Announcing One Book, One Church

Hi friends,

I can't believe this is happening.

In December, Erin James-Brown, a pastor from Urban Village Church in Chicago asked me out to coffee. I met her at Metropolis Coffee, a cozy neighborhood cafe on Chicago's North side. Erin was sitting near the front of the cafe with a copy of Rescuing Jesus on the table, which felt totally surreal to see. She had read the book, loved it and wanted her entire church to read the book as, like, one big book club, and she wanted me to speak to the congregation when they had finished.

This is an author's dream come true, so of course I said yes. But then something even cooler happened.

We realized that other communities were responding to Rescuing Jesus with similar enthusiasm, so we opened this up to everyone. Now, Erin and I are running a national, inter-church book club that will read Rescuing Jesus with an eye toward developing concrete strategies for practicing radical inclusion and pursuing authentic social justice. It's called One Book, One Church. 

Over the course of summer 2016, communities across the nation will read Rescuing Jesus together, discuss the material online and participate in online events featuring conversations with the author and leading progressive evangelical thinkers and activists. At the end of the summer One Book, One Church will host a live event with me and special guest panelists. 

I'm so excited to announce that we're launching this this summer 2016 and YOU are invited. If you want your church, small group, book club, campus ministry, blog community or other group to participate, we'd love to help you do that. We're sending out "starter kits" (discussion guides, leader's preparation material, a social media kit, invitations to events, Rescuing Jesus bookmarks (limited!) and more) to anyone who signs up here.

I'll share more details about the events very soon, but for now, I want to mention one that's coming up soon that'll be very important to Rescuing Jesus readers. In June we'll be hosting an online event/discussion about healing from spiritual abuse. We'll draw from mental health professionals and others to discuss self care, identifying spiritual abuse and ways communities can systemically break the cycle of spiritual abuse. I invite you to send me your questions and thoughts on what you'd like this conversation to explore. Feel free to comment below, tweet at me or message me at oboc@urbanvillagechurch.org.

Want more info on One Book, One Church? We've got all the details, answers to FAQ and more here.

Please invite your friends to join! Click the share buttons below!

Peace,

Debbie