Christian Speculative Fiction discussion

Hi Everyone!

Our moderator, Rachel Thomson, has decided to past the torch of responsibility for this group to me, Steve, and Stan. I have enjoyed this group so much and feel grateful for what she has done. Going forward, we are thrilled to do what we can to make this group a fun experience for everyone.

Since we have this opportunity to make some updates to the group, I would like to find out what ideas, issues, or concerns everyone has going forward. I have noticed some options for polls and events in the group settings. I have also heard some people desire a bit of clean-up of the threads.

I would love to hear feedback. What would you like to see happen in the future of this group?

One thing I could easily do is set up a Discord - a chatroom / voice service often used for videogames. Its very easy and can allow for an elevated level of communication in the group.

I'd also suggest cleaning out alot of the old discussion boards.

Set up reading challenges the group can participate in.

Organize discussions and establish "Stickied" posts. Posts that clarify rules, or resources, or guides, or whatever. Essentially adding to the structure and practicality of the group.

Those are things off the top of my head.

These are some good suggestions! Would we like to do a reading challenge once a month or have more time for each book?

What kind of rules, guides, or resources would we like to add to the group? Suggestions are very welcome!

The group page has a bookshelf with lots of various books. Would we like a theme to this collection? Perhaps we can have two shelves—one for members’ books and another for general recommendations.

Is there any reason to keep the old photos? They seem random. I would like to know if anyone had added them for a specific reason. What kind of photos and videos would we like to have if any?

Lara wrote: "The group page has a bookshelf with lots of various books. Would we like a theme to this collection? Perhaps we can have two shelves—one for members’ books and another for general recommendations."

I'm not sure how many bookshelves are possible for a group. We could have a shelf for members' books. Then, perhaps additional shelves by genre (e.g., sci-fi, fantasy, allegory, western, etc). We probably don't want to break it down too far. After all, I don't think we need a shelf for Amish speculative fiction (Amish Vampires in Space).

Stan wrote: "After all, I don't think we need a shelf for Amish speculative fiction (Amish Vampires in Space)..."

Lol! I thought you were pulling our legs—then I saw that it actually exists!!

I agree, we don't want to subdivide to such an extreme. Personally, if we can have multiple shelves I'd prefer to keep them to a minimum. But it wouldn't be bad to have some basic divisions.

How do people feel about a discord? It allows for live chat and voice communication functionality. I've been in a couple other writing groups that have used it to good effect.

We still need stickied threads on resources, rules/guidelines, maybe like a mission statement or statement of faith. Also a dedicated stickied thread for "Post your work here", "Seeking critique", "Beta Readers or Review seeking", etc.

Lots of things to help synthesize and focus the group so things run more smoothly.

Stan wrote: "After all, I don't think we need a shelf for Amish speculative fiction (Amish Vampires in Space)..."

Lol! That is hilarious!

I'll get a bookshelf or two started and see where it goes from there.

Justin wrote: "How do people feel about a discord? It allows for live chat and voice communication functionality. I've been in a couple other writing groups that have used it to good effect.

We still need sticki..."

I like your ideas!

The discord idea is great, but GoodReads does not have a place to incorporate that. We would have to do that on a different forum platform. There just isn't an option for it. If I am wrong and you see it in another group in GoodReads, let me know. I can easily look at it and observe how they did it.

The stickied threads are great ideas. Perhaps you can message me with a draft mission statement if you have some time. I just finished sorting through some of the old threads which took a lot of time. I will be adding some more in the coming days!

Awesome suggestions!

Discord isn't mean to be integrated into Goodreads, it's a separate 3rd party thing. Basically it is as simple as a URL that links to our Discord. All we'd need to do is include in the sidebar, or in our "Welcome" stickied thread "Here is our link to our Discord - come chat!"

Here, I just made it for us. As long as you have this link you have access to it. https://discord.gg/BHCC8T

Cool! We will include it in a welcome stickied thread once I get one written. I can't edit the sidebar. Thanks for creating it for us, though!

It's all lookin great Lara. I'm not sure what we can do about the photos section? I like the idea behind it. Like a place where we can post pictures for concepts for our books or simply to share pictures we enjoy. Can you make separate folders in the Photo area for such uses?

Also i'll start considering ideas for a mission statement, but i'd imagine it'd be simple. As for a statement of faith, to help define what we believe "Christian" means, I feel the Nicene Creed or the Apostle's Creed is pretty good.

Justin wrote: "As for a statement of faith, to help define what we believe "Christian" means, I feel the Nicene Creed or the Apostle's Creed is pretty good. "

I think the Apostle's Creed is good and broad. My only caveat is the phrase stating that Jesus descended into hell, which I believe is more interpretation than Scriptural fact. Allowing folks to opt in or out on that phrase make the Apostle's Creed acceptable to most Christians.

I think the Apostle's Creed is good a..."

I always read that as meaning he took on the punishment that we rightfully deserved, more of a metaphorical "descended into hell", because he drank the cup of wrath for our sake. But anyway I think we can all agree one of the two creeds is a suitable testament of faith for what defines a Christian

Or, we could really go full bore speculative and us Patrick's Breastplate for our statement of faith. The full text is pretty amazing, though may not be completely orthodox. Written at least as early as 800 AD, it was known by heart by most Irish until at least the 1750's. That kind of longevity is what one gets when a bard writes a creed!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_P...

Stan wrote: "Or, we could really go full bore speculative and us Patrick's Breastplate for our statement of faith. The full text is pretty amazing, though may not be completely orthodox. Written at least as ear..."

Lol well I mean that is definitely cool. But it's pretty long-winded and is definitely far more flourish than any person would read when checking out a group in Goodreads :P. Perhaps we give it an honorable mention

Justin wrote: "Perhaps we give it an honorable mention"

I suggested it tongue in cheek. But, an honorable mention would be fine. Shout out to Saint Patrick!!!

Just catching up but while I love the Creeds mentioned what defines a christian can be mildly disruptive to some. It is funny what Christians argue about. I worked with a gentleman who only used KJV and rejected anything quoted from any other version. Not a member of the EPC currently but the concept of non-essentials rings true to me.

LOL. “Go Saint Patrick!”

Stan wrote: "Or, we could really go full bore speculative and us Patrick's Breastplate for our statement of faith. The full text is pretty amazing, though may not be completely orthodox. Written at least as ear..."

I love that this exists.