Introducing Bibliopolis Santa Barbara!

I never imagined that what started out at Gracepoint Berkeley church a couple of years ago (this seems like eons ago!) would expand to our other Gracepoint Ministries churches as our young reader populations grow. Our latest addition is at our Gracepoint Santa Barbara church, where Joshua, who is a voracious reader, sets a high bar for the other youngsters there.

The aunties and uncles worked so hard to convert Luke’s garage into this amazing reading space. I look forward to visiting soon!

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Garage Goals!

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Thumbs up on the beanbag chairs!

You don’t need to have an empty garage in order to have an amazing reading space. It can even be a corner of a room. Looking forward to sharing more photos of reading spaces throughout Gracepoint.

 

Creating Culture: Books & Bins

If you’re from our Gracepoint Berkeley church, you know that in addition to creating a culture of reading, we have been trying to create a culture of systems to reduce clutter in our homes and our lives.

Once your home is organized, and you’ve gotten rid of the gajillion pieces of mismatched tupperware bursting from that cabinet everyone has been scared to open, you will find yourself with more space not just in that cabinet, but in your mind. And you can use that space to read a good book. Or read The Good Book!

The other day I received a heart-warming picture from a mom of one of our Berkeley Bibliopolis patrons. I will protect his identity, so as to avoid the whole, “Awwww, I saw what you did! That’s great!” thing that well-meaning (usually) aunties say. His family had recently experienced the joy of a decluttered and organized home, replete with bins and labels.

On his own, he made the following bin. And he decided to place it near the door, so that he could remember to return his books on Bibliopolis day! That’s what we call Working Smart.  Perhaps we have a budding Systems Engineer in our midst. 🙂

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I claim responsibility for his misspelling, since I gave our library such a challenging name!

Recommended Reads: The Good Book is the Best!

While there are so many good books out there, you and I know that the best book is the Good Book. Today I want to highlight a couple of books that get young and old alike into the Bible.

61u4wwgzkcl-_sx428_bo1204203200_I’ve already featured a post on The Jesus Storybook Bible. It may look like just another picture book, but it is much more than that, and I’ve heard more than a few times that the adult reader was moved to tears while reading it aloud to a youngster. We currently carry it in the bookstore, and also have a Spanish-English bilingual version as well.

 

612l14kntsl-_sx327_bo1204203200_The Action Bible is a graphic novel that captures the overall narrative of the Bible in chronological order. And lest you think it is just a “guy book,” the girls of Bibliopolis are often crowded around the book reading it together, and fighting to get in line to check it out.

Just yesterday I had a pretty involved discussion with the 1st-2nd grade girls about why Pilate would have given Jesus over to be crucified if he knew Jesus was innocent. They had logical and insightful questions, and we were able to make connections to how we choose to do wrong when we are so afraid of getting into trouble.

There were some funny moments too. A couple of memorable lines from our discussion:

  • “Why was Pilate afraid of losing his job and getting into trouble? He could just lose his job and be a regular person.”
  • “Pilate should have listened to Jesus. And to his wife!”

I always have these two books out on the ottoman in the middle of our reading area, and without fail, whether 1st graders or 8th graders, someone will pick one up and read from it during part of our time together.

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Here’s an unstaged photo of 1st-2nd boys reading the books. 🙂

They’re great ways to get the kids and adults in your life interested in the Bible, and hooked into God’s story.

Do you have any interesting stories or experiences with reading or sharing The Jesus Storybook Bible or The Action Bible with someone?Â