Hops and Hope: Book and Discussion Group

Join us each month as we read a book on faith, justice and what it means to find hope in Christ amid a messy and complex world. Each month we will read a book and will gather at a local brewery to discuss and explore how the words we read impact the lives we live. All are welcome to join, whether you finish the book or not.  

Hops and Hope gatherings are moving to the Third Thursday of every month. This means that for the Fall we will be meeting September 18th, October 16th, November 20th, and December 18th from 6-7:30pm.

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2026

Next meeting Thursday, February 19 @ 6pm at Unmapped Brewing Co in Minnetonka.

We will read We Survived the End of the World: Lessons from Native America on Apocalypse and Hope (2023) by The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston. We will discuss Chapters 1-4 in February & Chapter 5-Epilogue in March. 

Pandemics and war, social turmoil and corrupt governments, natural disasters and environmental collapse--it's hard not to watch the signs of the times and feel afraid. But we can journey through that fear to find hope. With the warnings of a prophet and the lively voice of a storyteller, Choctaw elder and author of Ladder to the Light Steven Charleston speaks to all who sense apocalyptic dread rising around and within.

You'd be hard pressed to find an apocalypse more total than the one Native America has confronted for more than four hundred years. Yet Charleston's ancestors are a case study in the liberating and hopeful survival of a spiritual community. How did Indigenous communities achieve the miracle of their own survival and live to tell the tale? What strategies did America's Indigenous people rely on that may help us to endure an apocalypse--or perhaps even prevent one from happening?

Charleston points to four Indigenous prophets who helped their people learn strategies for surviving catastrophe: Ganiodaiio of the Seneca, Tenskwatawa of the Shawnee, Smohalla of the Wanapams, and Wovoka of the Paiute. Through gestures such as turning the culture upside down, finding a fixed place on which to stand, listening to what the earth is saying, and dancing a ghostly vision into being, these prophets helped their people survive. Charleston looks, too, at the Hopi people of the American Southwest, whose sacred stories tell them they were created for a purpose. These ancestors' words reach across centuries to help us live through apocalypse today with courage and dignity.

Ordering Books

Savannah will be ordering a copy of each for the Immanuel library if you’d like to borrow it, or if you prefer to buy a copy of your own, here are a couple links that help you support local bookstores through your purchase. If you’re looking to support a Native owned bookstore, Birchbark Books in Minneapolis is a great option!

• Bookshop - online book retailer with lots of inventory, and you choose the bookstore that will be supported through your purchase  
• Book Store Link - helps you order directly from local bookstores (can either have them delivered or picked up)
• Take a look at a list of some possible books, but there are many more options out there!

Some ideas for topics include (but aren’t limited to):

• Racial Justice / Womanist or Black Theology
• Liberation Theology
• Mujerista Theology
• Native/Indigenous Theology
• Immigration and Welcoming the Stranger
• Asian Theology
• Interfaith / Global Perspectives
• Faith and Sexuality
• Environmental Theology
• Women’s Rights / Feminist Theologies
• Food or Economic Justice
• Theology and Mental Health

Questions?

Please contact Deacon Savanah Olaphson, savannah@immanuel.us