How to Start a Catholic Book Club
Book clubs are a great way to make friends with common interests. If you're Catholic, starting a Catholic book club will allow you to talk about your religion with your peers, outside of the church. Discussing your faith in a new light will make it grow even stronger. It may seem like a daunting task to start a book club, but it can actually be very easy to accomplish. All you need is fellow worshipers who love books (and a few other things along the way).
Instructions
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Gather a group together. Since you're starting a Catholic book club, the best place to look would be your church. Ask around after Mass, or stop by some of the classes or group meetings your congregation has and see if anybody is interested. Your book club can have as many people in it as you want.
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Find a meeting place. Book clubs can meet almost anywhere. If your church has space, you could use one of its rooms. You could also meet at a bookstore or a library close by (most have private rooms you can sign up for). You could also choose to meet at someone's house--as long as your members are fine with it, rotate houses every meeting.
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Decide on a time to meet every week or month. Once you have your core members, figure out a time and day of the week that usually works for most. Don't worry if you have trouble with this--it's hard to please everybody, especially if your group is big. Just pick a time and day that's good for most of the people in your book club.
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Figure out how you're going to choose the books. You can make up a list of books you want everyone to read (or Bible passages to interpret), or let each member choose a different book. If you want to choose all books yourself, make your list and schedule before the first meeting so everybody knows what to expect.
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Choose who will lead the meetings. If you're a good leader, the most obvious choice would be you. You can come up with questions to ask and topics to discuss during the meeting if you want a lot of order. Your Catholic book club doesn't have to be structured, though. Try giving everyone a chance to lead one meeting and have a friendly discussion about each book.
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Continue to make your book club bigger by putting up fliers. Your Catholic book club might lose members after a while, so it's good to recruit more. Advertise at your church and put up fliers on the bulletin board. Or, go back to telling people at Mass or during group meetings about your book club.
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Tips & Warnings
Food and drinks are just as important as books for your book club. Make sure to at least have light snacks at every meeting for your members. Or, make snacks a different member's responsibility each meeting.
Because religion is a sensitive topic, watch out for discussions becoming too personal. Keep discussion on the book and try to stay away from everyone's personal philosophy.
