Here are some candidates for books we may want to read. We’ll have a selection party April 29 at 7pm at the Northaven library to decide on our top 6 books, and choose a meeting time. If you would like to join the book group, we meet in-person with a zoom link for a hybrid discussion. We’d like to know what times and dates are good for you! Go here to let us know your preferences. (when you get there, “log in” by typing your name – the password isn’t necessary. Once you’re in, click on days and times that are best for you!

Current suggestions:

• Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
• Ghosted by Nancy French
• Frozen River by Ariel Lawhorn
• The Finder of Forgotten Things by Sarah Loudin Thomas
• Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich
• Ordinary Grace by William Kent Kreuger
• Stride Towards Freedom: The Montgomery Story by Martin Luther King, Jr.
• The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom

Though Olympic View Community Church has existed in Seattle for over 75 years, just knowing that does not help you know who we are today. Our mission is to step out in faith in the power of God’s love. Our vision is to be a church seeking transformation.

Our Vision Statement:

Bearing witness to the radically transforming power of God’s love,

we are a church that risks all

to be Jesus in a church, community, and world

which needs people to step out in faith.

What is the basis for our beliefs?

The New Testament is our rule of faith and practice. We covenant to live by its precepts as taught and revealed in Jesus and affirmed by the apostles.  When faced with inconsistencies in scripture we lean on the words of Jesus as our guide.  We believe that the clear interpretation of scripture requires us to also understand the context, historical culture, and social customs of the times when it was recorded.  We believe that God is still revealing His will through the scriptures, but we also believe that it is not always a crystal-clear message “For now we see through a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known.” (I Cor 13:12)

All members are ministers. We are called not only to serve one another, but also to live in harmony with all of God’s creation.  We believe in living in harmony with all people, in peacefully solving conflict, and in not harming or degrading any other person.  Loving God and loving our neighbor is at the core of all that we do and this should extend to every living thing and to all of creation.

We believe the corporate discernment of the gathered church is our understanding of God’s will.  Each member of the church is a valued part of the whole body. God endows each member with spiritual and natural gifts, and the church values each member’s opinion and contributions.

We are known by our fruits (Mat 7:15-20), and Christ should be glorified and revealed in all we do (Mat 5:16).  We are called to help the needy in the world, for what we do for the least of these, we do for God (Jesus) (Mat 25:40-45).

We believe that Jesus came to redeem the world (John 3:16-18), and that we are saved by grace through faith (Eph 2:8-9).

Our practices:

• We believe in radical hospitality; thus, everyone is welcome at Olympic View Community Church.
• Our denomination, the Church of the Brethren, is an historic peace church whose purpose can be summed in this statement: “Continuing the work of Jesus, Peacefully, Simply, Together”
• Olympic View is open and affirming of all people without respect to their economic, social, or political status, or gender affirmation.  All people are seen as God’s children and are worthy of God’s love and grace.
• We celebrate Christmas and Easter, make communion available monthly and have a Love Feast each year on Maundy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter), remembering the Last Supper of Jesus and his disciples where we wash each other’s feet.
• We practice full immersion baptism of adults to welcome them into the body with the full faith commitment of both the new member and the congregation.

A) Church of the Brethren Denominational Ministries – “One Great Hour of Sharing” is collected for these ministries

Core Ministries

Emergency Disaster Fund/Brethren Disaster Ministries

B) Pacific Northwest District

C) Other Brethren Agencies and Brethren Aligned Organizations

D) Local Organizations and Ministries

We are currently reading through the gospel of John.  

This is a conversational and informal study. To prepare, read the passage for the week and annotate the text with three things:

• Breakfast at Sally’s
• Confessions of Saint Augustine – Translated by Sarah Ruden
• A gentleman in Moscow
• Revelation for the Rest of Us
• Gilead – Marilynne Robinson
• The Lemon Tree

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Fast Times in Palestine by Pamela J. Olson
Killers of the Autumn Moon by David Grann
Amish Grace by Donald B. Kraybill, Steven M. Nolt, and David L. Weaver-Zercher
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
The Stranger In the Lifeboat by Mitch Albom

• We meet in the church library on the third Wednesday of each month at 7pm
• Generally we will read 120-150 pages in a session
• Highlight passages that inspire you – or amuse you – or infuriate you.
• We get together with cheese, crackers, and wine in person
• You may also attend virtually through the magic of Zoom
• We normally spend two months per book.
• We are grateful to the pastor who designed this style of book group!
  The history of how this got started is here.

Being Mortal – Atul Gawande
The Gospel of the Beloved Disciple – James Carse
Klara and the Sun – Kazuo Ishiguro
On the Road with St. Augustine – James Smith
This Tender Land – William Kent Kreuger

• We meet in the church library on the third Wednesday of each month at 7pm
• Generally we will read 120-150 pages in a session
• Highlight passages that inspire you – or amuse you – or infuriate you.
• We get together with cheese, crackers, and wine in person
• You may also attend virtually through the magic of Zoom
• We normally spend two months per book.
• We are grateful to the pastor who designed this style of book group!
  The history of how this got started is here.

Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott (August and September)
Love Wins – Rob Bell (October/November)
In Love With The World – Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche (Jan/Feb)
Regarding the Pain of Others – Susan Sontag (March/April)
A Gentle Plea for Chaos – Mirabel Osler (May/June)

January 2021

In Love With The World – Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

“Joy is not the absence of suffering, the absence of challenges, or the absence of anything else. Living with joy means that we develop a sense of inner well-being that allows us to embrace whatever the present moment offers. Meditation instills in us a genuine sense of curiosity and wonder, even toward the mundane and challenging details of our existence. ” ~ Tergar.org

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche is the head lama of a Tibetan Buddhist monestary. When he was in his mid-thirties he decided to follow an old Buddhist tradition called a wandering retreat. He left everything he had known with nothing but the clothes on his back. He returned almost four years later.  

October 2020

Love Wins – Rob Bell

A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spend forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better. It’s been clearly communicated to many that this belief is a central truth of the Christian faith and to reject it is, in essence, to reject Jesus. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’s message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear.
~ Rob Bell on Love Wins
This book is about heaven and hell with tons of Biblical references in favor of love, mercy, and transcending our sinful natures.
If you want to find out what Rob is like as a speaker, there’s some wonderful videos on his website. We reccomend An Introduction To Joy which is somewhere between a sermon and standup comedy.

August 2020

Traveling Mercies – Anne Lamott

(Grace) is the help you receive when you have no bright ideas left, when you are empty and desperate and have discovered that your best thinking and most charming charm have failed you. Grace is the light or electricity or juice or breeze that takes you from that isolated place and puts you with others who are as startled and embarrassed and eventually grateful as you are to be there.
~ Ann Lamott

Anne Lamott balances the pain of life with its blessings, and we enjoy her honesty about her feelings and her sense of humor.

Mary Oliver has been one of the most popular American poets of our time. She died two years ago at the age of 83, after a lifetime of great achievement: a Pulitzer prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a National Book Award, among others. 

The essays in Upstream read like poetry. Dreamlike, yet connected to the current moment. For example:

Something is wrong, I know it, if I don’t keep my attention on eternity. May I be the tiniest nail in the house of the universe, tiny but useful.

 You can get acquainted with some of her poetry here, or read more about her at her website here.