Summer Book Studies

Church-Wide Book Study

The Art of Disagreeing: How to Keep Calm and Stay Friends in Hard Conversations by Gavin Ortlund

June 30th at 6:00pm

Led by Jeff Smith at RGBC

In this positive and practical book, Gavin Ortlund looks to the Scriptures to discover a way in which to disagree with others that leads to greater understanding, peace, and love—and that shows a watching world something of Jesus.
This is a much-needed book in a society that is losing the ability to disagree well. Whether over politics, religion, or culture, or the more everyday issues of normal life, points of view tend to be held with a polarizing intensity. Often we enter disagreements feeling that we have to win or we avoid them altogether.
Looking to Jesus’ example of courage and kindness, readers will be given a framework for engaging in intense disagreements with a love that furthers instead of hinders relationships.
So, whether you tend to fight or flee, learn how to keep calm and stay friends—even when you don't agree.

Church-Wide Book Study

A Little Book on the Christian Life by John Calvin

August 17th at 6pm

Led by Jeff Smith at RGBC

For centuries, Christians of all ages have turned to John Calvin’s A Little Book on the Christian Life to help them on their journey as they follow Christ. This book is one of the great classics of the Christian faith, calling believers to pursue holiness and endure suffering as they rest in Christ alone.
In this new translation from the Latin, Drs. Aaron Denlinger and Burk Parsons capture Calvin’s biblical faithfulness, theological integrity, and pastor’s heart. This is a book for every Christian to pick up, read, and apply.

Women's Book Study

Chasing Faith Among Yaks and Nomads by Ann Wyse

August 13th at 6:30pm

Led by Doreen Ashley at her home

Chasing Faith Among Yaks and Nomads is a brutally honest memoir depicting seven years of living alongside the Tibetan Buddhist people. While celebrating the journey’s many joys, it does not shy away from the more difficult aspects of life while sharing Jesus in a foreign land. As it tells the story of adjusting to a new culture and language and then moves on to deeper work and meaningful relationships with the Tibetan people, it also wrestles with questions that every cross-cultural worker must face; questions of impact, significance, and what to do when things don’t turn out as expected. This vulnerable account of dreams accomplished and dreams stripped away does not hold back and leaves nothing to the imagination. If you’ve spent time in the Tibetan Buddhist world, we hope this book captures part of your story as well, giving you the feeling that you are surrounded by others who understand the strange mixture of intense joy and acute sorrow this lifestyle carries with it. It also opens up the inner world of a cross-cultural worker to those curious to know what it is really like to live among an unreached people group.

Women's Book Study

Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More by Karen Swallow Prior
July 29th at 6:30pm
Led by Teri Spinnenweber at her home

The enthralling biography of the woman writer who helped end the slave trade, changed Britain’s upper classes, and taught a nation how to read. The history-changing reforms of Hannah More affected every level of 18th-Century British society through her keen intellect, literary achievements, collaborative spirit, strong Christian principles, and colorful personality. A woman without connections or status, More took the world of British letters by storm when she arrived in London from Bristol, becoming a best-selling author and acclaimed playwright and quickly befriending the author Samuel Johnson, the politician Horace Walpole, and the actor David Garrick. Yet she was also a leader in the Evangelical movement, using her cultural position and her pen to support the growth of education for the poor, the reform of morals and manners, and the abolition of Britain’s slave trade.