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A woman who recently walked through the doors of the Sacred Garden Bookstore was visibly frazzled as she glanced over books about faith.

She eventually asked manager Kristen Southworth for a recommendation. Southworth pointed her to “Angry Conversations with God.”

In the snarky memoir, comedian Susan Isaacs takes God to relationship counseling about her feelings and struggles. Southworth knew the book was the right one for the woman. She’d read it herself.

“I’ve personally gone through every book in the store — and if I haven’t read it, I know that Ruth or Tim has,” Southworth said, referring to the Rev. Tim Patterson, rector at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, and Ruth Anderson, the director of the Servant Leadership School of Greensboro, whose curriculum includes many books stocked here. The bookstore is a ministry of the church and leadership school — and for the city to enjoy.

Even with its wide swath of religious and spiritual books, the comfortable armchairs and the outdoor garden, the bookstore’s foot traffic remains slow.
Southworth wants to change that.

“We are not in this to make money,” Southworth says on a day when few people will pass through the doors. “We’ve had concerts in the garden and book signings and workshops. What we intend is a sacred space for Greensboro.”
 

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Most of the books at the converted Fisher Park house have never been on a best-seller list. Titles include “Getting the Blues: What Blues Music Teaches Us about Suffering and Salvation,” “The Fat Jesus: Christianity and Body Image,” and “When in Doubt, Sing: Prayer in Daily Life,” by Guilford College professor Jane Redmont.

“One of the advantages of being owned and run as a nonprofit ministry of the church is that we do not have to necessarily cater to what sells,” Southworth said.

Southworth, who has always had a voracious appetite for books on theology and spirituality, had come back to Greensboro after pursuing a career in music a few years ago. Patterson and Anderson had already come up with the vision for the Sacred Garden Bookstore.

“Over the last 20 years, we have compiled an amazing number of books and voices and resources that we use,” Anderson said. “We thought, 'Why don’t we have a bookstore to support the course work — and the course work sort of supports the bookstore.”

The two also sensed an opportunity.

The leadership school has many classes — with topics including children in poverty, gratefulness, justice and centering prayer — in the house right next to the bookstore and garden.

“We are continuously encouraging people to take time to review and reflect on what is their “soul” purpose, and what they want to do in life,” Anderson said of the school.

“So we thought, 'Wouldn’t it be great not only to have a place to get books, but a space where they can sit and reflect on ... what it is that they want to do with their lives.’ A space for conversations.”
 

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The bookstore is also as much about community as books, with its bulletin board for announcements and efforts to not only support the local economy but sustain the environment.

Recently, two women discussing a book discovered they had lived in the same small town in California — and that one was a real estate agent and the other was looking for a place to live.

“We want to be is where things like that can happen,” Southworth said.

On its shelves are also books by Sufi, Islamic and Buddhist writers, including Pema Chondron, a Buddhist nun.

“Clearly our bookstore is centrally Christian, but we also embrace other traditions that help us love,” Anderson said. “There’s lots of voices that get us there.”
 

Contact Nancy McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nancy.mclaughlin@news-record.com