CopperHouse is an imprint of Wood Lake Publishing Inc.

The CopperHouse imprint supports the groundswell of interest in a "new" Christianity. This is spirituality deeply rooted in tradition yet fully open to the winds of spirit in our time. An open and inclusive Christianity, it honours diverse people and traditions, and celebrates creation and Creator. This is a Christianity that calls us to accountability in all aspects of our personal and collective lives. Through CopperHouse, Wood Lake Publishing is helping this grassroots movement find a stronger voice.

We can’t keep doing what hasn’t worked – Bruce Sanguin’s new book "The Emerging Church," offers a model for change and a map for renewal

Was there ever a more challenging time to be in congregational leadership? Rates of clergy stress leave and burnout suggest that congregational ministry is as tough as it’s ever been. In his new book The Emerging Church, Bruce Sanguin combines years of effective ministry with new understandings of the nature of our universe – the way it evolves and emerges – and in the process has created a guidebook for 21st-century congregational leadership and transformation.

There’s a wise saying about human behaviour that I’ve carried for a long time and that has proved its worth on many occasions: “Humans only change when there’s more reason to do so than not.” There’s another similar observation that is more poignant and frightening, but no less accurate: “Many humans would rather die than change.” Congregational life often demonstrates the truth of these two observations. Fortunately, there’s more to the story of faith community than these two observations convey.

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Conversation with Jim Kalnin, author of "The Spirituality of Nature"

In our relationship with nature, we see yet another dramatic attitudinal change that has occurred in the last 25 years, with our growing awareness of the impact humans have had on the environment. In my conversation with Jim Kalnin, author of The Spirituality of Nature, it felt as though we moved through that change – from a time when pristine nature was something we assumed would always be there, to the present moment, when we stand in disbelief and horror at what our species has done to the planet we love so much.

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Living with disenchantment

The Path of Disenchantment

In Darwin, Divinity, and the Dance of the Cosmos, Bruce Sanguin writes about our human journey from wonder to disenchantment. How did we ever lose that sense of awe at the world around us and end up in this place of disenchantment? Chapter 2 of this book is a feast of ideas about who we are and how we got to be this way. Here are ten key statements that might emerge from a reading of the chapter. Read them and notice which ones stand out for you.

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Responding to Our Disenchantment

An Active Response: Accompanying a Species at Risk

Accompany one species of non-human life that is at risk because of some kind of threat to its natural habitat. Choose a living thing from your immediate area. I live on Bowen Island in the Pacific Northwest rain forest, just a 20-minute ferry ride from North Vancouver. When I did a quick search for species at risk, I found that reptiles such as the Puget Garter Snake and the Northern Alligator Lizard are at risk. Two amphibians that I might accompany are the Red-Legged Frog and the Long-Toed Salamander. Birds like the Surf Scoter and Great-Blue Heron are also threatened in these waters.

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An Introspective Response: Lament for Creation as Spiritual Practice

What can we say about lament?

• Lament is a form of prayer that names suffering and troubles, both personal and communal, and that brings these experiences before God with expressions of raw human emotion, including grief, despair, anger, and helplessness.
• Lament is a way to pray to a God who does not intervene to restrain evil.
• Lament provides a forum for facing our complicity in the sinful actions of humankind with as much honesty as we can muster.
• Lament is a discipline of noticing the terrible cost of not living in right relationship with God, self, neighbour, and the earth.
• The expression of lament is a powerful step on the path toward renewed vision and strength and to a new and deeper relationship with God.

In his book, Writing the Sacred: A Psalm-Inspired Path to Appreciating and Writing Sacred Poetry (Northstone, 2005), Ray McGinnis offers a framework for writing a lament.

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Prayer of Wonder for Creation
by Tim Scorer

Awesome and Holy One,
    we turn to you with wonder too deep for words.
Hear the adoration of our hearts and minds
    as we accompany the living beings of our world.
Hold each of us in the vastness of your never-finished universe.
Let us feel the breath of your presence
    blowing winds of change and imagination into every corner of creation.
Let us touch the pulse of your heart
    beating rhythms of desire and compassion into the unfolding of your universe.
Let us know the depth of your wisdom
    blessing your creation with insight and a passion for justice.
We pray in the name of Jesus, holy inspiration and infinite grace.
AMEN.

"Lectionary Story Bible - Year B"

Last year about this time, Wood Lake Publishing released Ralph Milton’s Lectionary Story Bible - Year A, with illustrations by Margaret Kyle. People have been talking about it ever since.

Mary E. Speedy, from Monaghan Presbyterian Church, in Pennsylvania, wrote to us and said,

“I have just started using the Lectionary Story Bible – I’ve waited and waited for Year A to begin. I love the stories and the children are responding. It was obvious that they were able to connect the story of Old Isaiah, his ‘book,’ and what they were hearing in church. Several educators I talked with were excited to hear about it. This is a great resource.”

Which may be why people are already starting to talk about and anticipate the arrival of the Lectionary Story Bible, Year B.

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"Big Juicy Grapes": an excerpt from "Lectionary Story Bible, Year B"

Fifth Sunday of Easter

BIG, JUICY GRAPES
Based on John 15:1–8

Jesus liked to be outside. “I like to feel the sun. It’s so nice and warm. I like the breeze when it blows my hair around. I even like the rain when it washes my face.”

That’s why Jesus liked to talk with his friends when they were sitting under a shady tree or on the side of a hill. He had many important things to teach his friends about God.

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Make-you-think movies

RASHOMON
Ask five people who were all present at the same event to tell you what happened. You’ll be amazed by how diverse and even contradictory their five versions can be! All kinds of scientific research exists that shows how subjective we are, even when we go out of our way to be as objective and non-judgmental as possible. That’s the point that Akira Kurosawa makes so effectively in his 1950 classic film Rashomon.

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AFTER LIFE
And then along came yet another wonderful Japanese cinematic creation that played with another aspect of the mysterious uncertainty of our lives. In this case, it wasn’t about the events of our living but about the events right after our dying. After Life is a new feature film by Hirokazu Koreeda that explores our profound human need to discover meaning in everyday life. The film is set at a way station between Heaven and Earth. There, guides have less than a week to help the newly dead sift through their memories for one defining moment to take with them to Heaven. As the film discovers, finding a life’s worth of meaning in a single event is no simple task.

Always alert to good films that could be catalysts for meaningful small group conversations, I put After Life right near the top of my ever-expanding list. In addition to stimulating thoughtful discussion, it is, of course, pregnant with the question, “So what one memory would you take with you into eternity?”

"Seasons of the Spirit" goes online

Three Ways to Receive Seasons of the Spirit

From its very beginning, Seasons of the Spirit has stood out as an example of innovation, inclusiveness, and responsiveness. What other curriculum, for example, is created by a team of writers and editors representing 10 denominations, from four different countries (Australia, Scotland, Canada, and the USA), on three continents? What other all-ages Christian education resource involves a rabbi in its creation process, or incorporates and promotes the arts at each age level? What other curriculum supports the entire faith community, by offering resources for worship leaders, choir directors and other music providers, outreach leaders, and parents?

In this same spirit of innovation and responsiveness, Seasons of the Spirit now offers three delivery options for 2008/09 – SeasonsPrint, SeasonsDisk, and SeasonsOnline – all earth and budget friendly.

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Spirit Sightings: creatively connecting the Bible and the news

Ever have this happen: you’re sitting in church listening to one of the passages of scripture designated for that Sunday when suddenly something in the passage makes you think of a story you just heard on the news that morning? That experience lies at the heart of Spirit Sightings, an online resource that, since 2002, has been connecting a news story to one of the lectionary scripture passages, every Sunday of the year! Along with that news connection, Spirit Sightings also provides a reflection, a prayer, and suggestions about where to find out more about the story.

Four authors share the responsibility for finding the stories and making the connections. Because they live in four different countries (Australia, Canada, Scotland, and the USA) their stories and perspectives are diverse. These four writers have in mind the interests of hundreds of adult learners, clergy, and Bible study leaders who visit the Spirit Sightings section of the Seasons of the Spirit website each week, to enrich their Bible study, to prepare sermons, and for personal reflection.

Go to the most recent Spirit Sightings, as an introduction to this wonderful resource.

In our next edition

Ever have this happen: you’re sitting in church listening to one of the passages of scripture designated for that Sunday when suddenly something in the passage makes you think of a story you just heard on the news that morning? That experience lies at the heart of Spirit Sightings, an online resource that, since 2002, has been connecting a news story to one of the lectionary scripture passages, every Sunday of the year! Along with that news connection, Spirit Sightings also provides a reflection, a prayer, and suggestions about where to find out more about the story.

Four authors share the responsibility for finding the stories and making the connections. Because they live in four different countries (Australia, Canada, Scotland, and the USA) their stories and perspectives are diverse. These four writers have in mind the interests of hundreds of adult learners, clergy, and Bible study leaders who visit the Spirit Sightings section of the Seasons of the Spirit website each week, to enrich their Bible study, to prepare sermons, and for personal reflection.

Go to the most recent Spirit Sightings, as an introduction to this wonderful resource.

CONTACT US

If you would like to respond to anything you read in CHRISTIAN BOOKS insight, please be in touch. And, if there is anything you would like to contribute to future editions, send it along. Our goal is to be part of a growing network of Christians who are drawn to a new and emerging vision of the Christian way.

You can reach me at timscorer@gmail.com.