One-Book Book Clubs!

Want to share a spiritual growth experience with others, but can’t commit to a long-term group membership?

Create a One-Book Book Club at your convenience!

How Does a One-Book Book Club Work?

Anyone who is interested in discussing a particular book with other parishioners can begin the process. The steps are outlined in more detail below, but here’s the overview: A book is selected that the leader is interested in discussing. The leader can determine ahead of time a meeting preference (such as meet four times over four months, or meet once to discuss the whole book), or can leave this to the book club to decide. An announcement goes out to the congregation that a one-book book club is forming, and interested parties contact the leader. The club is given enough time to read, and then meets at the established time(s). Once the book is finished, the book club is dissolved!

How Can I Set Up a One-Book Book Club?

1. Select a book of interest. St. Paul’s has several sets of books available for One-Book Book Clubs; alternatively, you can select your own book of interest and ask club members to purchase or check out their own copy.
2. Send out a notice. Contact the webmaster@saint-pauls.org with the information you would like to pass along: Your name and contact information, the book to be discussed, whether or not it needs to be purchased (vs. finding it in the St. Paul’s collection), and – if desired – the number of meetings and preferred times to meet. You may wish to meet more times for a particularly “meaty” book, but fewer times or only once for others. This is entirely up to you and your club.
• The notice will go out as an e-mailed announcement, as well as an announcement in the bulletin. The webmaster will help craft the announcement and send it to Janet for the bulletin (keep in mind announcements must be in by Wednesday nights for the Sunday bulletin).
• You are also welcome to create a sign-up sheet for our church entryway, as well as to invite individuals (in the church or not) whom you think would be interested in discussing the book.
3.  Interested members should be able to contact you through these announcements. If you don’t get a bite the first go-around, consider waiting a month and trying again. It may be a busy time of year for some people.
4. Once you have a group of interested people collected (it may be only 1-2 others, but this can still create a meaningful discussion), agree on meeting times if that still needs to be done. Make sure to allow enough time for everyone to read. In addition, agree on a meeting location. If someone has a key to the church, this is an option; so are neutral locations (e.g., Panera) as well as your home.
5. Consider the questions you want to ask the group about the book. But if you are stuck or need a jump-start, St. Paul’s has a list of standard book questions that can get your group started (and maybe those questions will be enough!).
6. The attraction of the One-Book Book Clubs are that the commitment is limited. Therefore, unless all club members agree that they wish to continue meeting for another book, the group should dissolve.