Each Friday, we will post linking ideas between a book written for children or adolescents with at least three of the upcoming lectionary passages in the Revised Common Lectionary.
Each post will include a link to a site which will give summaries of the book and some reviews. The post itself will highlight particular ways that those books could be used for preaching or teaching with the the lectionary texts.
Our lectionary links are written by Noell Rathbun, a 2010 graduate of Union Presbyterian Seminary. Noell has extensive experience working with children and youth and was also awarded the E. T. George Award for Excellence in Homiletics, Worship and Public Speaking. Noell’s gifts for preaching and teaching and her love of children and youth makes her the perfect writer for this segment of our blog!
Click on “Lectionary Links” in the Category section on the right to locate all blog posts relating books to lectionary passages.
Great idea! It would be better if the suggestions were posted farther in advance so we have time to find the book.
I am so excited about this! I’m a lover of children’sliterature and frequently use it in worship!
I found your site through textweek. I generally work about a month ahead. This week I am working on bulletins for Oct 3, 10, and 17 – as my secretary will be out of town on vacation. Any possibilities for working a month ahead?
I am a lover of Children’s Literature and use it in my preaching on a regular basis. Sandy Sasso’s God is One is a favorite.
Thanks for putting together this site.
Leigh, I think working a month ahead is beyond our capabilities right now with the workload on our writer. We have settled on publishing 15 days in advance. In order to get to that, we posted for Oct. 3 today and will post for Oct. 10 tomorrow. The post for Oct. 17 will occur on Friday, Sept. 30 and we’ll be posting weekly on Fridays from then on. We’re hoping that will give people a little more time than we originally provided and still keep us sane with all the other things going on in the blog. Thank you for writing, and we will keep evaluating this as we go along. Working a month ahead is a wonderful dream of ours!
A couple of weeks ago, during a baptism, I used “The Runaway Bunny” with Psalm 139.
I’m also a big fan of Susan Sasso books.
I can really see “The Runaway Bunny” working in that setting and with that scripture! Thanks for letting us know. And I think you’ll be seeing some of Sasso’s books showing up here. We like them too.
Thanks for a great site! Looking forward to the latest updates!
This is a wonderful resource for church preschools to use.
I am a school librarian…I just discovered this site while I was looking for information about Laura Rankin’s book Ruthie’s Not so Teeney Tiny Lie.
I hope you’ll keep this site active, a town nearby me now has three church based preschools, I’d love to recommend this site to them if you are keeping it active.
What wonderful books you have found for children. My adults look forward to the books I do use. I’m like others, I wish we could get things further ahead. Many times with shipping charges, I pay double or more the cost of the books to get in time for worship. Thanks for a wonderful resource for us to us.
I just want to thank you for this WONDERFUL resource! I have found many amazing books here–a few have made it into sermons or children’s messages this summer—but more have just made it into our library. I have a four and a half year old daughter, and I’ve shared the link with others with kids the same age. The response–from Jews, Christians and vaguely spiritual folks–is that this is an amazing resource, and so so helpful to parents, too!
What a wonderful ministry this is!
I’m so glad to read that these links are helpful for y’all!
I’ve found having an amazon prime account ends up saving me money in shipping over the long run. It also helps to have a good relationship with a local bookseller–they’ll often order books they don’t have in stock. Also, you can look up titles on worldcat.org– you type in your zip code and it will show the nearest libraries holding the books you need.
And one last thing, please add any additional books you’ve used to illustrate the text in the comment section for that week… The more resources, the merrier!
I enjoy your column and am excited to see how children’s literature can enhance worship and preaching. My problem is that my library is small and the books need to be ordered from somewhere else in the system. That can take a week or more to arrive – often not arriving until after I have had to make final decisions for worship. Thanks for all of your great work.
I love this site – thank you for all the lectionary posts especially. They help with preaching to adults too. Stories are such a gift – and so is having someone sort through and find good books!
Thanks for your comment. We , too, feel like stories of any kind help connect people of all ages – and they help connect us to God’s story. We’re glad you’re finding it helpful! We think Noell (and our other writers) does a fabulous job of finding the stories that make those good connections!
I am SO excited I randomly found this site today…LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the connections between Children’s books and Biblical truths! Looking forward to using it as a resource when preparing the “Children’s Moment” at South Jacksonville Presbyterian Church. Thank you for your work
We’re glad you found your way here as well!
I, too, am thrilled to have found this site. At present, I am the only S/School teacher at our church – so I need to prepare a new lesson each week for a multi-age class (ranging from a 12-year old boy who loves sports to a 5-year old girl with Down Syndrome). I can’t wait to use your lectionary links – but would echoe comments from others. Seeing the links a month in advance would help me have time to find the books.
Kate, we’re glad you found your way here. We have tried various times for posting the Links and are aware that we just switched our posting days from Friday (which was four weeks before) to Monday to allow our Links writer a little more time. We will continue to explore how best to work with our writer’s schedule and our readers’ needs in terms of posting. Thanks for your support.