastor Gordon, picking one or two favorites was a challenge, so he shared several ideas:
- We recently read some books together that were meaningful: Wholehearted Faith and Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
- A classic that I love recommending is Nouwen’s Life of the Beloved, or how about Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship?
- Folks may be interested in Richard Rohr’s new book: The Tears of Things: Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage
- Jamar Tisby’s new book: The Spirit of Justice
- Poetry is always good! Recent from Padrig O’ Tauma: 44 Poems on Being With Each Other, or Amanda Gorman Call Us What We Carry
Pastor Gretchen shared two books that came to her mind right away: “To Kill a Mockingbird continues to be my all-time favorite that I can read again and different times with different eyes. And one from the past few years that sticks with me is called Overstory: different stories woven together to make a theme around trees. I felt smarter having read this novel, and you can’t always say that with fiction!” (As a side note, Overstory would be recommended by Creation Care Ministry as well. You will learn a lot about forests from this weaving together of the stories of nine characters’ experiences with trees.)
Finally, Pastor Phil shared this note with his choices: “I think of the two books we read for Bible Pride this year: The Courage to be Queer by Jeff Hood and Hearts Ablaze: Parables for the Queer Soul by Rolf R. Nolasco Jr. Those two came to mind first. I’m currently reading a lovely feminist, anti-racist, LGBTQ-affirming devotional titled God Didn’t Make Us to Hate Us, by Rev. Lizzy McManus-Dail. Very readable.”
If you get through all those, the pastors would be happy to share more suggestions!