In this series, we highlight books we think our readers may enjoy, written by authors affiliated with the Collegeville Institute.
A New Day in the City: Urban Church Revival
Abingdon Press, 2017
by Donna Claycomb Sokol and L. Roger Owens, former summer writing workshop participants
Many urban congregations remember days when their prominence downtown or in city neighborhoods mattered. Many of these congregations are now struggling to survive, but others are thriving again. In A New Day in the City: Urban Church Revival, Donna Claycomb Sokol and L. Roger Owens explore seven crucial conversations urban congregations need to have that can lead to renewal. They challenge clichés about church leadership and strategic planning by showing what congregational renewal can look like and how it can become a reality. Each chapter contains practical guidelines for leader congregations to address the questions that matter most.
Post-High School Reality Quest
California Coldblood, 2017
by Meg Eden, 2016 summer writing workshop participant
The book of Hosea captures the relationship between God and His people, where regardless of how many times we run away, God pursues. In the novel Post-High School Reality Quest, Meg Eden explores this relationship in the every day, structured as a classic video game. Buffy the protagonist’s life is a video game, and she’s given a choice: to follow the hints the game gives her, or to follow her own personal path. As Buffy plays the game, her own goals complicate. Though Buffy tries to beat the game, crash it, and even restart it, it becomes clear that this game is not something she can simply “shut off” or beat completely on her own. Exploring themes of mental health, spirituality, identity, love and loss, Post-High School Reality Quest is a fresh and haunting story of the human experience.
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