The Emerging Church Library in Today’s Church Culture

The Emerging Church Library .pdf 

- With that in mind I wanna hand off to Marty to officially welcome you and get our webinar started, Marty take it away.

- Well, good morning all I am glad to be here. Glad to have this opportunity, although it's my first time to do this. I appreciate you signing up and attending. I wanted to, of course, introduce myself as Marty Woodall and let you know that I am the one of the Alabama Baptist library strategist for the state. And so if you have any needs contact either state or me directly, that will be great. But our speaker today is Morlee Maynard. She is the best friend that a library has. So just remember her. She does a lot of things. She's a very busy lady and she also manages our church librarians network. And if you do not or if you are not already a member of that please make an effort to join that. And she has if you have notes that she sent out there is information on that on the last page of those notes. So that is very important. You can keep up with a lot of things or ask questions and all kinds of things only. So you want to do that. The other thing is I recommend you having a pen and paper today to take a little notes. I know you will need to put in things into chat and to question and answers but you may wanna write notes for yourself. So I'm going to now turn it over to Morlee and let her get started cause she has lots to present to us. Thank you all.

- Thank you, Marty. Thank you so much for inviting me to be with everybody today. This has really been fun and exciting to plan for and I wish I could see your faces. This is gonna bother me but I'll imagine what you look like from your pictures? And so it's just great to see so many turnout and continue to turn out as well. And then others who will be watching the video. We hope that we'll be putting that on the church libraries network and it's available to places. So you'll be able to use that with people who were not able to be with the slide you get stars for being with us today. That's great, all right. Before we launch in here, first of all, your handout it is geared with spacing so that you can use it as a listening guide, a place to write notes. As we discuss different things there you'll see the spacing and the information at the end gives contact information as well. And there's one handout there that we'll refer to and other than that the it's the second session that has a major handouts. So we'll talk more about it then. And those of you who didn't sign up for the second session I hope you'll change your mind and be able to be with us as well. At least see the video. That'd be great, all right. Let's kind of clear the air on before we go any further. The emerging church concept that we're looking at is for all sizes of church libraries and all sizes of churches. It's easy to think that get into a kind of a corner put yourself in a corner and think I can't do anything. All I have are two shelves in the hallway or the opposite happens, I hear it. Our library is too big. None of this stuff approaches us. You're not speaking our language. And then there's all of us in the middle. It does not matter today. Both sessions, what size your church is what size your collection is. In fact, the changes are happening that we're gonna deal with where the size of your collection is no longer an issue. It's no longer something to brag about that you've got seven or eight, nine, 10,000 books on your shelves. And we're gonna look at that into why that's not really the measurement anymore. And that's hard too. So don't throw rocks. I'm not gonna feel it. So just, and there isn't an anagram or whatever for rock throwing is there. So that's probably just as well. But I do want us all to have an open mind to what we're gonna look at is we look at the public libraries. Let's look at what yes, they, some of you live in communities that have a big public library which is great. That's not hindering to us. That's where we look at what they're doing because you know what? The people in my church go to those libraries. When we first opened back in August of 2019, the enrichment center right off the bat people kept telling me, well I'm never gonna use this library. I go to the public library. And so I just decided to be brave. And I would ask why would, you never even give this a chance? And every one of them the answer was I can go online, I can search the catalog. I can reserve the book and I can go pick it up. And so my answer to that was do you know that this church library can do that? You just don't know about that do you? It's a great secret for some reason, that's so hard to communicate and I'm still struggling with that part. Some of you don't have that ability, yet it may be some day you will. That's one reason I brought that up right now. You may be thinking, oh, I'll never do this. Isn't going to fit me just hold on. Because there's ways of doing things. And let's think broadly think about the future instead of just thinking about your library right now, what size it is or what the limits are. Don't limit yourself by thinking that because God can do some pretty cool things. And that's what we're looking at here is what our participants for all of us what could we do from point A to point B? And it may be, it's gonna take 10 years to do it but hey, we got to start laying the groundwork. So that's kind of, I just wanted to get that off the table and think that all of our libraries have the opportunities to emerge and go from there. So let's pray before we get going here and see what God does with us the next few minutes heavenly father, thank you for bringing us together. The technology that you created through smart people, we're grateful, otherwise we wouldn't be here today. And we're grateful even though we'd much rather be in person as we always are, but more people can participate because there's no travel involved. And we're just grateful for that opportunity. We pray now that you will bless what we do and guide our thinking individually and collectively as we go through a listening guide as we think through together about our public libraries, may we be faithful in all that we're empowered for this time is yours. Amen, all right, your listening guide there. Several things I have on there I had from because I didn't understand the webinar fully when I did that. So just take off some of the top part there, the logistics we don't have to mess with some of that as we go. I wanna start with terms, we use the word emerge and I used the word culture in the title. Let's get on the same page using your chat. That's what our discussion mode is here. Using the chat on your view there. What comes to your mind when you hear the word emerge? What's something that comes to your mind thinking emerge. The word emerge a butterfly. That's very good, yeah. Emerging from the cocoon, very good. What's another one, Christine. Thanks, what's another one. Anybody else? Change, being born like a bird from an egg. That's great, thank you. Thank you, those are great, a start up Marty thanks, Ella Gina, beginning, very good. One of them, one of the ones for me is coming going through a door emerging from one room to the hallway, kind of thing. Slow moving, oh boy. That's right Martha emerging is slow and it takes time, progressive, great. Progressive pushing the boundaries. Amen, thank you, Virginia. Yes an entrance, a submarine coming out of the water. Hey Bev, thanks, that's true. That's like, oh, that's a big one. I know he's reaching all languages. Well, that's something we need to think about it and that's great, very good. Now emerge has a piece. Here's where I'm thinking a lot of our ministries if not all of our church libraries are in the shadows. A lot of our people don't know we exist and the library may have been there 50 years but people still don't know that the church has a library. It comes in all different forms in all different ways. And in fact, the intent of a church library in church life is to be in a service. It is not to be the primary ministry of the church. So there's no reason to compete with the age group ministries or the whatever is to become part of the service to each of those ministries whether it's Bible study, worship, whatever, whatever in the context of the church, we are a service now basically merging means the service becomes more visible becomes more a part of the church. And so we're going to be looking at ideas of what that looks like. Now let's look at the other word. And this has a big deal. Is culture, culture, today's culture in our churches are suddenly important. The pastors and staff are getting articles on blogs and books, all written about culture because our leaders are realizing how important the culture of the church is. In fact, when I was in working on my doctoral work we had to do work with this culture thing and the types of churches. This is a thing I want us to think about in this idea of what are our, what type of church are we in? Think just off the top of your mind, my church right now is going through a we have a new pastor. So we're going through a transition from one type to another type because he is extremely evangelistic. And our church is embracing that, oh yeah we got those who don't like it, but hey I haven't talked to him yet. Any kind of change is going to be hard. So in your chat, what about the culture of your church? Just what's a one word descriptor, friendly, caring, there are types of churches that are like hospitals, you go there for recovery, from something. What are other words that describe evangelistic, open oh I like that one, a culture of being open to all people, lots of churches are struggling with that but moving that direction, it's painful, but great. That's great, service oriented. Yes, thanks Regina, loving yes yes, yes. Welcoming, yes, thank you. Peggy and Kathy that's great. Those are characteristics. On the culture of one type of church is the knowledge church. The one that the more Bible knowledge, you know the better those are called kind of the education churches and they approach. They'll still have classes. They'll call the groups classes. They'll call the groups Sunday school on Sunday but then there's those churches that are called innovative. They would never call anything classes because they are trying to do innovative things to reach people who would never darken the door of a church. That's not saying that the knowledge church wouldn't do that, the one thing we got to keep in mind is there's a blending of these types. Our culture is never just one thing. It's a blending, so kind of, we've got to be aware of what that looks like. Some of you seeking, welcoming Linda's God in transition, hurting a bit. Yeah, those are for people, but it's also for our churches. These transitions from trying to develop a different culture takes 10 years. It takes an average of 10 years to change the culture of a church. And some of our pastors don't last that long in a church because they're trying to change things. And so we deal with all that kind of stuff. Connect, immerse those are good words. Wow! I'm trying to reach and encourage people to be part of the church as a culture and a here's let's think for a minute about the culture as we go in to what we're proceeding with looking at public libraries we have to be aware of what the culture is in our churches from the standpoint of the pastor and staff. If we think it's one way, like we think it's friendly but the pastor and staff are looking at it as innovative. We're not on the same page. We need to be blending, innovative and friendly because I'll guarantee you the pastor and staff think it's friendly too. So today both sessions, we're gonna be looking at possibility of how to connect with our pastor and staff and get their view of what the culture is and what that looks like. So I just wanted to put those two words out. Those are kind of driving forces of what we think and how to be a part of what we're doing. Let's see, Martha's put up there. Do churches have specific God ordained purposes too? That is exactly right and we will really unpack that in the second one because purposes change and God changes things about what that is. And there are biblical, we've got passages and the gospels that talk about the purposes of the churches and so on all of that. But we've got to also factor in the context today and the of Bible times and how they were like, we're not gonna go into that stuff, that's way beyond what we'll have time but we may mess with that on church librarians network. Let's see how that works there. That's a good point, Martha. Now let's move on down your listening guide and let's look at the public libraries. Here's the reason we're looking at public libraries your people, I already said your people are going to the public library, but do you, are you many of you are aware that 30, 40, 50 years ago we almost lost our public libraries. And every once in a while in your communities that have financial issues going on, one of the top five, usually of budget cuts will be the library. And again, that's where the government leaders don't get exactly what the library is providing. And so when all of that started happening in our public library world, I movement started to move to a social library concept that goes all the way back to a theme year. And she in her, she had this social library concept. That was very, it was a community center. It wasn't just a place to go read. It had Lloyd more to it. And so the Nashville Public Libraries have embraced that. And they've gotten awards for the most outstanding social library in the United States. We're gonna keep referring back to the social library concept. And that's kind of what we're looking at for the libraries now look at your public library, bring that to mind and what do you see them doing or who they are today? Just start throwing those on the chat. As you kind of look at the one I'll just throw out the, warm up. The discussion is book clubs for years libraries have done book clubs, but today it's really hot. And our public libraries have not only book clubs for children, but their book clubs for adults, teenagers, all kinds of opportunities. Let's see what you got? Meeting rooms. Yeah, that's right. Marty your, the meeting room thing for us would be a different animal cause we're in a building of rooms. So we don't necessarily have to have the meeting room in our space, but we could sponsor gatherings that would meet in another room but it would be from our libraries doing that getting us in front display space that's huge a place to connect with what's happening in the church and use that curbside great connection there, that is I bet a bunch of you have done curbside during the COVID. As I choke up here, curbside became a way of connecting with people during the pandemic. Now we're still in the pandemic but the curbside now even may be important for a lot of what we're doing but the public libraries have a lot of them. Not all of them, I know in the Nashville public library system only a few of those branches have the curbside are local. The one I go to is Williamson County and it has had the curbside as well, kind of good and bad experiences, apparently internet access, that's true. And that's something we've gotta think about and we'll deal with that as well. The internet is a big, an online even ability to computer labs. The one I go to has this big room full of a bunch of computers and they teach people how to use their computers and be a part of that, let's see. I think I missed a supporting children by having adequate space reading areas that are innovative and fun. Thanks, Lucina, that's true. And that's something that many of us are able to do. It may not be directly in our room. We may do it over in the children's area in somewhere like hope Ferguson does and have reading times. Many of you have reading times that someone comes in and reads through the preschoolers computer classes. What else? What about speakers? Have you sponsored maybe an author in your church to come and speak and it's sponsored by the library. It may not take place in your space. You don't have enough space but you have it in another room. The social libraries starting with the Athenia. They called them salons. And believe it or not a lot of social libraries use that term, you would think that would be an old term that people wouldn't relate to but they do the Nashville library have salons and they invite all kinds of speakers and they go to the downtown library or a branches to hear various people speak from various places. So that is a piece that we can it wouldn't be done the same as the public library but it's an idea of a way to connect with our people. What's another one let's see. Are you saying yes salon. It's not the place you get your haircut but it's the same word and salon. And you could go to the Nashville Public Library and look up the word and it'll give you the program. And now here's the thing. Before we go any further in church library world don't be sitting there thinking I can't do all that. No, you can not yourself because you are all wrapped up into circulation and processing books all those things get outside of your team and look for people to come in and do those things and coordinate that for you. The public library that I go to, I learned about engagement coordinators. Our public library has a place for teenagers and it's a wall, it's a glass wall on the second floor. And there's that? It's a door and that's where the teenagers hang out. That's another one, hang out. They come and have adults hang out in our library used to not do that but they have coffee shops and all that kind of stuff. But this teenage place has an engagement coordinator who handles that. It is not the same people at the library who handle the books. Let's learn from that. What are ways we get beyond ourselves in thinking, well I can't do that because I don't have enough people. Well, there may be waiting for you to ask and this is where you work with your pastor and staff. If it's somebody to be an engagement quarter coordinator for the children, preschool ministry, who do you work with? The children, preschool leaders, let them tell you, I'm working right now to get engagement coordinators for the preschool children to do the Summer program. I'm not gonna do it, they're gonna do it. Some of the mothers are gonna do it. Now, I don't have that done yet because I spent a month waiting on somebody to say yes. And then she said, no, I've learned a lesson. So don't wait more than a week anyway. Okay, what's another thing we get from the public libraries. Any other thoughts or you talk about computers? I was at the library public library. Oh, about a year ago, grading seminary papers. And I sat in the living room parks what I call it. You walk into our library, it's sofas and stuff chairs. Is that true for your public library? You haven't been to your public library in a while this next week. That's how it works. Go visit the anyway, I was sitting over there and one of the stuffed chairs grading and here comes this group of is a man and three or four women. And they, I discovered listening to them where the doing the book sale. And so they were putting all that together. They didn't know each other very well. It was fascinating to watch them. They were all volunteers of the public library. And that got me to thinking this, this is a cool thing. The church library can be a place people can serve and be middle of what's happening and use those gifts and some of them aren't gonna be the kind of people you're looking for now. It's gonna be people who know people and have personalities that are relational and so on. Opportunities to start we already talked about that a little bit. There, we did special displays. Peggy's got that one, that's good. And the public libraries do too. They have displays that relate to history or what's going on in the community. Same kind of thing we can learn. What would that look like for us in the church library as well? Missions, connections, huge music evening ensemble. Oh yeah at the public library I go to there's a room right at the entrance. That's big and they have all kinds of musical programs. They're free that people can go to and participate in for children for, and we can do the site. It may not happen in our space but we would be related to it in some way. Do it as a partner with the serving there, with the church the ministry of the music program, the art of lending that art of lending that I'm thinking, you're thinking joy I may be wrong the way the public libraries. They've got it down to a fine science. Don't they? Of lending, all kinds of things and how it's handled the Christian Art program. Yeah, materials to use having art. Oh, now I see what you mean, art. Gosh! You know, it's much better when we're in person anyway. Okay, yes, indeed, lending art and hanging it, having it on display, that's something we have on our long range list for the enrichment center is having art available. Cause there are churches, all have artists, paint artists that just don't have a place. They get to show it and we could play a part in that. Love that and lending it now. That's cool, very good. That's good, all right. Well, let's, we've kind of looked at a lot of different things. I wanna point you to a library website. It's called the app, it's the lingo for it. I'll check Saturday, they are still in business. In fact, I did that because I learned about them about 25 years ago. And we have kind of modeled that our disciple-making center, after what was happening at the app or the it's now called the Providence Athiniereum. Atheneum, that's what they call it. If you Google the app, ATH or you Google the Providence of Theneum and that's spelled A T H E N E U M . Atheneum all named after Athenia. That is a very long term. It started in the 17 hundreds in the United States in Rhode Island, Providence, Rhode Island, have some fun and go look through their website. They are one of the leading social libraries in the United States. There are 17 social libraries spread across the Southern the United States that are membership libraries. You join it and you pay a fee. You'll see how much it costs to join the atheneum it's expensive. But my goodness look at all the programs they have and you'll see pictures of weddings that take place there. All of that, it kind of helps me tear down the walls of what we kind of think of a library in today's context in thinking what could happen. And I think church library they are ones that the public libraries have have fallen in thinking what they would become. So let's look now and kind of have fun with that and see where that, so let's go on and look through here and focus of characteristics of public libraries, the very first one the collections are continually refreshed with books, new books and DVDs. All right can we do that? When I first met more than a year ago now with the church staff, when we first started working on the enrichment center, in fact they're the ones who named it the enrichment center in that meeting, they said we want the library refreshed every year and I leaned back and so that led to a good discussion with them of how we raised money for that. How do we do that? So you say, yes, Marty, the refreshing is a big deal because the live public library does it all the time, they're experienced there, they're finding books new books there. Some of you, I had many of you a high percentage perhaps are limited to donations. Only another words people donate the books. They don't know they don't need anymore which means they might be 20 or 30 years old, kind of and so a lot of those you end up taking somewhere because you can't use them but you're dependent on their donations like that. Well, we're gonna look in the second session as well as some, a little bit here in thinking there's other ways to fund that but you gotta work with your finance committee. You don't want to get too far off a range grid and make them mad. But some of you don't have budget money. You wanna get in their good graces so that they will consider giving. And some of these steps we're talking about today that move us out of the shadows will help that finance committee grasp on and help your own pastor realize. Hey if they're gonna be aligned to the vision and mission of the church, then we need them some funding. So it goes beyond what maybe we can pull off by ourselves. Yes, I keep Peggy's project. I keep current with new fiction especially that's a big deal. Your library is focused perhaps on the fiction because that's what everybody's checking out. Most of us, we did a poll. We'd probably found out that's what's most being used. It's true in my church library, but we're gonna look in the second hour, the importance we need to balance that and keep that in mind. Cause that's what the public libraries are doing. You can find more than fiction in the public library as well. Let's look at the second one is bookstore. This is huge as bookstores close. You know I'm not sure there's a Christian bookstore left in Nashville to be honest. Libraries are the discovery places to pick out books, people will end up purchasing online. All kinds of libraries have been doing this for years. Your libraries have been doing. You may not know it. When we, the very first Sunday the enrichment center opened, I looked out the window cause I can see the hallway. We're right on a hallway that like a bridge. And I saw a friend of mine out there. He saw a book on the display. He's going like this on his phone, ordered it off of, I'm not sure where he ordered it. I have an assumption, but I won't say it. And I went out and asked him about it. Cause he works at Lifeway. And I thought, why aren't you? He said, well, I like to have my own copy but I like your recommendations. What's happening is the bookstores close. They no longer have a place to go touch and feel books before they buy them. There's a specially Bibles and still value what you've got. That's what they're doing at the public library too. They don't go check them out necessarily. They're seeing recommendations, value this point because the day is coming, perhaps I'm not predicting but where it will all be online. And there's still that desire. Believe it or not, the research is showing that young adults are tired of their devices. don't believe anybody that tells you and your pastor may tell you this, my age, the younger ones do this heard this recently, my age, no longer. We just use our devices. We don't need books, print books. Research is showing that young adults are tired of their devices. And I am finding it true in our experience with the enrichment center, we have more young adults coming in there every time, every week. I'm not gonna say more than middle-aged people. I'm still mostly middle-aged and older but they are very interested in feeling and touching books. And let's value that and hold on to that and let's keep own that we're the place that I can go touch and feel them before they buy their own copies or before they go get their digital. All right, the third one, most of about all public libraries and school libraries are automated. Yes, that's true. There's funding from the government for that. They got their sources that we don't. However, let me encourage you. And I've got a handout there attached to your learner guide of the questions in shopping for software but even they'll put together for us years ago, those are good questions. As you will find on church libraries network all kinds of literature, software being recommended. We've only stick stuck with two we have three on church libraries network as sponsors. They paid all the expenses of church librarians network. And the reason we do that those are the ones we're familiar with, we're not gonna recommend a software that we don't know anything about. And so you can go on terse librarians network and see all kinds that are being recommended. There are some free software available. So don't immediately rule it out that you can't be automated. Keep an open-mind to that and look for funding. In the second hour we will discuss some funding ideas that we don't have time to do today in this session. But consider those software prior to avoid. If you've got those two shelves in the hallway or the a hundred square foot room. Yes but look to the future. How in the next year or two could we move to soft art being automated? Here's what's going on. They see the barcode, they see that at their public library. They think they've got new stuff. They see you with pockets perhaps or not doing that kind of thing. And well, they just don't have anything here I need, that's the perception kind of thing. All right, another let's move to the next section here. Public libraries this is talking about the online catalog. You can go there you see the link to even nails online catalog. A bunch of lot of you have online capability, OPAC and reserve it. That's just something I've already shared how that has impacted what I do. And it's so hard to get the word out. I had a guy come in and Easter Sunday he had just learned about it. And Sunday he comes in and says I'm gonna be your first person to use the online catalog. And I said, I hope you will please you'll get stars. And he hadn't done it yet. I'm still waiting for him. So it takes time, let's see. Half true statement is that the church libraries are closing. Very true, very true Martha, I received calls every week from church staff who are starting a library or re ramping it up. Y'all don't, don't be sucked into that. That libraries are closing all the new members just about all the new members that joined the church librarians network are either starting or they're a new team member, restarting a church library. My role is trying to communicate that with pastors and staff, they think, well, nobody has it anymore. Huh? The jokes on them, right? All right, very good point Martha. All right, now let's go to number five on the listening guide are any of the roles of the public libraries possible for us in church libraries? Let's look at those, there is an article on the national Public Library Association website that covers the roles of the public libraries. And I wanna take their four roles and us let's discuss it. Let's look at their words. And how does that communicate for church libraries? The first one you see there, and that's what the line I've driven written lines there for you. So you can jot ideas, information. What does that look like for us? You, we've kind of touched on how the public libraries are providing information for the community. People go there to learn how to do their taxes. People go there to vote. People, go there to there's bulletin boards that have information about the community. What does that role look like for church libraries start popping some ideas on the chat. One thing that Mike has pulled off right off the bat, we have a receptacle, right? As you walk in the door for the prayer list and it's the same prayer list that's handed out on Wednesday night. But I am aware a lot. Most of the people in our church don't come on Wednesday night, so they can't get the prayer list. And now they have the prayer list online on the church's website. But you know what, there's still a lot of people in my church who do not have access to the internet nor do they may have it. They never look at it. So here they can come on Sunday and get the prayer list. What other kinds of information do you have? Let's see Cheryl helping studies for to help studies for the community group leaders. That's good, the community, your church calls, roots, community groups, that's great. Help studies, very good information on the pastor sermons, good Bible studies. So special studies teaching supports. Now those are kinds of things that we do with our pastor and staff to put that together so that we're using the right material, right? That we're on the same page. My pastor has is new. He's got a new secretary, they're all settling in. So I'm giving them a little space but I'm about to pounce on them. I want her to start sending me information about the sermons coming up. He's pastor that plans ahead. And at some point he and I are gonna walk and spend some time in the enrichment center together and talk about this kind of stuff. If you've not done that with your pastor I encourage you to have that conversation. There may be some things you pick up today that you can use that as a conversation starter. I wanna just walk around the shelves with Jay and having think of the authors who are looking at him. Those authors are sitting on those shelves waiting to extend his ministry and see them as his partners not see this as a room of books that people may or may not use. I want him to see it as an extension of his ministry and work with and I think he's the kind of guy that will do that. And I hope yours is. And just to kind of have to give him that, all right let's see, we've mailed copies of the prayer list, any shut-ins you requested. So the library does that. That's great, that's super. And those are those shut-ins are the ones that usually kids don't have access to seeing the prayer list. That's great, very good. Let's see, each Monday, a CD of the message is sent. That's very good, that's been something that a lot of libraries done for years. We have email around, email 20 each week throughout the pandemic, wow! That's great. A lot of we, our church used to be involved in doing that but now all the live streams are recorded and are available on the website. The CDs though, for those who don't have the website that's a way to do that. My church needs to learn from that because we dropped that ministry thinking they'll all, see it not everybody's see there's those who make these assumptions, that's not right. And you and I both know people who don't have access. So there's still that role. That's very good, very good. All right, education is the second one. Let's think about that one. That's the second row information is the first one. The second one is education. As a role of the public libraries. Easy to see a lot of people go there for homework schools send their kids to the public libraries to work on projects. When was the last time a Sunday school person teacher referred people in his or a small groups or community group referred people in the group to go to their church library for summary, it dawned on me quick into working with you all that nobody, very few of us have leaders in the church that are sending people to the church library. That's what happens to the school. I have a middle-school librarian retired now who works with me. And she said, the only reason she's told me she'd be all the reason the kids ever came in the libraries because the teachers made them. We need to develop that relationship and education with our teachers, Bible study leaders so that they will send people to us to extend the experience of their groups and their, and that's where we gotta. It's a lot of work. This is where those engagement coordinators come in to make, we got all that kind of connection done to have that kind of relationship. Let's see, we mark books with AR information, AR, right where does AR mean? We have classes in the library for tour. Very good, Martha. Yeah, invite people to see it. That's information. That's education include being included in the new member class kind of thing to be a part of that accelerated reader. Thank you, Marty, books with accelerated reader information parents are looking for that and very interested in that's where you get a parent to work with you and help you do that. A lot of those homeschool parents are really great tools for that very good education. Here's a thing to think about it. It wouldn't be true for the public library. Education works, but for us in some of our churches if not all the word, discipleship is a better fit. And it may, if it's not a fit now it may be in the near future because all of the blogs all of the pastor stuff is not only talking about culture. It's talking about discipleship and it's not, it's Southern Baptist Methodist Presbyterian. All denominations are involved in moving on with discipleship. There is a church I drive by that they call their Sunday School. Christian education which I've never seen the church do that and I haven't stopped to say, Hey, how does that work? Because Christian education in the world I live in that seminaries and schools for children, not something to enlist. The church has a school. So education is in our world where you would think discipleship. And that's where we've got to get in touch. What is the process? What is the church doing with discipleship? And we become part of that. Let's see, we provide bookmarks with information times of church library hours and website information. Very good, great promotion. That's information about the library in addition to doing information about what's going on in the church. And so on the third one, there is entertainment. Can't do we, didn't set up for a poll here. What are the good on your chat? What kind of entertainment you're doing? I, we have movies, Christian based, some have been surprised by different kinds of movies that the previous library and had some of those we've kind of worked out to replace with others, but some people see Christian fiction is merely entertainment. It's not true, is it? I really grow more, I will. I've written an article for our women's ministry in this week. How Christian fiction is my way of growing spiritually because it's like the parables Jesus used. They're set in the context of my day. And I'm able to learn in the context of my life what Jesus was talking about in the parables that were set in the context of the day he lived. And so he's using both in different ways. And so entertainment is, is Christian fiction's way more than entertainment. That's kind of, we've already talked about music doing those kinds of things as part of the entertainment role. What else let's say music and art, plenty and plenty of Christian fiction is meaty. I love that, that's great. The jigsaw puzzles in the second session we're gonna talk about it. You're gonna see the jigsaw puzzle in our enrichment center. We found out jigsaw puzzles are huge in my church and cooking games. So on very good all kinds of entertainment, cookbooks, all of that, very good. And now the last one is fellowship. I thought it was interesting to church. The public libraries use the term fellowship. I guess I always thought that was a church word but it goes beyond that. And this is where we really need to plug into our role with fellowship. What are some ideas that jigsaw puzzle to me is fellowship written all over it. It's where people in our experience people come in there on Wednesday night. They don't even know each other and they sat there and sit stand up there and talk and they work the puzzle together. I love it the opera, a seating area you will see in pictures of that. We'll look at in the second session of some of these libraries. And we reduced the size of our collection when we move to our new room so that we would have a seating area. Easter Sunday, I had the neatest experience with a man in our church who was waiting on his wife instead of going and sitting in the atrium. He came and sat in our enrichment center and I got up I had something I was working on. I said, I'm not gonna miss this. And I went over and sat with him and we had a delightful conversation for 30 minutes that we would never, ever would have had. If we'd had a table, a round table and chairs he and I got to visit in white. Now we didn't talk faith. He's in building and so we talked about buildings but that's all right, next time we talk. We'll talk about other things but think about the fellowship that can happen. And the mixing of generations, young adults today they want to get to know older adults. You may not believe that, but bookings, they are looking and our church libraries can play a huge role in involving all ages so that it is an intergenerational experience. Now I'm not succeeding at that yet, but I got my foot in the door and I'm planning to involve more in young adult. I had to go jump and use my Sunday school class to make it happen because it all had to happen so fast. If some of you have Satan sitting in the same boat all right, games, chicken out games that works as well as having games in the library at a different. So we've got four things, information, discipleship, entertainment, fellowship, those are four roles that we pick up on from the public library. What would you just write on there? Something that pops that as a role that you don't see there that would be a role of a church library that doesn't fit maybe in one of these four categories, broad based throw that up there on the Chad if you want to, we'll see, kind of keep that going. Let's start the reflection time because our time's about gone. We've done a lot, we've kind of covered a lot of base, kind of opened up a lot of maybe cans of worms, maybe frustrating to some. Oh, now I see Cheryl's got I liked the adopting of a seasoned citizen by a teenager, love it. You know, one of the idea's been around a long time. Many of you are already doing it where the teenager goes and does a video interview of the senior adult and that goes in a collection and it's played at the funeral. I've always loved that idea. That's on my list to someday get doing, get going and that's a way of mixing up. We pray for people ride on a place for new people to focus hang out when they know no one. Yes, huge Linda and that's where, you know those of you who have a right now you've got two shelves in the hallway. That may be something that I can't do that. But you know, you could, in a year, maybe as things develop, the pastor will seek catch a new vision of what the library can be and consider space more than what you have. Don't just think you're gonna always be two shelves. All of our libraries started out, two shelves, right? And so even though even Nail's library way before even now had was in charge of it was a very small library. So there's all moving forward place to be. Let's look, I've got some four reflection questions for you to use later, just to think of what we did here. Some space for you to write some thoughts. I really encourage you to go see your public library. If you have not been in it in a long time now's a good time to go and go ask the librarians, ask more than one about, do you all have something called engagement coordinators? Who does all these other things? What do you all call them? Find out, ask them stuff. You know, ideas, go and see what they do with the children. Look, what's on the shelves right now. Some of you and I'm in a situation the public library has a great collection of Christian fiction. And I've had people say I'll just go get the Christian fiction from the public library because they get new things quicker than you do. Well, okay, here's the deal. How long will that be? What's happening in our world? How long will the public libraries be able to have faith based books? Some of you and your public libraries may already see, it's gone. I'm not saying it's gonna be gone, but it might be gone. And that'll vary from community. We lose our bookstores. We use the access to based in public libraries. Y'all there may be a new role for church libraries coming that we have known. We who knows what's ahead of us. Now here's the challenge I do at the very end there homework, please go talk to your pastor and staff, talk to them separately ask them, what do you consider the culture of our church? How would you discover the culture? How would you explain the culture of our church? And I guarantee you you'll get four different answers. If you talk to four different staff people, ask them and then go back and write down the implications and think with your team the implications of what they think of the culture of the church and get in touch with what that looks like. What are some ways we can serve? Knowing this is what they think the culture of our church is? chances are that is being discussed. That's how it works. And we need to be right on touch with that. Otherwise we're doing some things. That's probably going counter culture. We need to be right there in camp. Now we could be counterculture. Countercultures not at all bad word is it? It could be some of the questions you're gonna ask them are gonna make a difference in where they go moving forward. Because I hadn't thought of something a certain way, or, hey nobody's asked that question. You may be the first asked that question. All right, we've covered a lot of ground. There's all kinds of stuff. Some of you are throwing rocks at me. I asked your forgiveness. We will be picking up on some of the a lot of the things we're doing here today. We're gonna pick up on church librarians network. You'll find the last page gives you the information about the church libraries network. And I'd love to see you there. That'd be bright and we'll continue this discussion as well. Let me encourage you. We are going to turn this one off. You're gonna leave. This is gonna shut down this, this conference. And you're gonna go to the other email you got that has the shifts conference in 30 minutes at 11:30 AM or whatever your time zone is you click there and open the next one. If you have not registered for the second one and you decided you'd like to join us, you can do that. You go to the place where you were and where you got the, where you registered. Originally, you can get that off of the church librarians network. If you haven't or you've got an email that you received earlier and you can register for it it's not too late and be a part of that in 30 minutes. I think Marty did not cover everything there. Just nod your head, yep, okay, good. Be a part of that. Let me pray for us and we'll be go. Lord, thank you for what we've just did. It's hard to know what people are thinking because of the technology we've got here but they've been great with the chat room and thank you for the participation in so many ways. Now we relinquish what we've done. It's yours, each of us individually, take us individually now and guide us to see what you want us to see. Some of this has rubbed us the wrong way made us mad, maybe but help us see what you would have us do individually as a result of what we just do. We thank you for what you've done here and we praise you for senior night we pray. Amen, have a good one. Bye, thanks.