The Diocese of Virgina

earlier book reports

Lights, Camera…FAITH! A Movie Lover’s Guide to ScripturePeter Malone, MSC with Rose Pacatte, FSPPauline Books & MediaThree volumes, $26.95 eachReviewed by the Rev. Matthew Cowden

This is a good time for you to have an account at Netflix.  Malone and Pacatte have done the monumental task of creating a lectionary based movie watcher’s guide for each Sunday of the liturgical year complete with a movie synopsis, commentary, “dialogue” with the weekly Gospel reading, focused reflections for group conversations and prayers to help connect key movie themes with the scheduled Gospel pericopes.  Each of the three volumes covers one of the annual liturgical cycles for years A, B and C.  The focus for each chapter is the Gospel lesson assigned for a particular Sunday and the movie designed to serve as an entry into the theme the Gospel presents.  Each chapter provides a synopsis of the movie’s plot as well as a film commentary and movie lover’s trivia.  As the Introduction to each volume willingly admits, moviemakers did not necessarily create their film with a particular Gospel lesson in mind.  To assist interpreting the film in light of a Gospel reading, “key scenes and themes” from each movie are highlighted.  These sections in each chapter offer a focus for group discussion and also provide the possibility of watching only a portion of the film.  This is a phenomenal resource and well worth the price for your library, especially if you only purchase one each liturgical year.  I began using year B with our youth group and immediately found parents and other adults who were equally interested in having a similar “movie night” focused on the upcoming scripture lesson.  What makes these volumes particularly engaging is that they use the contemporary language of cinematic storytelling to explore themes that tie directly into the Gospel lesson being read on any given Sunday in the cycle.  Admittedly, the series is based on the Roman Catholic lectionary but because each chapter is only focused on the Gospel lesson it is still appropriate to use with the Revised Common Lectionary that we are transitioning into.  It is too much for most congregations to attempt to engage a film a week but a limited run of movie nights  for a season or monthly gatherings would benefit from the curriculum these volumes offer.  Probably because we love multi-tasking so much in our culture, this resource is a joy because it allows us to view movies we have been intending to see and also get ourselves prepared for Sunday worship.  A turn-key curriculum and congregations will love it; Netflix is going into next year’s budget submission to my vestry.

Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your DaughterSurvive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of AdolescenceBy Rosalind WisemanCost: $10.17 (www.amazon.com)Review by the Rev. Percy Grant

As I was reading this book two recurring thoughts kept coming to me. First we acknowledge and bewail the manifold sins and wickedness which we from time to time most grievously have committed by thought word and deed …because I was a teenage girl. And secondly, did Jenny Appleton ever forgive me? Queen Bees and Wannabes is not for the weak of heart.  You will be asked to remember parts of your youth you have worked hard to forget.  Yet you owe it to your daughters (and sons or youth group) to remember. Wiseman, like the Queen bee, never pulls any punches, from, If you think your daughter doesn’t lie to you, she is just very good at it. To girls love to have a reputation for having a high tolerance to alcohol.  They love drinking each other under the table to prove it.  The book is not about how scary youth are, but about how scary their world is.  How we as adults can be in the lives of the girls and may enter this world, or how we can find ourselves irrelevant and excluded. This book would best be read in the company of other parents or adults.  A group could act as a sounding board for the questions that Wiseman leaves behind, as coaches in good parenting or as the book says, “the loving hard ass parent”.  It is a book to be digested slowly, the pace of reading should be no more than a chapter a week. Let one chapter be digested before reading the next one, Nasty Girls understood before looking at Power Plays, which is given time before entering Boy World.   Speaking of boys, this book is not just for girls, fathers and male youth leaders will find it enlightening and helpful as well.  So find some friends take your time and learn about teenage girls.

Family Based Youth MinistryBy Mark DeVries and Earl F. Palmer$10.65 (www.amazon.com)Reviewed by Vicky Koch, Director of Christian Education

I found this book helpful in its discussion of youth ministry and how important it is to tap our greatest resource—the family.  The background information about teens and relationships between peers and parents was good.  The challenge as presented by DeVries is “Young people belong in the life of their church, and the church belongs in the lives of its youth.”   It is about involving the whole church family—from singles to older adults.  It’s about incorporating youth into the life of your church.  The place of teenagers is in your church’s faith community.

Over the last century, church youth ministries have held to a single strategy that has become the most common characteristic of this model: the isolation of teenagers from the adult world and particularly from their own parents.  Devrires states that young people that grow in their faith as adults were teenagers fit into one of two categories:

They came from families where Christian growth was modeled in at least one of their parents.

They had developed such significant connections with adults within the church that it had become an extended family for them.

How often they attended youth events (including Sunday school and discipleship groups) was not a good predictor of which teens would and which would not grow toward Christian adulthood.There are nine chapters and at the end of each chapter, there was a brief paragraph on “Implications for Ministry” and “Wild Hair Idea”.  The following are two of the many ideas presented.

• Ask parents to join the church as covenant partners in the Christian nurture of their children.
• When teens take mission trips, commission them before the entire congregation as missionaries being sent out by the church.

This book has several appendices in the back that provide examples of opportunities that may be done in concert with families.  The bottom line for family based youth ministry is to try one thing the first year, and if it fails, try something else and keep trying until you have success—don’t’ give up!  (This book was published in 1994 and a revised and updated edition published in 2004.)

Learning Disabilities and the Church:Including All God’s Kids in Your Education and Worship By Cynthia Holder Rich and Martha Ross-MockaitisFaith Alive Christian Resouceswww.FaithAliveResources.orgCost: $12.95Reviewed by Dorothy Linthicum, Program Coordinator, Center for Ministry of Teaching

            Learning Disabilities and the Church: Including All God’s Kids in Your Education and Worship is a practical guide for volunteer teachers and Christian education directors who want to include children, youth and families who are challenged with learning disabilities.            Authors Cynthia Holder Rich and Martha Ross-Mockaitis have written a “menu of choices,” things to try with individuals who learn differently. Every suggestion will not always work with every child, but by trying these ideas educators can develop strategies that help all children.            Young members of congregations who must deal with learning disabilities share the call of baptism to use the gifts God has given them to serve others. The book is designed to help churches design education programs and worship events that “become places of belonging for all God’s children.”            In the first chapter the authors use a series of questions to describe the nature of learning disabilities and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorders. The authors define terms, developmental and behavioral concerns, medications and legal issues among other topics.             Chapter 2 looks at seven common learning and life differences in children and youth with learning disabilities and their families. Understanding these particular areas of need will help educators shape their ministries in informed and relevant ways.            Congregations are shown in Chapter 3 how to make accommodations to enable these children and youth to participate in church school and worship. These suggestions can help congregations “open the doors wider and become more deeply hospitable to anyone who enters.            The Appendices include case stories, scripture texts relation to inclusion, and helpful websites. Learning Disabilities and the Church provides encouraging information and strategies for accommodating those with learning challenges. It is available at 800.333.8300 or www.FaithAliveResources.org.            Cynthia Holder Rich is a professor at Western Theological Seminary, Holland, Michigan; The Rev. Martha Ross-Mockaitis is director of a worship learning program for multi-challenged children at Winnetka (Illinois) Presbyterian Church.

The Blessing of a Skinned Knee:Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant ChildrenBy Wendy Mogel, Ph.D.Cost:  $11.20 (www.amazon.com)Reviewed by the Rev. Anne West

Every Sunday morning we have amazing volunteers at St. Paul’s Church in Alexandria who give an hour of their time each week to teaching our children in Sunday school.  Many of these volunteers are parents, some are grandparents and some do not have children and aren’t yet married.  As the person on St. Paul’s staff appointed shepherd of these amazing volunteers I am always seeking ways to support and affirm their work.Most often I remind them that their presence is the gift and the blessing to these children.  Wendy Mogel’s book, The Blessing of a Skinned Knee, has become a wonderful resource for anyone who participates in the parenting of children.  She gives us all eloquent speech and practical tools to help each child accept that they are both ordinary and unique in God’s eyes.Each chapter of the book delves into topics that are often over looked and rarely regarded as blessings.  Chapter 2 is  “the Blessing of Acceptance.  Chapter 5 is titled “the Blessing of Longing.  In my work as a Christian Educator I found Chapter 10 to touch the very heart of my work and my hope.  My constant and abiding prayer for all of us, children and adults alike, is that we will not shy away from the questions about God that will come our way.  This book will calm any anxious parent or teacher’s soul with good advice and wise counsel from a faithful woman of God.