giveaway — Clayfire Curator

Book Giveaway: Year of Plenty by Craig Goodwin

by Linda Parriott | May 20, 2011

Earlier this year, Presbyterian pastor Craig L. Goodwin published Year of Plenty, the story of his suburban family’s year-long experiment to consume only what was local, used, homegrown, or homemade. From a review of the book on Amazon.com:

In spite of a growing genre of books about families and individuals spending a year eating locally, this book, and the Goodwin family’s experiment, is not about jumping on a cultural bandwagon. Goodwin’s experience brings a fresh perspective to the growing conversation about environmentalism and sustainable living, which is captured in the subtitle. Theirs is an “adventure in pursuit of Christian living.” Arguing that Christian faith has been largely colonized by the modernist narrative of consumption and unlimited growth, the Goodwin family deliberately steps off the treadmill and dares to ask whether there is something deeply amiss about our “normal” way of life. In a play on Wendell Berry’s well-known phrase, “eating is an agricultural act,” Goodwin declares, “eating is a theological act” (195).

Sample chapters of Year of Plenty can be downloaded free from Fortress Press.

In celebration of Craig Goodwin’s guest post today, we are giving away five copies of Year of Plenty. Here’s what to do for a chance at getting a copy:

Leave a comment below or on Clayfire’s Facebook page. By 12pm CDT, Wednesday, May 25. We’ll pick 5 comments at random, so this isn’t a creative writing exercise. But feel free to tell us why you want the book.
Include your email address. We can’t send out the book if we can’t contact you. So be sure to include your email address in the appropriate box in the comment form. Your email address will not be published on the site, unless you accidentally add it to the comment body. We’ll try to catch those and edit any comments that include a published address.

It’s that simple! If yours is the randomly chosen comment, you’ll receive an email notification next Tuesday afternoon from Linda Parriott.

UPDATE: The book giveaway has ended and comments are now closed. Book recipients have been notified. Thanks to everyone who left a comment here and on Facebook.

Categories: Clayfire News

eBook Giveaway: A Guidebook for Visual Worship by Stephen Proctor

by Linda Parriott | March 21, 2011

Stephen Proctor, a good friend of Mark Pierson and of Clayfire, recently produced an e-book, A Guidebook for Visual Worship. Written in response to people who have been asking him about training resources and books, this book is for individuals and teams who are responsible for leading their church’s visual worship. You can get a sense for Proctor’s passion and vision for this resource at his blog worshipvj.com. You can also follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/worshipvj.

Stephen has generously offered to give away copies of his e-book to three readers of Clayfire Curator.

Here’s what to do for a chance at getting a copy:

Leave a comment below. By 12pm CST, Friday, March 25. We’ll pick 3 comments at random.
Include your email address. We can’t send out the book if we can’t contact you. So be sure to include your email address in the appropriate box in the comment form. Your email address will not be published on the site, unless you accidentally add it to the comment body. We’ll try to catch those and edit any comments that include a published address.

You can purchase a copy for yourself or a group license for your team at Stephen’s online store.

Update – March 25, 2011: The giveaway has ended. Congratulations to Wade, David, and Laura whose comments were selected. Their ebooks are in the email. Thanks to who visited Clayfire Curator and left a comment.

Categories: Clayfire News

Fourth Book Giveaway: Like Us on Facebook

by Clayfire News | February 23, 2011

If you doubted that we are serious about wanting to get The Art of Curating Worship into as many hands as we can, doubt no more. This week, getting a free copy of the book is as simple as “Liking” us on Facebook.

At the time of writing this post, there are 658 people who like Clayfire on Facebook. The next ten people who like us will each receive a copy of Mark Pierson’s book. We’ll contact you through Facebook to get your shipping address.

If you like us, feel free to say Hi on our Page. We’d love to get to know you!

Categories: Clayfire News

Third Book Giveaway: In Pursuit of Trivia

by Clayfire News | February 16, 2011

By now, our desire to put The Art of Curating Worship into the hands of everyone who has a role or an interest in their faith community’s worship life should be apparent. Sure, the Clayfire logo is on the cover. Denying that we at Clayfire Curator have a commercial interest in hawking the book would be foolish.

The same motivation that led us to publishing Mark Pierson’s book last fall is also what’s driving our weekly giveaways: We believe that worship transforms us in the way of Christ, and as we are transformed, so is the world. (Jodi-Renee Adams wrote about this a couple of weeks ago). Now no one thinks curating worship is the magic bullet to transformation. Transformation is God’s work. As Mark writes in chapter 6, “You can’t curate transformation, but you can curate spaces in which it might happen.” There it is, the reason we’re intent on getting this book into as many hands as we can. Dan Kimball says it best in his foreword.

By encouraging us to stay grounded theologically, Mark allows us to discover something beautiful: freedom. Freedom to create. Freedom to breathe. Freedom to create expressions of worship to God from our hearts and souls that might not fit within the usual boxes of worship we have practiced for so long. Mark teaches us to breathe out our worship to God in truth.

A few years ago I went spelunking. I was underground for hours. Finally we came up out of the cave and as we arose the air was so incredibly fresh and wondrous. It was marvelous to breathe it in. The odd part was that we had gotten used to the air in the cave. After a while it just felt like normal air. It wasn’t until we got to the surface and breathed in that fresh air that I realized how stagnant the air was in the cave. In the same way, when we breathe prayer and worship in and out in the same ways we’ve done for decades, we don’t even notice when the air becomes stagnant. We are breathing, but the air isn’t as fresh and full as it could be. Mark challenges churches to consider the air we breathe in worship. It’s time for us to come out of the cave and breathe in fresh ideas that will lead us to breathe out fresh worship from our hearts, minds, and souls. That doesn’t mean straying from truth or chasing after trends or gimmicks or bashing the old or talking about the need for relevance. This book isn’t about that. It is about the opening of our hearts and minds to fully breathe our love and passion for God in ways that make sense to our existence as followers of Jesus today.

Whew! For a post about a book giveaway, things got pretty intense. To lighten things up, this week’s giveaway pokes a bit of fun at ourselves. This time, there’s no requirement to post a comment. Comments are welcome, but they aren’t part of the giveaway. (If you want to leave comment, go to Mark’s post this week where he writes about his chapter on curation practices.)

Here’s what to do:

Answer a few multiple-choice trivia questions. By 12 noon CST, Tuesday, February 22, answer and submit the quiz entry form. Don’t worry, the questions are almost impossible to get wrong, and won’t take more than a minute or so of your time to answer.
Include your name and email address. We can’t send you the book if we can’t contact you. Your email address will not be published on the site.

On Tuesday afternoon, we’ll randomly select an entry from all correctly answered entries. If yours qualifies and is selected, you will be notified by email before the end of business on Tuesday. Easy enough, right?

Update: This giveaway has concluded. The correct Christy Pittman correctly answered all the trivia questions and was chosen at random from all correct entries in this week’s giveaway. Her free copy of The Art of Curating Worship is in the mail. Thanks, Christy, for your enthusiastic support of our website!

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway! Here is the quiz and the answers:

Who blogs on Clayfire Curator every Thursday?
A. Eric Herron B. No one C. the lead site editor of Clayfire Curator D. Both A and C

What is Dogma?
A. The Boston Terrier that lives with Jodi-Renee Adams, Clayfire Curator contributor B. The antithesis of Catpa C. A statement or body of statements concerning faith or morals proclaimed by a church (Merriam-Webster) D. Both A and C

When are submissions for the Lenten Prayer Project due?
A. Monday, February 21 B. Project? I don’t need no stinking Project. C. A week before February 28, when the submissions are published D. Both A and C

Where does Mark Pierson live?
A. Auckland, New Zealand B. Aukland, Norway C. Tāmaki (Māori name for Auckland) D. Both A and C

Why are you filling out this form?
A. For a chance at bagging a free copy of The Art of Curating Worship B. Because you can’t resist filling out online forms C. This book belongs in your library. (Or a friend’s library. You already have your copy.) D. Both A and C

Categories: Clayfire News

Second Book Giveaway: The Art of Curating Worship by Mark Pierson

by Clayfire News | February 9, 2011

A couple of weeks ago, we offered our first giveaway of Mark Pierson’s The Art of Curating Worship. Today, we’re back with another chance for you to get a free copy. We’re calling today’s giveaway Go Tell Mark.

In today’s post, Mark continues walking us through his book. Chapter four is the first of three chapters on a new language for worship. As he writes about “Applying the Philosophy of Curation,” he’s also eager to hear your experiences with curating worship. If you’re new to curating worship, or an old hand, he wants to hear your stories and your questions.

Here’s what to do for a chance at getting a copy of the book:

Leave a comment on Mark’s post. Go Tell Mark by 12pm CST, Tuesday, February 15. We’ll pick a comment at random, so this isn’t a creative writing exercise. But feel free to tell your stories or ask some questions.
Include your email address. We can’t send out the book if we can’t contact you. So be sure to include your email address in the appropriate box in the comment form. Your email address will not be published on the site, unless you accidentally add it to the comment body. We’ll try to catch those and edit any comments that include a published address.
Don’t write your comments here. Go to Mark’s post to comment. Comments posted here will not be considered for the giveaway.

It’s that simple! If yours is the randomly chosen comment, you’ll receive an email notification next Tuesday afternoon from Linda Parriott.

Now, Go Tell Mark!

Update: This book giveaway is now closed. Comments on Mark’s post remain open, though, for further discussion.

Categories: Clayfire News