Screened out yet? Looking for some new books to read this summer? Here are a few books published recently that you might find to be timely reads over the next couple of months.

This is a must read for everyone, whether a children’s pastor, pastor, parent, grandparent…basically any adult that engages with children! Lacy Finn Borgo brings a wealth of study and experience to the topic of children’s spirituality, drawing on her years of spiritual direction with children. This is her newest book, released earlier this year and is informative and highly practical. It includes ideas for engaging kids in various ways and sample interactive dialogues with children. Readers will get an overview of childhood spiritual formation and key skills for engaging spiritual conversation with kids.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out and download her curriculum Life with God for Children. This is a spiritual formation curriculum, based on Richard Foster’s spiritual disciplines. She is offering the entire 4 volume digital download of the pre-K-grade 6 curriculum for FREE for a limited time.

This is a must read for children’s ministry leaders and pastors. The chapters in this book are based on and further develop presentations from the 2018 Children’s Spirituality Summit (which I had the great privilege of attending) and are rich with a blend of both theoretical understanding and practical application. This book offers principles that can help guide leaders in evaluation and reflection on current trends. I am excited to be in a course this summer with the editors, as we consider and evaluate children and family ministry in a COVID shaped world. I would welcome anyone interested in a learning cluster with me for the fall to send me an email!

I think it would be an understatement to say that this has been a difficult season, would you agree? That’s why I recommend this book as a timely read. Published at the end of last year, this is a theological look at humour! Perhaps viewing Scripture and theology through the lens of humour is just what might feed your soul right now and provide you a fresh look at the gospel. If you read the Amazon description you will read its “Full of wit and thoughtful jokes throughout, it’s enough fun that you may not realize you’re reading theology.” This is certainly a book worth reading this summer…even at the beach!

My final book suggestion is another one published late in 2019 and in my opinion is quite timely and appropriate for this summer as well! Not travelling anywhere this summer for vacation? Consider a ‘road trip’ with Saint Augustine! Augustine famously wrote in his Confessions, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” We are in a season in which the church has been called upon to quickly adjust to a new way of ministering to people, and not just the ones that previously attended our church buildings and programs but the many who have discovered our faith communities because of their online presence. And many have discovered the restlessness of people longing to create a sense of ‘home’ amidst the chaos, questions, struggles and worries. This is a book that will help us discover Augustine as a guide worth considering to accompany us in the discovering of an expression of our faith that speaks to our deepest hungers, fears, worries and hopes. If you read Augustine in the past, discover him in a fresh way through this book. If you have never read Augustine, may this serve as a gateway into the life of one that has so much to teach us.

I would love to hear what is on your summer book recommendation list! Send me an email and share your list!