Reflections after one year

The one year anniversary of the Reformed Book Club quietly passed early last month.  Even though I didn't speak about it at the time, I thought I really should give some reflections on the club now that we have been going for 12 months straight.

Where we've come from
I must admit I wasn't really sure whether the club would be anything more than a passing whim.  I got the idea from what Tim Challies was doing over at his blog http://www.challies.com/  From time to time Challies runs a series of posts called 'Reading Classics Together', where he picks a classic Christian book and guides people through it.  I loved the idea, but felt that the weekly format simply didn't move quickly enough for me.  There were also weeks where posts weren't made due to busyness and then there were long breaks between books. 

So I thought I'd try my hand at doing it on my own.  I adopted Challies method at first, doing small readings on one book.  But where he was doing them weekly, I did them daily.  I kept this up for six months but at the beginning of 2010 I moved to larger weekly readings from seven books to try and help people come in at their own pace.

Another change was to only include books that were freely available on the internet.  Therefore there is now virtually no cost restriction to taking part.

Where we're going
There are a few things I want to let members know.  Firstly, I have every intention of continuing the club well into the future.  I know it isn't a big group of us - the Feedburner statistic for the last 30 days gives an average of 13 people subscribed to the blog feed (and I know there are a few others who take part simply by coming manually to the web page).  But I think I'd continue the club even if there was only one other person that found it helpful.  I have enjoyed the discipline of needing to read the books each day and then write something.  I have also been greatly encouraged by what I am reading.  So if only a few others join me in the journey and are also encouraged, then praise God.

Secondly, I think that the current format of larger readings of seven books each week is fine and I have no intentions of changing it. 

Thirdly, I do have one thing I want to change - the category for 'Seed Sower Saturday'.  The categories for the other six days of the week are rather broad so for them I can easily find books that I own and are free on the internet.  But restricting one day to evangelism has made life a little difficult.  So I'm going to change 'Seed Sower Saturday' to 'Serious Study Saturday'.  On Saturdays we will read a slightly larger chunk (30-40 pages) from a work that is not as popular as the other titles we usually read, but is nevertheless an important contribution to the Christian church.  I'll make an announcement soon about which work will kick off the new category.

Now it's your turn
I'm always interested in your feedback, so if you have an idea about how to make the club more helpful or just want to share how you are enjoying the club, please comment below.