Reading Groups for Ministry Agents

This year there will be three opportunities to join an on-line reading group that focuses on a pre-selected book for a month. We will use Ning, a free social networking site, which means you can be part of this group from wherever you are living and working and can make contributi ons at ti mes that suit you. You will be invited to comment on the book under discussion and how it applies to ministry practi ce and the current realiti es of ministry and life in the church. To participate in this program you will need to register with the CTM, have access to a copy of the book and the internet. There will be a small administrative charge to join these groups.

The books and dates chosen for 2010 are:

Christianity for the rest of us: how the neighborhood church is transforming the faith
By Dianna Butler Bass
May 10-June 13
This book explores Christian practices that are renewing ordinary congregations across America. It grounded in several years of research on congregations that are renewing their lives and growing in faith and numbers and shares many stories of these congregati ons. I found this a hopeful,
encouraging read.

Free of Charge: giving and forgiving
in a culture stripped of grace
By Miraslav Volf
July 19-August 15
A wonderful, easy to read book by the Professor of Theology at Yale that explores the themes of giving and forgiving. In that explorati on we discover God at the heart of both. Volf draws on his own life experience and his theology to write a compelling book.

take this bread: a radical conversion
By Sara Miles
October 4-October 31
A spiritual memoir that ‘... is easy to read …’ and it raises good questi ons. It will have you contemplati ng the signifi cance of Eucharist as an evangelical moment. Perhaps prompt you to re-evaluate how sacramental faith might change the world. And get you wondering about the relationship between liturgy and mission. (From a review by Kylie Crabbe)