What are you reading?
Has anyone read the CGGC 'Book of the Year' "NO PERFECT PEOPLE ALLOWED"? I'm just getting into it.
Just finished - "Traveling Light" by Eugene Peterson.
Just bought - The third book in the McLaren trilogy (Is it 'The Last Word and the Word After That'?)
posted by dan at 2:46 PM
10 Comments:
I just finished Reggie MeNeal's, A WORK OF HEART. It's very, very good.
Next on my list is, THE EXTERNALLY FOCUSED CHURCH.
I finished UNDER THE RADAR by Bill Easum in late December. OK - probably would be most helpful for someone who asks "what could an emergent church look like?"
Also read DIALOGIC CONFESSION: BONHOEFFER'S RHETORIC OF RESPONSIBILITY by Ronald C. Arnett
- this provides a great exploration (more academic in nature) that addresses how we stay true to the story we are situated within while remaining relevant to the surrounding culture and relationships.
Now reading METAPHORS WE LIVE by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson - I began reading this for dissertation research but found myself struck by how relevant it is for the church. It considers how the way we use metaphors in our everyday language shapes the way people think and experience life. I am about 2/3 of the way through.
Also - if anyone uses Amazon.com check out their recommendations page. It provides some books that may be of interest based upon previous purchases. It usually does a good job.
I read Black, Red, and White trilogy by Ted Dekker and thought it was very good and thought provoking. It is the combination of a thriller and a Braveheart type epic.
Blue Like Jazz was fantastic. I was getting tired of reading what was popular and was ready to skip it. Glad I didn't. I'm giving it to the younger people in our church.
Just finished Freakonomics last night. Pretty interesting.
Starting Making Movies by Sydney Lumet.
I just started COME THIRSTY, by Max Lucado (yes, I know he is not a favorite of many of you), the Gospel of Mark, and will be starting LEADING TURNAROUND CHURCHES by Gene Wood and SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP by Oswald Sanders.
Oh yeah, I finished FREAKONOMICS last week too.
Thanks for the reminder Brian.
Lately, I've been on a non-theological or church related bent, so if anyone is interested ...
Just finished: EATS, SHOOTS AND LEAVES by Lynn Truss - a book on punctuation. Great writing style, but how messed up is it that I start the year with a book on punctuation?!?!? (BTW - Ms. Truss is not a fan of the exclamation points and question marks ganging up like above).
Currently reading: DON'T EAT THIS BOOK by
Morgan Spurlock (a look at the fast food industry) and am slowly working through a John Piper devotional called TASTE AND SEE. A couple of pages of Piper will get your brain moving in the morning.
In the on deck circle: THE WAY I WAS MADE by Chris Tomlin. Just returned from Passion 06, so that is influencing my reading choices now ...
HI all,
I've been very busy lately, if anyone has missed me ;-) . things are hectic youngest daughter was in the hospital for a few days. I had a wedding last Saturday and the annual congregational meeting is to be held this week! wheh!
Now as far as what I'm reading. I finished "Blue Like Jazz" and George Barna's "Revolution" (it started off with a big bang but ended with a fizzle)a few months ago, I'm half way through "Through Painted Deserts" by Donald Miller. I'm also reading Transitioning for the second time by Dan Southerland and "Visioneering" by Andy Stanley, for the first time.
I just picked up N.T.Wright's "The Challenge of Jesus" and I'm waiting for a copy of "No Perfect People Allowed" also ordered 5 others, 2 of which are by John Stott "Incomparible Jesus" and "Why I am a Christian" (I recommend anything he writes).
I've started and lost interest in a few others on the emergent church, I seem to be tiring on the bandwagon jumping lately. it seems that once somethgn is a catchy phrase everyone is doing it. IT gets to me for some reason and then I lose interest and just go on doing What I see God wants me to do in my part of the tapestry of life here in Toledo.
well I got to go for now. things are very busy, busy, busy.
Recently I've been reading:
The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs, director of the UN's Millenium Project to end extreme global poverty by 2025. It's an amazing book written by a real expert on how we could actually end extreme poverty within our lifetimes, if we have the will to do it.
Our Endangered Values by former president Jimmy Carter. It's not very well written, but it was a quick read, and I like how he identifies a much broader range of issues as "moral values" than just the so-called "family values" of the Religious Right.
Following Jesus a collection of sermons by N.T. Wright. They're pretty good, and Wright is one of my new favorite theologians.
Godslayer by Jacqueline Carey in the fiction category. It's a great fantasy novel with a story very similar to Lord of the Rings except told mostly from the point of view of the "bad" guys. It's a great illustration of the fact that our opinions about "good" and "evil" are very often relative to our own point of view.
Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith by Rob Bell. Rob's an amazing communicator and the book reads just like one of his sermons. It's a great introduction to a lot of the values and perspectives underlying this whole emergent approach to faith, without ever actually using the catch phrases "postmodern" or "emerging church".
Thanks for the reading list. I have 15 on my list for this year (so far) and maybe I can skip a few based on your review.
EATS,SHOOTS AND LEAVES was great but now I can't stop correcting the things that come across my desk. I even corrected a political poster around election time.
NO PERFECT PEOPLE is on the list but I want to finish A GENEROUS ORTHODOXY first. Then on finish CONFORMED TO HIS IMAGE by Ken Boa--one of the best on spiritual formation. And of course the nextDekker to come out will be moved to the top of the list.
Howdy. Hope you don't mind me butting in, but after years of reading Pannenberg, Bultmann, Calvin, Luther, CFH Henry, Aquinas, Augustine, Tillich, Schleiermacher, Schillebeeckx, Barth, Kung, von Balthazar, Marty, Cox, Moltmann, Schaeffer, MacQuarry, O'Collins, et al, I now read THE BIBLE.
Just the Bible. I somewhat grudgingly still make use of the BCP, but I don't 'read' it, I think in the sense you're talking about here.
I must admit I have not looked at a theological work for about 4 years, and I feel much the better for it!
Fr. Onesimus
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