1st Anniversary of Bibliopolis U

Last year, after the college winter retreat at Gracepoint Berkeley church, we launched Bibliopolis U for the college students and post-grads. Since then we’ve had a few book fairs and three reading challenges — remember our Free 5th Book Challenge? How about the Summer Bingo Challenge? And of course, our most recent Winter Reading Challenge.

Bibliopolis U took the reading revolution churchwide, and many people have shared that they have read more books this past year than in a long while (or ever)!

To commemorate an awesome year of reading, and to jump start an even more awesome one to come, I invite you all to share about the best Christian book you read in 2016. It’s ok if you can’t decide your absolute favorite — just pick one you liked a lot!

You can fill out the form to submit your review/recommendation, and some of these will featured in our bookstore and on the blog. This is *YOUR CHANCE* to be on the wall, even if you haven’t been able to complete any of the reading challenges! Even if you read just one book, it’s technically the best book you read in 2016. 🙂

This is not limited to the people at Gracepoint Berkeley church, but open to everyone across our Gracepoint Ministries.

Looking forward to all of your responses! Don’t be shy, ok? 🙂

Did you have an awesome reading year? Share your reading wins below in the comments!

Goodbye to the Winter Reading Challenge!

Over at Gracepoint Berkeley church, the first ever Winter Reading Challenge ended last Friday. Thanks to everyone who participated! I was personally blessed and encouraged by people’s comments. Many went well above & beyond the 2-3 sentence comments, and I feel like I got to know some of the people who were posting. 🙂

It was the most challenging challenge we’ve had thus far — reading 5 books in 5 weeks — and we had 37 people complete it. We even had several people complete the challenge two or three times!

They’ve won their very official looking gift certificates to the GP Bookstore:

bu_giftcertSince we don’t have those nifty polaroid looking pictures like we have for past challenges, I will list them here on the official winner board.

  • Amanda Gee
  • Angel Lam
  • Anna Liu
  • Brandon Fong
  • Carol Yang (Homegroup RED-HD, woot!)
  • Chris Le
  • Chris Liu
  • David Lee
  • Elaine Escalona
  • Emily Huang (making us Emilys proud!)
  • Emily Rah (another Emily!)
  • Grace Choi
  • Hallie Honma
  • Hannah Ling
  • Hernan Kim
  • Jana Guan
  • Jenn Chen
  • Jenny Young (most senior winner – TOTC Sisters represent!)
  • Jessica Gao
  • Josephine Gao
  • Joshua de la Paz
  • Kaylin Le
  • Kevin Lin
  • Krystal Han
  • Laura Kim
  • Lillian Ji
  • Louis Chen
  • Marty Krakora
  • Michael Kramer (most # of books logged)
  • Mike Park
  • Percival Chen
  • Roanna Lin
  • Sally Cho (twin winners!)
  • Sarah Cho (twin winners!)
  • Stephen Cheng
  • Victoria Chan
  • William Shen

For those of you who are into stats, here is a breakdown:

  • Total winners: 37
  • By gender:
    • Sisters: 24
    • Brothers: 13
  • By class:
    • Freshmen: 2
    • Sophomores: 4
    • Juniors: 8
    • Seniors: 12
    • Beyond!: 11
  • By ministry group (includes ministry staff):

There were a total of 298 books officially logged for this challenge! There were also 35 books people submitted on the form but did not post comments for, and countless other people told me they had been reading but hadn’t logged. I actually didn’t log any of my reading either! 🙂 All of this to say that we read a whole lot as a church this winter break, and I’m looking forward to reading even more this spring.

Can you guess what our Spring Reading Challenge will be? Post your guesses and/or suggestions in the comments below. 🙂 

Winter Reading Challenge Update & 2017 Reading Goals

Happy New Year, everyone! I bring you a mid-winter break update on the Winter Reading Challenge. So far we have 10 people who have completed 5 books, and many more who are almost there. You have until Friday, January 13 to complete the challenge!

Congrats to the following winners:

As a reminder, you do need to fill out the google form, as well as a comment on the blog FOR EACH BOOK. There are many people who have done one or the other. Unfortunately, those do not count. You need BOTH in order to officially log your books for the challenge.


With a new year, that means it’s time to set new reading goals. Some of you might know that I just celebrated my 40th birthday. So, during my 40th year, one of my reading goals is to read the remaining 40 of the 44 Christian Heroes: Then & Now books!

What reading goals have you set for 2017?