Books
Looking for a good read or a thought-provoking book for your small group? Here are some great recommendations from our staff!
Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile by Rob Bell
With six chapters and an epilogue, this is a great book for a 7-week study. It does not come with a discussion guide, but if your group doesn’t want to be totally self-directed, we can make one for you.
- “If our church was taken away--from our city, our neighborhood, our region--who would protest?” This is the central question of this book. What is the best expression of the church in our privileged context?
With six chapters and an epilogue, this is a great book for a 7-week study. It does not come with a discussion guide, but if your group doesn’t want to be totally self-directed, we can make one for you.
The God Who Sees: Immigration, The Bible, and The Journey to Belong by Karen Gonzalez
- Immigration is most often talked about as a political policy issue. Karen Gonzalez uses her own experience as an immigrant from Guatemala to remind us that the experiences of people fleeing fear and violence are deeply tied to the Scriptures and are ultimately a personal and spiritual issue. This book is not only timely, but is uniquely interesting for a congregation like Northbrook that has a deep connection to the people of Guatemala.
- This book is 11 chapters long and includes a discussion guide as well as an appendix full of ideas for taking action.
The Story of God, The Story of Us by Sean Gladding
- Stories are one of the most powerful forms of communication we have, this is one of the main reasons that Jesus spoke in parables. Stories are the central way that we get to know one another. In this book & DVD, Sean Gladding looks at the overall narrative (metanarrative) of the Scriptures and how that story connects to our own stories.
- The book has 12 chapters, and there is a video with 6 sessions, & a discussion guide. This would be ideal for a 6 week series.
Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster
- This one is as close to “required reading” as I have the power to make it. We tend to recoil at the idea of discipline--it strikes us with negative visions of punishment and self-denial. Quaker theologian Richard Foster challenges that. Spiritual disciplines stand contrary to a highly consumerist culture intent on instant gratification. The spiritual disciplines are a pattern of life that lead to a holistic, mature, and healthy spirituality.
- These are 12 disciplines looked at in this book. I would suggest doing two a week (meditation & prayer, fasting & study, simplicity & solitude, submission & service, confession & worship, guidance & celebration) to make a 6-week study. There are study guides available for this.
A World Worth Saving: Lenten Spiritual Practices for Action by George Donigan
- A great study to take up, particularly after you have done Celebration of Discipline. This Lenten study connects our worship with our lived expression of God’s love for our neighbors.
- This is a 6-week study for Lent and has a leader guide.
The Sign and the Sacrifice: The Meaning of the Cross and Resurrection by Archbishop Rowan Williams
- Why is the cross, an instrument of death and torture, the ubiquitous symbol of the Christian church? Former Archbishop of Canterbury and man with the most interesting eyebrows in the world (seriously, look him up), Rowan Williams, attempts to answer this question. In doing so, he explores the meaning and significance of Christ’s death and resurrection to the early church and to us today.
- This would work well as a post-Easter study with Good Friday still fresh in our minds. There are 5 chapters, each about 20 pages. It would be best to take this book one chapter per session. There are a few discussion questions at the end of each chapter.
Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans
- A lot of attention has been paid to Rachel Evans since her untimely passing earlier this year. If you have never heard of her or read her before, this is a great place to start. With more than a healthy does of self-aware humor, and honesty, Evans struggles to find her place in the institutional church.
- Evans breaks down her book into seven chapters, looking at the two sacraments (communion and baptism) and five other major means of grace (confession, ordination, confirmation, anointing the sick, and marriage) of the Episcopal church that she joined in the years preceding her death. There is a discussion guide available.
A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband “Master” by Rachel Held Evans
- “Could an ancient collection of sacred texts, spanning multiple genres and assembled over thousands of years in cultures very different from our own, really offer a single cohesive formula for how to be a woman? And do the women of Scripture fit into this same mold? Must I?” And thus starts her entire year of taking everything the Scriptures say about women literally. She spends the year exploring issues like domesticity, modesty, fertility, submission, justice, and more. This book is absurd, quite funny, and full of wonderful insights into how we interact with God and with one another.
- There are twelve chapters, each about 20 pages, and a free discussion guide created by the author. I’d suggest doing two chapters per session (yeah, that means about 40 pages per week, but the writing in this one is really easy and entirely narrative). While the title may make you think this is a study just for women, I’d recommend it for any group looking for something both insightful and light-hearted.
Falling Upward: A Spirituality for Two Halves of Life by Richard Rohr
- In the first half of life so much energy is spent trying to figure out just who we are, but this won't entirely serve us in our further journey. We have to go beyond establishing an identity to discerning just what it is that we are doing with this life anyways. To go up, you have to go down. This paradox is an important piece of spiritual wisdom, and the heart of Rohr’s book. Our failings are most often the best foundation for ongoing spiritual growth.
- This book has 12 chapters, so would work well with one chapter per week.
Simon Peter: Flawed but Faithful Disciple by Adam Hamilton
- Peter was an unlikely tool for the establishment of a spiritual movement. He was not a part of the spiritual, social, or economic elite and had no influence. What made him ideal wasn’t his qualifications, but rather his willingness to listen, his eagerness to learn, and his passion.
- This is a 6-week study with a leader guide and a DVD.
Irresistible by Andy Stanley
How does the new covenant as understood through Jesus Christ affect how Christians understand the Old Testament? Does the Mosaic law matter in the 21st century? Does Jesus’ teaching discard the old law?
Andy Stanley uses his own experience and education to shed new light on how Christians might understand their relationship to the Old Testament. He invites us to look at faith through the eyes of the first generation church, so we can rediscover a faith that is truly irresistible.
There is a DVD and leader guide available for this book.
How does the new covenant as understood through Jesus Christ affect how Christians understand the Old Testament? Does the Mosaic law matter in the 21st century? Does Jesus’ teaching discard the old law?
Andy Stanley uses his own experience and education to shed new light on how Christians might understand their relationship to the Old Testament. He invites us to look at faith through the eyes of the first generation church, so we can rediscover a faith that is truly irresistible.
There is a DVD and leader guide available for this book.
Video Series
These series stream from The Work of the People and will require a login and password (the church has an account, so email Ryan if your class wants to use one)
- Racism and oppression have a long and painful past and present, it is an open, aching human wound that reflects a fracture in our relationship with God. Understanding how it was promoted and is still alive and acting out in the construct of our beliefs and systems and structures is the beginning of caring for this wound.
- This is a 12-session video based series. The videos stream from the Work of the People website and there is a leader guide.
- A search for purpose and meaning in the events and choices of our lives. A costly journey with an unknown destination. A Middle Eastern homeless man from twenty centuries ago and why he still stirs the souls and imagination of so many.
- This is a 7-week series with leader guide and videos.
- Questions and uncertainty are a central element of a vibrant and transforming faith. Mystery is one of the most central ingredients of faith. Qur questions don't lead us down a slippery slope where we lose our faith completely but rather to a deeper and more meaningful relationship with God that is built not on certainty and blind obedience but on honesty, vulnerability, and trust.
- This is a 6-week series with leader guide and videos.