Congregational Life is responsible for a critical need at Fourth Presbyterian Church:
creating a web to hold together a large and diverse congregation.
By providing churchwide programming and small group fellowship,
as well as by embodying a personal spirit of warm welcome,
Congregational Life brings strangers together and strengthens existing bonds.

New Moms’ Group

If you are expecting a child or have had a child within the last year, you are invited to join a New Moms’ Group. The purpose of the group is to make new friends and explore how faith can be a strong resource during these exciting and challenging times. Groups typically meet for eight weeks in a member’s home. Babysitters are provided, so moms are free to participate in discussions, or babies can stay with their moms.

Other activities include:
• Monthly Moms’ Night Out — We gather at a restaurant for dinner the first Friday of every month.
• Bi-Annual Service Project — We cook a meal for families staying at the Ronald McDonald House twice a year.
• Great Expectations Shower — We host a shower twice a year for expectant moms at Fourth Church.

To join a group or for more information, e-mail newmomsgroup@fourthchurch.org.


Community Book Group
Join fellow Fourth Church members and friends for a monthly evening of discussion about a book that brings words and faith together. Each month we will read a different book and then come together for a conversation about it. A member of the staff will begin the evening with a brief introduction of the book, and roundtable discussions facilitated by lay leaders will follow. In this casual atmosphere, there will be opportunity to get to know others, exchange ideas, and enjoy a time of being together in community. Participants need not commit to attend every gathering but rather can join in as their schedules permit and the books interest them.

Books to be discussed in the upcoming months include

June 4: Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, The Struggle for the Soul of a Generation by Eboo Patel
Discussion led by Joyce Shin, Associate Pastor

The group will not meet in July or August but will resume in September, with the fall titles to be announced later this summer.

Schedule for 2008–2009 gatherings of the Community Book Group
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
No meeting in December
Tuesady, January 27, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Books read in the past two seasons of the Community Book Group have included
Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
Giving To God: The Bible’s Good News about Living a Generous Life by Mark Allan Powell
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith by Barbara Brown Taylor
Dream Angus: The Celtic God of Dreams by Alexander McCall Smith
The Things They Carry by Tim O’Brien
The Priestly Sins by Andrew Greeley
Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott
What Paul Meant by Garry Wills
Fight Club: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk
A New Religious America:
     How a “Christian” Country Has Become the World’s Most Religiously Diverse Nation
     by Diana L. Eck
The Maytrees: A Novel by Annie Dillard
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
The Year of Living Biblically:
     One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs
Acts of Faith:
     The Story of an American Muslim, The Struggle for the Soul of a Generation by Eboo Patel

For more information, contact Anne Ellis at aellis@fourthchurch.org (312.573.3369).