BOOK CLUB
The COM Book Club happens twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall. In Book Club, we read a book together on the topics of poverty, Christian community development, or theology. This is one of the ways we seek to form a community committed to loving our neighbors as ourselves. You can see the books we've studied together below.
To participate in COM Book Club, you must be a member of the Compassion Collaborative, COM's monthly giving program. Membership begins at just $20 per month, and you can join with the button below. If you are already a monthly member, sign up below for our upcoming Book Club.
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CURRENT BOOK
FRIDAYS FROM FEB 24-MARCH 17
"Under the Overpass: A Journey of Faith on the Streets of America"
by Mike Yankoski
Mike Yankoski did more than just wonder. By his own choice, Mike's life went from upper-middle class plush to scum-of-the-earth repulsive overnight. With only a backpack, a sleeping bag and a guitar, Mike and his traveling companion, Sam, set out to experience life on the streets in six different cities—from Washington D.C. to San Diego— and they put themselves to the test.
For more than five months the pair experienced firsthand the extreme pains of hunger, the constant uncertainty and danger of living on the streets, exhaustion, depression, and social rejection—and all of this by their own choice. They wanted to find out if their faith was real, if they could actually be the Christians they said they were apart from the comforts they’d always known…to discover first hand what it means to be homeless in America. What you encounter in these pages will radically alter how you see your world—and may even change your life. (description from Amazon)
PAST BOOKS
SUMMER 2022
Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (And How to Reverse It), by Robert Lupton
Veteran urban activist Robert Lupton reveals the shockingly toxic effects that modern charity has upon the very people meant to benefit from it. Toxic Charity provides proven new models for charitable groups who want to help—not sabotage—those whom they desire to serve. Lupton, the founder of FCS Urban Ministries (Focused Community Strategies) in Atlanta, the voice of the Urban Perspectives newsletter, and the author of Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life, has been at the forefront of urban ministry activism for forty years. Toxic Charity shows us how to start serving needy and impoverished members of our communities in a way that will lead to lasting, real-world change. (book description from Amazon.com)