Our next set of “Reading Circles” will be from The Next Christians by Gabe Lyons. One will begin this Sunday morning during “January Jolt” which is an abbreviated Adult Discipleship term. The second offering of it will be during GC@Nite beginning later in February. Our most recent and most engaging Reading Circle thus far was this past fall and when we discussed A Faith of Our Own by Jonathan Merritt who was kind enough to Skype with us for our last session.

In short, the Reading Circle is about conversation to create community. While the book/essay being read is obviously important, our time centers more on the discussion itself. In more academic or classroom settings, the facilitator could keep the focus on the book itself but for our purposes, we are interested in how these ideas can shape us individually and collectively and to get there, we need a stronger intersection between the content and those gathered. I’ve blogged a little more about the subtle distinctions of our Reading Circles versus book clubs here.

Typically I set up the context of the exert I’m about to read aloud which gives a refresher to those that have read and allows entry points for new people or those that didn’t get a chance to [Read more…]

There are two types of posts I keep finding on Facebook and Twitter, those really excited about the new start of the year and those that are really anxious about it. Obviously I’m overstating but for every blog post about getting things done, there’s 5 Facebook statuses venting their negativity. It’s probably like this every year, but for whatever reason, this year I’ve been struck by how many are entering 2013 with a bit of apprehension and fear.

I think it’s fair to say that many of us exited 2012 in a funk. Between the Newtown tragedy, the Fiscal Cliff, and the US Presidential election, there’s a lot of chatter hitting [Read more…]