• Can you help me out here?

    I’ve been asked quite a few times this week for help. However I need you to help me out first before I can decide what to say or do.

    The thing is, people keep saying to me that they want to learn how to do the online thing better in a church context. After I posted that piece about 8 Things the Churches Can Learn from the Collapse of HMV last week that really stepped up. Indeed nothing I’ve written has been retweeted, shared on Facebook or passed around more for months.

    The thing is, I know that you can help a church congregation to grow by using the internet well. I know I’ve a lot to learn but I also know that I’m just ahead of the curve on this and able to see slightly further over the horizon than most people. It isn’t magic glasses that make me able to do this, it is because I’ve had an interest in communication techniques for a long time, a background in IT and I’ve done a wee bit of mission work with congregations. My recent sabbatical also gave me some time to think. I’m also aware that what I’m writing about has something to say to campaign groups, community organisers and other assorted politicos. I write in my context. You read in yours and I don’t forget it.

    I’m happy to write more about all that and it seems to be something that quite a lot of people want to hear about. Indeed, I’ve almost begun to think that I should start up a different blog just devoted to that topic. Would that be a good idea?

    If I’m going to write more though I need your help. What exactly do you want me to write about? Oh I know that you’d like me to offer you a free magic wand that would fill a church with nice unthreatening people who happened to glimpse on a website that there might be a church in the area. However, you know and I know that isn’t going to happen.

    Help me out here. What aspects of this do you want me to address a bit more? Is there anything you are aware of me doing online well that you’d like to hear more about. Or even better, is there anything I’m not doing I could try or anything I could try to do better?

    I’m aware of an outstanding comment from a few days ago asking for a bit more gen on posting sermons online.

    What else would you like?

6 responses to “LGBT Booklist”

  1. Peter Ould Avatar
    Peter Ould

    Mario Bergner, “Setting Love in Order”

    Sorry, couldn’t resist…

  2. Kimberly Avatar

    Exile or Embrace , Mahon Siler. Not so much for LGBT as for those who need to hear stories and have no one to tell them. It’s about how a congregation worked through the process of how (and whether) to welcome gay people.

    James Alison’s Faith Beyond Resentment is equally important. I wonder if the chapter on the dynamics of exclusion shouldn’t be required reading for all Christians.

  3. Ryan Dunne Avatar
    Ryan Dunne

    Thanks for that Kelvin. Post – exam (May 7th) I plan on reading some of them. I can’t help but giggle at the fact that “Know My Name:Gay Liberation Theology” is published by “John Knox Press” however; what would old John have thought of the Polo Lounge ;-)?

  4. Graham Ward Avatar
    Graham Ward

    Not only relevant for addressing LGBT issues, Jack Spong’s The Sins of Scripture is also very useful.

  5. Scott Rosenberg Avatar
    Scott Rosenberg

    I have recently very much enjoyed Richard Holloway’s Leaving Alexandria. Whilst not a book about gays and the Church it does touch on this issue on several occasions and I found it to be an engrossing read.

  6. fr dougal Avatar
    fr dougal

    “Gift by Otherness” Wm countryman and MR Ritley is quite good.

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