Every year, United Women in Faith publishes a Mission Study for adults, youth, and children that serves as an excellent resource for helping us to grow on our spiritual journey. These studies are for all church groups, not just women’s groups.
United Women in Faith also hosts a Reading Program every year with books they recommend to be read and discussed in groups.
The NC Conference Media Center has the 2024 Mission Studies and some of the books from the Reading Program available for borrowing.
2024 Mission Study
The 2024 Mission Study focuses on what it means to live in the kin-dom of God. This concept is adapted for study in adult, youth, and children’s groups. One of the contributors to the children’s curriculum is from The North Carolina Conference. Catey Miller is an active member of The Peak UMC in Apex, NC.
Welcome Home: Adult Curriculum. This curriculum explores how we can know God as an intimate friend who welcomes us. Abiding in God’s safety and dwelling in God’s provision allows us to open our hearts to a fuller embrace of the power and presence of God so that we may find our home in God. Participants are invited to dig deeper into what it means to live in the kin-dom of God and how this helps us to develop practices for building and existing in healthier communities.
Author Neomi Fletcher leads participants through a journey in eight one-hour explorations that start with examining home and redefining what it means in light of Scripture’s repeated invitations to dwell with God as individuals, community members, and persons of faith. The explorations lead participants outward so that what starts with our personal homes expands to welcoming others to join us in our work as co-creators to establish God’s kin-dom on earth. The sessions include Scripture explorations, discussions, activities to apply what is being learned, and two intergenerational sessions.
Cultivating Symbiosis: The Nature of God’s Kin-dom: Youth Curriculum. This youth curriculum uses the idea of symbiosis to explore relationships with others and with God. Youth will examine different kinds of relationships and understand them as an ongoing journey toward the kin-dom. There is a symbiosis between our relationships to each other as humans and our relationship to God. By drawing closer to one another, we can collectively move, step by step, toward creating God’s kin-dom on earth as it is in heaven.
Through eight one-hour sessions, youth and their facilitators will more deeply explore what it means to live into the kin-dom of God through the lens of symbiosis. Youth will first explore what symbiosis means and that it exists on a continuum. They will examine their personal relationships and how they mirror or contrast what God desires, understanding that to love God is to love your neighbor, and to love your neighbor is to love God. Youth will then move outward in their understanding of relationships and God’s kin-dom by looking at economic injustice and how they can collectively work toward social justice.
Me in the Kin-dom: Children’s Curriculum. This children’s curriculum helps children explore the kin-dom of God through the lens of the Lord’s Prayer. Children will experience how they are unique members of God’s kin-dom and learn they are also part of a larger community that welcomes all of God’s children. Children will explore many Scriptures that will help them to learn to see, hear, and love as Christ teaches. This enables us to accept each other as God created us to be.
Each session includes Scripture study, discussion, music, artistic expression, and even some opportunities for children to participate in outreach to others. The sessions encourage children to ask questions such as: What is this kin-dom? Where is this kin-dom? What is God’s will for it? The eight one-hour sessions may be combined into four two-hour sessions if needed. The curriculum also includes a guide to adapt the study for online meetings in lieu of in-person ones.
2024 Reading Program Books
United Women in Faith offers a wide variety of books in their annual Reading Program. It includes books for adults, youth, and children. The books from this list that can be borrowed from the NC Conference Media Center are listed below.
Adults
I’m Black. I’m Christian. I’m Methodist. edited by Rudy Rasmus. Ten Black women and men explore life through the lens of compelling personal religious narratives. They are people and leaders whose lives are tangible demonstrations of the power of a divine purpose and evidence of what grace really means in face of hardship, disappointment, and determination.
Becoming Brave: Finding the Courage to Pursue Racial Justice Now by Brenda Salter McNeil. McNeil calls the church to repair the old reconciliation paradigm by moving beyond individual racism to address systemic injustice, both historical and present. It’s time for the church to go beyond individual reconciliation and “heart change” and to boldly mature in its response to racial division.
Invisible: Theology and the Experience of Asian American Women by Grace Ji-Sun Kim. Kim examines encounters with racism, sexism, and xenophobia as she works toward ending Asian American women’s invisibility. She deploys biblical, sociological, and theological narratives to empower the voices of Asian American women.
Our Strangely Warmed Hearts: Coming Out Into God’s Call by Karen P. Oliveto. Oliveto discloses why and how spiritual renewal and a personal call to ministry emerge in the strangely warmed hearts of lesbian and gay Christians. This book traces the history of the church’s struggle with homosexuality, highlighting critical incidents in the culture and church polity that shape the church’s response.
The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism by Jemar Tisby. An acclaimed, timely narrative of how people of faith have historically–up to the present day–worked against racial justice. And a call for urgent action by all Christians today in response.
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee. McGhee embarks on a deeply personal journey across the country from Mississippi to Maine, tallying up what we lose when we buy into the zero-sum paradigm–the idea that progress for some of us must come at the expense of others.
Entering the Passion of Jesus: A Beginner’s Guide to Holy Week by Amy-Jill Levine. Levine explores the biblical texts surrounding the Passion story. She shows us how the text raises ethical and spiritual questions for the reader, and how we all face risk in our Christian experience.
Youth and Children
The ABCs of Diversity: Helping Kids (and Ourselves!) Embrace Our Differences by Carolyn B. Helsel & Y. Joy Harris-Smith. Equips parents, teachers, and community leaders to address children of all ages on complicated topics of race, political affiliation, gender, class, religion, ability, nationality, and sexual orientation.
Blessed Youth: Breaking the Silence about Mental Illness with Children and Teens by Sarah Griffith Lund. Removes the barriers of stigma and shame associated with mental illness in children and teens. Readers will know they are not alone and be reminded of God’s grace and loving presence in the midst of the heartache and struggle of mental illness.
The Good for Nothing Tree by Amy-Jill Levine & Sandy Eisenberg Sasso. Inspired by the parable of the Barren Fig Tree, this book focuses on a tree that grows later than expected, reminding readers that patience, care, and love can change everything – making what may appear “good for nothing” very good.
Additional Resources
The NC Conference Media Center adds the UWF Mission Studies to our collection every year. Recent studies include topics such as radical discipleship, finding peace, and embracing wholeness. See our complete list of these studies, along with DVDs about the history of United Women in Faith (formerly known as United Methodist Women) on the United Women in Faith/United Methodist Women resource pathfinder.
We also keep a list of the books in our collection that are on the Reading Program every year. It includes many excellent titles for all ages on a wide variety of topics, including church life, Bible study, Christian living, social justice, and more.
Our NC Conference United Women in Faith hosts in-person studies using the Mission Study curriculum every year. Stay tuned to their website for more information on Mission U.
Request These Resources
These resources can be borrowed for free by anyone involved with a United Methodist Church in the North Carolina Conference. We will mail them to your home! All you need to do is fill out the Resource Request Form.