Questions & Answers

General

What is Renovaré?

Found­ed by Cel­e­bra­tion of Dis­ci­pline author Richard J. Fos­ter, Ren­o­varé is a Chris­t­ian non­prof­it that cre­ates resources and kin­dles com­mu­ni­ties which help peo­ple become more like Jesus. Learn more about Ren­o­varé.

What are the benefits of Membership?

Mem­ber­ship includes read­ing sched­ule with email reminders, study guides, pod­casts, essays and a mem­bers-only dis­cus­sion forum where you can inter­act with oth­er mem­bers and the Ren­o­varé team mem­bers lead­ing the ses­sions. Mem­ber­ship also includes access to vol­un­teer-led meet­up groups in select areas.

Timing (Start Date, Ship Dates)

When does the Book Club begin? Can I join anytime?

Our 2020 – 21 sea­son will begin in Sep­tem­ber. You may join any time dur­ing the sea­son and have access to the bonus fea­tures of all four books (arti­cles and pod­casts, as well as dis­cus­sion board con­ver­sa­tions). Please join our inter­est list above to be noti­fied when reg­is­tra­tion is open and about oth­er impor­tant dates. Thanks!

Due to the event-like nature of the Book Club, mem­ber­ships are not returnable/​refundable. Thanks for your under­stand­ing and for your sup­port of the work of Renovaré.

How long will I have access to the Book Club resources and discussions?

Once you join, you will have per­pet­u­al access to this sea­son’s resources and access to the dis­cus­sion forums through­out the sum­mer. We leave every­thing acces­si­ble on the Book Club dash­board through ear­ly September. 

Once we archive all of the resources, we send mem­bers a link to access them going for­ward. We do not pre­serve the dis­cus­sion boards past the summer.

Books

Are books included with Membership?

No, all books must be obtained sep­a­rate­ly. (Mem­ber­ships that include the first book are no longer available.) 

If your mem­ber­ship was pur­chased on or before Sep­tem­ber 30 and includ­ed the first book, you will still need to obtain the final three books of the season. 

Books may be bor­rowed from your local library, pur­chased at your local book­seller, or pur­chased using Ama­zon or CBD links on the Book Club pur­chase page (links sup­port Ren­o­varé). All of this sea­son’s books are avail­able in e‑book for­mat through online retail­ers as well.

Does it matter which editions of the books I use?

Yes, read­ers often find it eas­i­er to use the rec­om­mend­ed edi­tions, as page num­bers and oth­er details can be edi­tion-spe­cif­ic. If you use an edi­tion oth­er than the one rec­om­mend­ed, you may need to do some adap­ta­tion. Note: We are also aware that our read­ers are increas­ing­ly using eBook ver­sions of the texts, and we will do our best to make the read­ing assign­ments make sense for the dig­i­tal ver­sions of our cho­sen edi­tions as well.

Local Meet Ups

Local meet-ups: how do they work? When do they meet? Does Renovaré facilitate them?

Local meet-ups are orga­nized and led by vol­un­teers and vary from year to year. Ren­o­varé pub­lish­es the list of vol­un­teer meet-up loca­tions (com­ing late-Sep­tem­ber 2020) but does not have a direct role in host­ing the groups.

Expe­ri­ence in the local groups has gen­er­al­ly been very pos­i­tive. We are delight­ed to see these com­mu­ni­ties blos­som and grow. We are very grate­ful to our local lead­ers for being will­ing to step for­ward in this role.

That said, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Your mem­ber­ship fee cov­ers the study guide, pod­casts, essays, week­ly reminders, and access to a online com­mu­ni­ty. Local meet-ups are a free bonus to the Book Club made pos­si­ble by vol­un­teers. Because of that, Ren­o­varé can­not accept respon­si­bil­i­ty for indi­vid­u­als’ expe­ri­ences — whether as host or par­tic­i­pant — in a local book group.

• You must be a mem­ber of the Book Club to con­nect with a local host. We have assured our hosts that their infor­ma­tion will only be made avail­able to those who belong to the Book Club. Once you join, you will receive a spe­cial link to the coor­di­na­tors’ names and email address­es so you can con­nect with them.

• Dates and times of meet-ups are set by hosts and may vary from month to month. Mem­bers can con­tact coor­di­na­tors for time and loca­tion details.

We expect our Book Club mem­bers to treat one anoth­er as Jesus would, with the high­est lev­el of hon­or and respect. Any sort of abuse or harass­ment will not be tol­er­at­ed — whether in-per­son or online.

Thank you!

How do I find out if there is a meetup group in my area?

We will have a map of in-per­son group loca­tions avail­able on this page by late-Sep­tem­ber 2020. You must be a mem­ber of the Book Club to con­tact local vol­un­teer hosts about meet-up times and loca­tions. Thanks!

How The Book Club Works

Who are the moderators of the Book Club? Can I interact with them online?

Each ses­sion has a facil­i­ta­tor (either the author or an expert on the book) who will help you grow as you read each title. They pro­vide bonus arti­cles and pod­cast mes­sages about the book, but they do not engage on the dis­cus­sion forums. You will have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to post a ques­tion for the facil­i­ta­tor that might be includ­ed in each ses­sion’s third and final pod­cast, which is dri­ven by mem­bers’ questions.

Our Ren­o­varé staff work togeth­er to mod­er­ate the dis­cus­sion board and engage as they are able. New in 2019: Ren­o­varé team mem­bers will be host­ing month­ly video meet-ups. Infor­ma­tion on how to pre-reg­is­ter for these will be post­ed once we launch the Club offi­cial­ly in October.

Final­ly, our region­al meet-up groups are coor­di­nat­ed by vol­un­teer Book Club members.

How do I access downloads and participate in the discussions?

All resources and dis­cus­sion are through a spe­cial Book Club mem­bers web­site. Mem­bers receive their login infor­ma­tion via email a few days pri­or to the open­ing day of the Book Club (date com­ing soon).

Who chooses the books?

The lead­er­ship at Ren­o­varé meets every spring and maps out the sched­ule for the year.

What is the time commitment when I join the Book Club? Do I have to participate at a certain time or day of the week?

The Ren­o­varé Book Club can fit just about any sched­ule. We read each book over six weeks, so the read­ing ​“assign­ments” are not more than 50 pages per week.

At the begin­ning of each book, our mem­bers receive an out­line of the pro­posed read­ing sched­ule. Every Mon­day, we send out an update that includes: 

• A reminder as to that week’s read­ing assignment 
• A sup­ple­men­tary resource (usu­al­ly an arti­cle or a pod­cast) from that book’s facilitator 
• (Some­times) option­al bonus resources for mem­bers who want to go deeper 
• A dis­cus­sion ques­tion for those who wish to engage in online discussion.

All of the resources, once post­ed, are avail­able all sea­son. There are no ​“live” online dis­cus­sions (mem­bers can post at any time), and you may engage as much or as lit­tle as you would like online.

Mem­bers who par­tic­i­pate in a local meet-up led by a vol­un­teer coor­di­na­tor will gath­er once-a-month at a time, day, and place deter­mined by the volunteer. 

Can I use the Club for my pre-existing book club or small group?

We do not have a flat-fee licens­ing sys­tem for our cur­rent Book Club. We will soon be offer­ing Book Club mate­ri­als for pre­vi­ous Book Club books that you may pur­chase for your group. We will post more infor­ma­tion when that is available.

That said, we’d also love it if any or all of your group were to join the 2019 – 20 sea­son, and we can cer­tain­ly set up your own online dis­cus­sion forum group if you do.

Other Questions

I have another question.

Jus­tine Olawsky is glad to help. Email her at [email protected]​renovare.​org.