Girls in transit from Uganda to Burundi… books under discussion!
The transit lounge has been rather empty lately, I confess. It’s not because I haven’t been traveling or reading. I’ve done a bit of both in recent months. But I’m also working on a book proposal (nearly done, thanks for asking) and so much of my energy and reading is connected to that one large project.
However, I miss the hustle and bustle of reading on the go. And I miss the conversations we have together as we read in community, challenging and stretching one another right alongside the author. So even as I’m working on a book… I want to host a couple of community book conversations this year.
Both books I’ve chosen are by Walter Brueggemann because no matter what I’m working on, he nourishes my imagination and pushes me deeper into the Biblical text, thus deeper into good practice. Also, I think one of the best conversations we shared together was our collective read of The Prophetic Imagination. So maybe this is a good place for those kinds of ideas!
This April we will be reading Sabbath as Resistance: Saying NO to the CULTURE OF NOW.
How can the practice of Sabbath function as resistance to the empire? How can Sabbath-keeping embody the alternative community of God in our neighborhood? What is Sabbath, really? These are all explored in a small volume that is quite accessible and provoking in the best kind of way.
I’ve invited some friends to help host this conversation: Amanda Martin (North Carolina), Matt Orth (North Carolina), Steven Spears (Alabama), Seth Haines (Arkansas), Esther Emery (Idaho) and yours truly (Arizona). We’re inviting our friends to read along with us – which includes you! (Feel free to find and follow us on Twitter – these are some of my Favorite Follows, so a bonus!)
Some logistics:
- Get the book soon!
- Tweet your way through it this April using #TransitLounge – so we can find each other in the crowded twittersphere. Tweet quotes, questions, observations and connections while you read.
- Write a response. We’ll promise to offer our reactions to the book – where Brueggemann enlightened, challenged, offered some freedom or pushed us too far. Those posts will go live on our various websites, but can also be found here during the week of April 28 – May 2. And I will host a link-up on the last Thursday, May 1, right here for you to contribute your own responses.
- Comment on responses – this is how the conversation goes deeper, as we interact with one another around the ideas Brueggemann presents but also our own thoughtful responses.
Our future read, for the planners among you, will be Journey to the Common Good in October. My conversation partners will be Caris Adel and Luke Harms – and probably a couple of others. I’ll offer more exact dates / details as we get closer to fall.
For now – let me know if you plan to read Sabbath as Resistance with us next month!
And please share with your friends and expand the conversation to your community. As an introvert I hardly ever say this, but in the case of discussions around the words of Walter Brueggemann, the more the merrier!
Welcome back, friends, I’ve missed our conversations here.
PHOTO CREDIT: Taken by the lovely Claire deBoer, or as I call her, eClaire!
Just bought it! (shameless plug: buy through this link and Amazon donates $5 to the youth center my husband volunteers at) http://smile.amazon.com/ref=smi_ge_rl_rd_gw?_encoding=UTF8&ein=80-0336108
Hello, I have always been a Brueggmann fan. I’m starting a Doctor of Ministry degree at St. Paul School of Theology here in Kansas City. This will be a nice prep for that journey.
Blessings,
Jon Pope
A study of sabbath before a D.Min might be the perfect preparation… because work stoppage is real, even for seminarians! Glad you’ll be part of the conversation!
I have the book and plan to participate. (I think I’ve figured out how the tweeting conversation works *fingers-crossed*).
Already have the book in hand – great! Tweeting is easy – just took me a couple weeks to get the hand of all the slang. But use #TransitLounge with your comments so we can ‘hear’ you. Also, you can search using that same hashtag to find the conversation happening… Look forward to diving in next week.
I’m looking forward to this one, in part because I need the read and in part because the company is good (dare I say the best!).
This will be the perfect reason to open up this little book on my table now. I want to be in the resistance movement!
It’s here — now, to read it!