~ Sailing the pages of great books! ~
God is awesome! Last February He used our group to bring Jill to Him. Jill says that she finds that book group helps her grow in her new faith because of the content of the books we read.
We have, in the past, read a few books that weren't labelled "Christian", but that had good Christian themes. For example, "Tending Roses" by Lisa Wingate, and "Letters For Emily" by Camron Wright. Both of these books had themes of forgiveness and family. When choosing books such as these (non-labelled), I always preview them for content first, making sure there is nothing questionable.
We also aspire to promote Spiritual growth through the books that we read.
When we first arrive, we grab some munchies and a cup of tea or coffee or juice, and then we settle in. We catch up on what we've been doing the past little while, and talk about how our day was. Then we get down to business!
Usually we jump right in. The ladies have expressed their desire for me to lead the discussions, so I go through my list, and we all take turns answering. We frequently get off-topic as the questions lead us to discussing different aspects of life, and so our meetings are very rich and insightful -- but, fun, too!
A lot of times I make up my own discussion questions for the books that we read. I have not yet been successful in finding a place online that has discussion questions for the books that we read. Sometimes there are questions for the books, but most times there aren't. I enjoy making up the questions, though, as it's helped me to dig deeper into what I've read. I analyze the book more this way. :-)
There has always been the problem of trying to get books. None of our members has had the resouces to be able to purchase books. We have had to rely on the public library system for our books, and, because we read only Christian material, this makes finding books to read a little more difficult. Even if the library has the books that we want to read, they usually don't have more than one or two copies. Our members have had to read quickly in order that the next person can get the book and read it in time. Very often we're left with only half of the group having read the book of the month. We have thought of ways to get around this, but nothing has been successful, as of yet (If you are a part of a book club, or just have suggestions, we'd be happy to hear them! Email me at pgskpprs_bookclub@yahoo.ca ).
And, lastly, we have recently had some lack of interest, or people have just gotten too busy with life. We have had meeting dates where no one has shown up. I think that a lot of the lack of interest branches out from our difficulty in obtaining books. I've been in prayer that God will remedy these situations.
Please join me in praying for this ministry. I have great visions of what it could be, and of what God can do through it. Thank you. ~~ Jenn S., Leader