Another chance to see what we've been thinking about...
We've spent a good bit of time with our small but high quality youth
group. In fact, it's probably been one of our main highlights in the
last year, gathering with the youth twice a month and doing anything
from Bible studies to scavenger hunts to simply unpacking concepts like
'worship'. Though we recognise that our remaining time with these kiddos
is limited, I've felt a growing conviction that there's a looming and
extensive conversation that needs to be had about how we envision youth
involvement in Christianity in the next few years. And it's going to
require vulnerability, imagination, and discerning how God is already at
work.
In this vein, I've read the bulk of Youth Work After Christendom by Nigel Pimlott and Jo Pimlott, which is a part of the 'After Christendom' series (highly recommended!) It's a must-read for anyone who works with youth, cares about how we make space for youth in church, and how to cope with moving past the dying structures of Christendom. Alternatively, you can hear one of the authors speak from a webinar taped last November. Click here for the webinar, and scroll down to the recording under After Christendom series with Nigel Pimlott.
A second book I've been reading is True Prayer by Kenneth Leech. This is certainly one of those books that should be taken a chapter at a time, allowing ideas to soak in (even if you're not in agreement with what the author says). I first picked up this book as I was planning the third 'Food and Faith' worship service on Communion, as there is a chapter on Prayer and Communion. The book concludes with a chapter on 'Prayer and Progress' which includes a discussion on silent prayer and retreats, which perhaps comes at an apt time in our lives as we face some very busy times ahead in the midst of a loud and spiritually congesting city. Leech writes 'to go into retreat is not to 'opt out' of one's social responsibility, or to treat the life of the monastery or enclosed order as superior to that of the city streets...Retreats are a sharpening of our perception, a purifying of vision, a training programme for the spirit. In retreat we seek to be able to go on serving the world with renewed strength without being dominated or swallowed up by it' (True Prayer, pg 180). 
In the third book I'm reading, The Way of Tea and Justice, Becca Stevens
also writes of the purpose of retreats, and agrees with Leech saying, 'Retreats ... should remind us that we can be the same person on the mountaintop as we are in the valley of work... Retreats are not places to reinvent ourselves or pretend we are holier than we actually are. They are places to recollect ourselves so that we can live and not get weary from all the work there is to do' (The Way, 174). Her book, much like her previous book noted in my post in August, focuses primarily on the work of Thistle Farms in Nashville, and their commitment to justice towards women as they opened a café. It's a simple, inspiring read that would challenge most to actively and thoughtfully consider one's consumption of even the most mundane of items.
(Please note: I have supplied links to Amazon.co.uk, but encourage you to see if a local bookstore has copies if you're interested in hard copies. My primary purpose was to supply images of book covers and basic info one might need to acquire said books.)
