52 Original Wisdom Stories ~ a new book

I’ve been waiting to tell you about this book, dears. It’s what I was working on through last year.

The title is 52 Original Wisdom Stories, and it's on pre-order on English Amazon at the moment, and will be on pre-order on US Amazon soon.

You might know my book of 100 Stand-Alone Bible Studies (and here on US Amazon) I wrote that because I couldn’t find anything quite like it for my own Bible study groups. There’s so much excellent material, but I always used to hit two particular problems with it. Most Bible studies have ice-breakers, a study passage to read, then questions on it, then life application suggestions. They top and tail that with chatting time at the beginning and prayer time at the end. My problems were always that there was too much material to cram into an evening unless the leader was quite assertive about hurrying people along from one exercise to the next, and that very often the questions were ones with a right/wrong answer.

I wanted to create study material that gave people space to really get into discussion without being told to stop and think about something different, and that had genuinely open questions that didn’t make people feel small or afraid because of the risk of being wrong. So my 100 Stand-Alone Bible Studies (UK, here) have a minimalist outline – just a study passage, a short commentary, three questions and a prayer. That means you can relax over your socializing before you begin, you can take as long as you like praying together at the end, and you can really get your teeth into the questions – which invite a lot of sharing about the group members’ own lives and perspectives. There’s also the advantage that someone with little or no experience in group leadership is given confidence, because the timing isn’t complicated to manage, you don’t need special interrupting and shutting-up skills, but everything you need (the words of the Bible passage and the prayer, the commentary and the questions) has been provided.

And as they are (as it says on the tin) stand-alone studies, they are perfect for filling in when a series has finished but you still have a week or two to go, or if you meant to prepare something but forgot. Though it’s not hard to make a series from the studies if you want to, as they are grouped in categories.

When I was writing it, to be sure that the structure I devised worked as intended, I sent out, to any group leaders who asked, a selection of their choice to try out with their group and let me know how they got on.

That book has proved very popular, and is going well.

So this new book is a kind of companion volume. The 100 Stand-Alone Bible Studies can be used for personal devotions as well as group work – and this new one is good for both as well.

It's also in the same vein as my Lent book, The Wilderness Within You (title linked to UK Amazon, picture linked to US Amazon), in that it's in dialogue/story format - though The Wilderness Within You was dialogues with Jesus, all on Lent themes.

This new one, the 52 Original Wisdom Stories, explores the cycle of the church year. This will be very familiar to some of you – it starts at the end of November or beginning of December with Advent, then come Christmas, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, Trinity, then lots of Sundays of Ordinary time through Harvest and finishing up with All Saints and the Feast of Christ the King. But in the course of the year there are numerous saints’ days, and also special days like Ascension and Corpus Christi.

This book travels through the church year, with 52 seasonally appropriate pieces (so, one a week, plus a foreword and a special appendix). There are pieces about some of the most beloved saints, and in the stretches of Ordinary Time there are pieces that explore all sorts of questions and challenges belonging to life and faith.

Then, there’s an extra thing. Long ago, before the Roman form of Christianity was adopted in Great Britain, the church observed the forms of Celtic Christianity – our first evangelists were Celtic monks from Ireland via Scotland. Hardy people who lived simply, they penetrated some wilder parts of the British Isles that Augustine never reached. In their evangelizing, they worked with the old pre-Christian Celtic observances – natural folk religion based on the agricultural year. Rather than antagonizing the old ways, they developed connections and resonances with the Christian gospel.

So in this new book I’ve also included the old Celtic rhythm of faith, the ancient quarter-days following the equinoxes and solstices, and the cross-quarter-days that came halfway between.

The format of the book is based on a relationship between a married couple of early retirement age – Sid and Rosie. Each piece is a snapshot of their life and conversations together. They have both been married before, and come from different Christian backgrounds. Life has knocked them both around a bit, and caused them to do much soul-searching.

After each piece, three questions and a prayer are included. The material is of itself intended to provoke thought and discussion, but the questions are there to give further help.

Each piece is of such a length that it could be read aloud as the devotional input for a home-group or midweek church group meeting – or used in place of a sermon in a small church or at and evening service, where regular preaching may not be the standard pattern.

The book comes out this summer, and as before, I would like to offer you the opportunity to try out one or two of the pieces with your group, and see how you get on. I’ll list the contents at the end of this post. If you send me a comment with your email address and your choice of up to three pieces, I’ll email you PDFs of the ones you’ve chosen, and the foreword that explains the book.

Please be aware that I can only publish or delete comments that come in to me – I cannot edit, or publish just part of what you say. So if you have a general comment to make, send me that, and then send a second comment with your email address and choice of pieces to try out.

52 ORIGINAL WISDOM STORIES ~

Foreword, then:

1. Advent 1 – the Beginning
2. Advent 2 – Harrowing Hell
3. Advent 3 – the Missing Jesus
4. Advent 4 – the Judge
5. Christmas / Yul
6. The feast of the Holy Family – Love wins
7. Epiphany
8. Candlemas / Imbolc / St Brigid
9. Ash Wednesday
10. Lent 1 – Wabibito
11. Lent 2 – the Bell Curve
12. Lent 3 – Love vast as the ocean
13. Lent 4 – Mothering Sunday
14. Lent 5 – Lazarus, come out!
15. Feast of St Joseph
16. Holy Week
17. Easter
18. Living the Ascension
19. Beltane
20. Pentecost
21. Trinity – Emergent deity
22. Feast of St Julian of Norwich
23. Ordinary Time – Life
24. Ordinary Time – Barking up the wrong tree
25. Ordinary Time – Kairos
26. Ordinary Time – Why Sid became a Quaker
27. Corpus Christi
28. The birth of St John the Baptist
29. Ordinary Time – Abiding joy
30. Ordinary Time – Ma
31. Ordinary Time – the Formless
32. Ordinary Time – Disapproval
33. Feast of St Benedict
34. Ordinary Time – You Have Enough
35. Ordinary Time – Letting your life speak
36. Ordinary Time – Taking it literally
37. Lammas
38. Ordinary Time – the Name of Jesus
39. Ordinary Time – the presence of Jesus
40. Feast of St Clare of Assisi
41. Ordinary Time – Getting inside the light
42. Ordinary Time – Last seen eating dandelion leaves
43. Ordinary Time – Perfect Storm
44. Feast of St Francis of Assisi
45. Feast of St Michael and All Angels
46. Feast of St Teresa of Avila
47. St Luke’s Tide
48. Martinmas
49. Feast of St Hilda of Whitby
50. All Hallows
51. No Time
52. Feast of Christ the King
53. Appendix containing Sid’s recipe for lemon cheesecake.