Resources

The Sanctuaries (thesanctuaries.org) developed a booklet about sacred practices for people who are struggling or who might be searching for a connection to the sacred. This resource provides simple and concrete ways to reset and center yourself, allowing time and space for the mind and body to reach out to the sacred, whatever your definition of sacred might be. Find the booklet here.

Community Canvas (community-canvas.org) is an organization that has great resources for developing, building, improving, and participating in communities. Their resources can be found here and include a summary powerpoint, a detailed guidebook, and google doc worksheets with the questions they use to develop communities.

In a world that continually struggles with authentic connection, conversations can be difficult. Through the Civil Conversations Project, On Being has developed useful resources to help guide and foster conversations. Better Conversations: A Starter Guide makes it possible to speak and live together in a different way than we have before. 3 Questions was created to facilitate conversations after a particularly divisive election but is also helpful after difficult or unsettling events. Both resources can be found here.

In his YouTube video, Jon Jorgenson addresses the lack of young people in the church today and the church’s own responsibility in helping create this problem. He then suggests ways for the church to shift their thinking about young adults, particularly that we come alongside them and practice authentic love. Watch the video here.

Congregations don’t just do something new. They must learn to do something new. Read an interview with Tim Shapiro, Director of The Center for Congregations. Then buy his book, How Your Congregation Learns: From Challenge to Achievement. It is very straightforward and practical. Shapiro gives several clarifying insights and lays out a path that will seem both familiar and fresh.

Casper ter Kuile and Angie Thurston sparked a national conversation when their research on how Millennials gather got lots of folks thinking about how and where young adults are receiving spiritual nurture in today’s world. Read their initial publication here, and follow up publication Something More which takes a look at their initial findings and explores the gifts, challenges and possibilities facing religious institutions in the seeking to explore and engage change in the current cultural climate.