Advent/Lent Newsletter Excerpt | Recommended Reads
Here are some books recommended by Pastor Steve and Pastor Ben. Consider adding these to your reading list.
How Do I Help a Hurting Friend?
Rod Wilson
Are you a pastoral visitor or caregiver or just someone in the church who knows someone going through a tough time? Sometimes it’s hard to know where to start, and it’s helpful to get insights from those who know what helps and what unintentionally brings further hurt. This book offers some practical advice touching on subjects like grief, depression, burnout, and dysfunction in family life.
From the Back of the Book: Each of us know someone who is hurting. We want to help but often don’t know how… Rod Wilson offers you practical insights into helping hurting people. These insights are born out of more than twenty-five years of church and counselling experience.
*This book can be found in our section on pastoral care and grief.
Made to Belong
David Kim
We celebrated Kick-off with a series on community and there are a plenty of great resources out there to explore what it means to grow as churches longing to develop deeper connection in community. Made to Belong not only gives good biblical foundations but practical ways in which we can cultivate community in our church.
From the Back of the Book: Left to ourselves, we tend to drift away from relationships. David grew up as a Korean American immigrant and realized how difficult it is to find and cultivate meaningful connections, even in Christian community. In other words, we all want to belong, but we just don’t know how.
Practicing the Way
John Mark Comer
This year council has been focusing on the question of how we are meant to grow as disciples. We have been using Practicing the Way as a guide into looking at how we can be intentional in forming ourselves as leaders and as Christians.
From the back of the Book: To live by what the first Christian disciples called a Rule of Life—a set of practices and relational rhythms that slow us down and open up space in our daily lives for God to do what only God can do—transforms the deepest parts of us to become like him.
Habits of the Household
Justin Witmel Earley
As we have looked at Practicing the Way, you may have thought to yourself, “This is really great, but I am barely keeping up with the rhythms of parenting!” Whether you have small children or teenagers, the dynamics of family life have an impact on our rhythms and habits; and our heart follows those habits. This book offers up opportunities to shape the faith of your family in the daily rhythms you already engage with. I won’t promise that reading this book will make it easier, but it might make it feel more achievable.
From the back of the Book: You long for tender moments with your children–but do you ever find yourself too busy to stop, make eye contact, and say something you really mean? Daily habits are powerful ways to shape the heart–but do you find yourself giving in to screen time just to get through the day? You want to parent with purpose–but do you know how to start?