First Christian Church

HOW DO I CHECK OUT A BOOK OR VIDEO?

• Sign your name and the date you borrow the book on the card inside the book or on the video box. If you are not in the church directory please give phone #.
• Place the card in the box marked “place card here” on the desk in the library.
• When you are finished, please return the books inside the drawer marked “return books here”.

HOW LONG CAN I KEEP A BOOK?

Our books don’t have due dates. We want you to read your book at your own comfort level. Most books take between 2 and 4 weeks to read. I may call to see if you are still using the book if it is out more than 8 weeks.

WHAT ABOUT VIDEO TAPES?

Videotapes may be borrowed for two weeks. There is a limit of two videotapes per person. Please be considerate and rewind tapes and return them inside the book return drawer.

AND MAGAZINES?

Magazines do not have checkout cards. Just borrow them, read what appeals to you, and return them to the rack.

Library News

Beat the Heat!

Summer reading can be lots of fun, or it can be an opportunity to grow.  Our church library offers resources for both.

Pat Hoskin is reading Who Stole My Church by Gordon MacDonald.  With the subtitle, What to Do When the Church You Love Tries to Enter the 21^st Century, you might think the author is going to try to convince you to agree to major changes in the church.   Not so.  Gordon MacDonald approaches this touchy subject in a friendly way.  After just a few chapters Pat found she didn’t want to put it down.  His book is built around a fictionalized group of people who meet with their pastor to talk about the issues that were making people uptight.  Most were reluctant to come, but figured that leaders in the church should show up when the pastor invites them to a meeting.  By the end of the first meeting the people themselves asked him to schedule another meeting.  They discovered a lot of things about themselves and each other, and even about the many issues that face churches in the 21^st century.  These non-threatening conversations even helped them to look at many things from different points of view.

Pat has asked that everyone on our Official Board read this book.  She feels so strongly about it that she added 3 copies to our library herself.  They are on the new shelves to your left as you walk toward Bethany Hall.  Sign a copy out next time you are at church.  If there aren’t any there, sign up on the “Hold” sheet and we’ll see that you get the next available copy.

Diana Secaur has become a “fan” of W. Dale Cramer.  After she read Summer of Light, she needed something else he wrote.  She liked Sutter’s Cross even better.  Other books by Cramer areLevi’s Will  and On Bad Ground, which Linda Beal found to be a real winner.  You can find these on the lowest shelf at the end of the “island” down by the green chairs.

Karen Kingsbury fans will be glad to know that we now have all 4 books in her “Above the Line” series .  The newest one, Take Four, just came out in June 2010.  You will probably want to take two at a time so you are ready to start the next one.

Stones into Schools by Greg Mortensen is the continuing story of Three Cups of Tea.  These books are must reading for everyone.  These books are about Mortensen’s experiences in Pakistan and Afghanistan.  Very intense, exciting, amazing, sometimes frightening, revealing, inspiring, true!!  Since this is unfamiliar territory for most of us, it takes a little longer to read than most books, but Paul Pennock felt so strongly that everyone should read Three Cups of Tea and put a copy in our library.  Stones into Schools was placed in memory of Phyllis Lawrence because she put such high value on education for girls too.   And after hearing Mortensen speak, Sue Lanning donated the children’s version.

Want to cool off?  Try reading a Christmas book is July.  We have a great Christmas collection.  Most of it is on the lowest shelf next to the desk, but there is even more on the bottom shelve down by the window.

On your way through the library into Bethany Hall, be sure to notice the picture our children painted of Shel SilverStein’s Giving Tree.   What a treasure!  Yes, we have the book.

If you can’t find what you are looking for, please ask.  Helping people find a book they will enjoy is one of my greatest joy.

Louise Neubert, Librarian