RevGalBookPals: The Reading List Edition

In my neck of the woods, summer time is slow-down-time. Church attendance drops, Bible study subsides, and it is a good time to get in lots of visitation and reading. (Not at the same time, usually.) Of course, it's not summer for all Rev Gals and Pals, but it is a good time to see what we're all reading and to make sure that To-Be-Read stack does not actually shrink.

My own personal To-Be-Read list (on Goodreads) has 211 books on it. Well, it did before I compiled this list- gleaned from our Facebook group and trolling among friends.

Dad is Fat (Gaffigan)

The Tao of Martha

American Savage

What We Talk about When We Talk about God

When Spiritual, but Not Religious is Not Enough

Middlemarch

Cutting for Stone

The Warmth of Other Suns

The Ghost Map

Blind Spot

The Emperor of All Maladies

There But for The (Smith)

Under the Tuscan Sun

The Blind Side

Day (Wiesel)

Inferno

Great Expectation

The Natural

The Thought Exchange

Shocked: My Mother, Schiaparelli, and Me

The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

Failure of Nerve

Gifts of Imperfection

A New Harmony

The Magic of Hebrew Chant

Immunity to Change

What Every Church Member Should Know about Poverty

Switch (Heath)

Social Media and the Church

Speaking Christian

Saving Paradise (Brock)

The Weight of Mercy

Ten Things Preachers Get Wrong about First Century Judaism (Levine)

The Book Thief

The Tower, the Zoo and the Tortoise

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Neighbors and Wise Men

Torn (Lee)

Christianity and Process Thought

The Naked Now

Falling Upward (Rohr)

Immortal Diamond (Rohr)

Call the Midwife

Salt, Sugar, Fat

Feeding the Hungry Ghost: Life, Faith, and What to Eat for Dinner

Sex, Drugs, and Meditation

Anything by Gabrielle Roy

Anything by Margaret Laurence

Re-read Harry Potter

What's on your list? What catches your eye here? 

Do you have something you re-read every year? 

Let's talk BOOKS! 

RevGalBookPals: Summer Roundup

We're well into summer in the Northern Hemisphere and our Southern Hemisphere gals and pals are into winter. Regardless of the season you're experiencing, we can all use some recommendations. Earlier this week, I asked on the RevGals Facebook page what people were reading. Below is that list, in no particular order, but with a slight attempt at organization.

With all book recommendations, as with parables, your mileage may vary (YMMV). One person's beloved War and Peace is another person's @*!&!*^ War and Peace. Still, whether it's summer vacation or winter holiday, browse this list and share what's keeping you up at night in the comments below! There's always more to read!

Church Related (In Some Capacity) 

Keeping the Faith in Seminary

Scattering Seeds

Walking in the Valleys of Darkness

Wisdom Jesus

I Heart Sex Workers

Out of the Fog, Into the Sun

Still

Falling Upward

Called to Question

Follow the Path

Being with God (Journaling Series) 

Jesus Freak

Take This Bread 

Not Church-Related (But always potential sermon fodder)

Quiet

The Fault in Our Stars

Are You My Mother

A Wrinkle in Time

The Distant Hours

In One Person

Pride and Prejudice

Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal? 

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth

Theophilus North

The Long Christmas Dinner and Other Plays

The Cabala

The Uncommon Reader

The Frugal Gourmet

The Art of Possibility

The Games of Thrones

Change of Heart

Wonder

The Chronicles of Narnia

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RevGalBlogPals on Facebook!!! and 2nd Monday Discussion

We've done it!!! RevGalBlogPals is now on Facebook. You can visit our page here. It's a public page, so you don't have to be signed up for Facebook to see it. We'll use the page to promote posts from our blog. If you "like" us, you'll be able to post to our Facebook wall to ask questions or make comments.

Our 2nd Monday Discussion topic for April will, appropriately, be Facebook. Lots of churches and even more pastors are using Facebook as a ministry tool. But pastors, most of us, don't stay forever in one ministry setting. As Facebook has become more universal, it's clear we need to talk about whether to keep those Facebook "friends" when me move on to a new call. Do you really want your Facebook wall covered with posts and comments from your previous congregation while you're trying to get to know a new one? If you decide to "de-friend" people from the congregation you're leaving, do you notify them or just disappear from their lists? What's the etiquette?

I have some ideas, but we want to hear yours! Please share your Facebook stories in the comments, and be sure to stop over and "like" us, too! We have 180 fans just since Saturday. Many thanks to Mary Beth Butler for setting up the page!!!

Ask the Matriarch - Facebook?

Last week we marked RevGalBlogPal's 5th anniversary with a question about blogging...this week, Facebook is the social network du jour:

How do you navigate friendships on Facebook as a pastor? I'm currently not on Facebook because I'm not sure that I want to tackle this. I wouldn't mind being on Facebook to communicate with family and friends (especially those friends from college, etc.) But I don't know that I want my congregation to be privy to these communications. Do they need to see so much of my life? And if a friend says something offensive, I feel like it'd reflect poorly on me--especially as I've only been in my current call a few months. Am I being oversensitive?

Oh, and I did mention Facebook to a key leader in my congregation which was very interesting. She mentioned joining Facebook and being cornered at church because she hadn't immediately accepted friend requests. She told me her intent in getting on was to communicate with her widespread extended family. So, the water is a bit muddier here in my mind already.

Insights appreciated!

Signed,

Is Facebook worth it?

Mompriest who blogs at Seeking Authentic Voice was the only matriarch with much to say about Facebook:

Facebook is an interesting conundrum. For the most part I think its important to maintain a level of privacy about our personal lives distinct from our ministry lives. Therefore I do not want my parishioners to be "friends" with me on my personal Facebook account. Among other reasons this is because our parishioners need to see us as their Pastoral provider and our personal selves may not meet their ideal, which could lead to additional problems. And as clergy we need to be able to be who we are with our closest friends and family without constantly monitoring ourselves because a parishioner may be listening or reading. That said I also understand the desire to communicate parishioner and pastor on the social medium of Facebook. One way I got around this, sort of, was to set up a Facebook account for the church. This account was managed by me but limited to postings and comments about parish related events. I also created a parish based blog for sermons, where I encouraged comments, and linked that to Facebook. (It wasn't too much work to manage a private and a parish based Facebook and blog). The parish Facebook and blog offered me additional opprtunties for communicating. I think you can make it clear to folks that your private Facebook account is just for family, but the parish one is a place for the congregation to connect to you and each other.

Another of our matriarchs indicated that she had no opinion, and no Facebook page.

So...let's get the dialog going with Mompriest and Is Facebook Worth It?... What do you think? How do you navigate the social networking waters as a pastoral leader? I am looking forward to hearing the wisdom and experience of our community.

May you live in God's amazing grace+

revhoney