Mavis Moon

We call it the Deacons Care Fund. When announcing it as the offering in the bulletin we say:

The Deacons CARE Fund is set aside to help our church family members and others during times of temporary need. We want to offer assistance to anyone who needs it in this time of economic difficulty. The deacons encourage the congregation to help us meet these needs and replenish the Care fund.

Pretty much every Sunday we include:

Deacons CARE Ministry: If you know of or have a specific need, please contact a deacon (listed in the church bulletin) to make that known.

Not sure if that's too much better, but the fund seems to be doing all right, and I know the deacons have helped quite a few people.

My absolute top favorite is "On Being" with Krista Tippett. It is awesome! Krista received the presidential award a couple years ago and it was well-deserved.  (https://onbeing.org/)

Other faves:

- For the Love, Jen Hatmaker - Jen is smart, funny, does good interviews. (http://jenhatmaker.com/podcast.htm)

- Hidden Brain - Really interesting look at studies of behavior. Engaging host, Shankar Vedantam. (https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510308/hidden-brain)

- This Movie Changed Me - came from the On Being Project. Seems like an odd topic but really well done and interesting. (https://onbeing.org/series/this-movie-changed-me/)

- Medium Playback - Medium is a site where authors publish essays and exchange ideas. The podcast is a popular essay being read and discussed by the writer. Thought-provoking! (https://medium.com/s/playback)

- Criminal - Stories of crimes. Interviews with the perpetrators and victims. Deep dives. (https://thisiscriminal.com/)

- Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me - Fun and funny news quiz show. A classic. (https://www.npr.org/podcasts/344098539/wait-wait-don-t-tell-me)

- Story Corps - Another classic. Often makes me cry. Touching stories told by people in a booth talking to each other. (https://storycorps.org/)

Serial, Rewrite Radio, Reply All, Planet Money, Invisibilia, Fresh Air, Death Sex & Money.

Yes, I'm a podcast nerd!!

I have wondered about this, too, and I am glad others have weighed in.

One time not too long ago, a younger family member (I am 61, she is in her 30's) remarked that she does not "dress up" the way that the women in our church do. I am not positive if she meant that as a reason she felt uncomfortable or not, but she does come to the church often, so I hope not.

My perception is that most of the women at the church -- and myself -- dress the same way for church as they do at work. I guess you might call it business casual but I actually wear jeans to work every day, and tennis shoes, although other women dress up more and some less. Same with church - I wear jeans and tennis shoes there, too, and some dress up more, some less. I kind of feel, at least here in California, that pretty much anything goes. I myself don't wear t-shirts to church (or work) so I guess there is that distinction.

The men at my church don't wear suits (ties and jackets) but once in a while someone will, or maybe put on a jacket or something (ties are pretty much only at funerals and weddings now). With men, too, it seems like they're pretty casual and as far as the "t-shirt distinction" I don't think they even have that -- very frequently they wear t-shirts.

As others have touched on, I wonder how much it matters what the minister wears. Do visitors/people take what he/she wears as a kind of metric for what is acceptable?

PS - Our church library was cleared out and disbanded years ago. It was full of old, dusty books and I suspect it became a catch-all for books no one wanted. No one really "owned" it, either, so it was just as well it went away. A while back we redid the narthex/entryway to our sanctuary and put in a nice tall shelf. Our previous pastor picked out several good books and placed them in clear plastic holders on that shelf, and people were invited to take a book if it interested them. He gave away books, too, when people met with him or expressed interest in something. He's a big reader. After that pastor left, I put "blurbs" on all the book holders with a little summary about the book, to make it more inviting (I hope) for people to consider them and take one if they were interested. I also tried to make the choices a little less theologically ponderous, but still good (like Lewis Smedes rather than a tome by N.T. Wright -- both great, but ...). And I added a couple children's books. The Jesus Storybook was quite popular.

I myself, besides reading, also listen to some great podcasts that add to my spiritual life, and I read a lot of articles, too, that do the same. I sometimes share links to articles on our church Facebook page, but I know Facebook is not a hang-out anymore for younger people. And Instagram doesn't allow links. Well, in the bio they do, I guess. Snapchat I haven't really explored, and I don't know if any of those are so effective. There's YouTube I guess. Share book reviews on YouTube? It's a thought.

I have a cousin who has been running a church library for years. Her church is in Wisconsin. Here is what she said when I asked her about it.

We have a church library! We have around 5000 items, including Christian fiction, non-fiction, and DVDs. We have a self-serve checkout system and the library gets used throughout the week. We check out hundreds of items each month. We are very fortunate to have a church board that sees the value in this resource and gives us a budget for new books. We also work with other ministries to provide resources related to their studies. For example, if the pastor is mentioning a book in his sermon, we will make sure to have a copy of that book to check out. Or one of our library volunteers will go to women's Bible study or youth group events to present the newest releases for those readers. We have a nook in the children's area with books at kids' height and pillows and tables and chairs to sit at and read. We have a very active "new books" cart and use social media and a newsletter to promote the new releases. We do not have e-books since there is a considerable expense connected with that. As long as our patronage remains strong, we will continue to provide this service. 

Who'd have thunk that a post on libraries would generate so much activity?! Love it.

I am in one book club, started and ended another a few years back, and often think of starting another. These ideas and thoughts are inspiring! Maybe somehow I can link the book club idea with a library revitalization...

I read Out of Sorts, too, and got so much out of it! I wrote about one topic here, in my blog: http://lunarsongbird.blogspot.com/2017/09/out-of-sorts-by-sarah-bessey.html.  

I also recommend Rachel Held Evans and Brene Brown. A newer one (for me) is Kate Bowler (Everything Happens for a Reason, and her podcast "Everything Happens"). She's amazing. And going to be at the Faith & Writing Festival this year, by the way. And Marilynne Robinson, Nadia Bolz-Webber, Krista Tippet, Jen Hatmaker (also going to be at the Faith & Writing Festival), Barbara Brown Taylor, Mary Oliver (poet), Lauren Winner, Anne Lamott. In no particular order. :)

I'm sure I'm forgetting some! (or don't know some)