(c) 1986 Christian Century Foundation, Reprinted by permission.

A summer reading group!-what a great idea! I thought as I took out a legal pad.

Reasons for introducing such a group fairly gushed from my ballpoint: parish-sponsored growth opportunities for adults had been scarce during the past year; some church school teachers might want to participate; I would enjoy the stimulation of give-and-take discussion without the burden of being leader; reading groups had worked well in other parishes; it would be a chance to do some church-sanctioned light reading without feeling guilty for avoiding theological tomes.

I recalled that John Stott had told a seminary community some years earlier how useful he'd found a reading group. He said he had made it a point to have several recent university graduates present. They kept him up to date on what was in vogue on campus-books, he said, he otherwise would not have known about, much less read.

Surely, I reasoned, the fact that I remember Stott's recommendation ...