broken//stained//glass

Teresa of Avila: "God alone suffices"

Last month I finished a biography called Teresa of Avila: An Extraordinary Life by Shirley du Boulay.
Teresa of Avila is one of my favorite saints.
She was a mystic who lived in the 1500's in the rocky hills of Spain and was so spunky and forthright.
She didn't care what people thought of her - she just said it.
I admire that courage.
We call her a saint, but she was so aware of her sin and shortcomings and failures she never would have called herself that.
I learned a lot from this woman (and I am eager to read her most famous book The Interior Castle).

I've used this many times in my teaching but one of the most honest prayers I've ever read came from her:

"God, I don't love you.
I don't want to love you.
But God, I want to want to love you.
Amen."

This biography listed something she wrote that was found after she died in the breviary.

"Let nothing disturb you
Let nothing frighten you
All things pass away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
He who has God
Finds he lacks nothing;
God alone suffices."

Book borrowing

It goes without saying (and yet, somehow I feel the need to say it anyway) that the resource budget for a pastor in a church plant is significantly less than the resource budget for a pastor serving at a large church.  Which means you have to be a bit more creative.

The library is a good resource - and I've checked our some great books recently (but libraries are often limited on good theological resources).
And friends are good resources, too.

With that being said, can you do me a favor?
Check out the column on the left side called "Books I Hope to Read."
Do you have any of these books?
If so (and if you live in my area) when you are done reading them, may I borrow them from you?
I'd greatly appreciate it. 

Jim and Casper Go To Church

I've been hearing about this book everywhere Jim and Casper Go To Church.
I'd been seeing it in bookstores everywhere I went.
So I finally broke down and bought it.
Glad I did.
It's a fascinating little book that gives great insight into the mind and heart of someone far from God.

It's about two friends Jim Henderson and Matt Casper who go to church and evaluate what they see.
Jim is a strong Christian and former pastor who lives in Seattle.
Matt is an atheist and marketing manager and musician who lives in San Diego.
Jim "hires" Matt out to give his evaluation of each church.
The book is a series of recorded conversations between the two of them as they visit churches of all shapes and sizes - big and small, mainline and non-denominational., traditional and informal.

I recommend this book highly, especially if you work in church ministry.
It was eye-opening, challenging, hard to read at times, but fun and it provided fresh eyes to what "doing church" looks like in America.

Pagan Christianity? // A Book Review

From time to time I receive random boxes in the mail from Christian music labels and book publishers. These boxes will be filled with free CDs and books. In each box is usually a letter from a publicist saying that if I happen to like any of the materials in the box and if I would be so kind to mention it on my blog they would greatly appreciate it.

I'm not sure how I got on someone's free stuff list, but I am really grateful to be receiving these free materials from labels and publishers - much of the time, before they even hit the shelves of your local Christian bookstore.

I am not sure who is behind all this, but I am sure that my blog does not have incredible influence on the world of CD or book purchasing (i.e. I don't think that people swarm to amazon and Christian Book Distributors and sales go up if I recommend a book or two...)
At any rate, I don't always listen to or read the materials sent to me.
Partly its out of time, partly its because the materials don't look all that intriguing and partly because sometimes I just don't feel entirely right about it (i.e. we send you free stuff...you write good stuff about it...and we continue the relationship). If I were to do this I would feel like I am just a movie reviewer who receives perks and then robotically writes "Two thumbs up!" or says it was "five stars."
So, most of the time I just skip it.

But occasionally a book comes along that is good stuff...or at least intriguing enough to mention. This book came in the mail around Christmastime with a note from a publicist saying that if you like the book please blog about it within sixty days. This such book is entitled Pagan Christianity? Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices by Frank Viola and George Barna. Normally I don't read much by George Barna (because he just discourages the snot out of me each time I read another one of his studies on how the Church isn't living up to its potential) so I cringed as I turned to the first page.

And while I didn't fully agree with this book it was intriguing and was healthily controversial...maybe even a bit "in your face."
It messed with me.
It did make me think a great deal and ask good, tough questions that I think we should all be asking. The back cover says this: "

Are we really doing church 'by the book'? Why does the pastor preach a sermon at every service? Why do church services seem so similar week to week? Why does the congregation sit passively in pews? Not sure? This book makes an unsettling proposal: most of what present-day Christians do in church each Sunday is rooted not in the New Testament, but in pagan culture and rituals developed long after the death of the Apostles..."

So, here are my off-the-cuff, spontaneous thoughts, insights, praises, critiques and responses after I read the book, jotted down on the inside cover of the book. Remember, I didn't agree with everything in the book, but it challenged my thinking and helped me step back a bit and ask why:

-it was well researched
-controversial and intriguing (the first page is a letter from the publisher telling the reader that the publisher "does not necessarily agree with all of the authors' positions and realizes that some readers may not either). That's intriguing and gutsy.
-compelling
-at times, it seemed a bit long
-ecclesiologically thorough and broad
-a ton of information about history, chronology and etymology (all things I appreciate greatly) of the early church and its formation. Any fan of church history will enjoy this book...which doesn't read like a dry church history textbook.
-at times had a bit of an alarmist feel
-it was a good balance between a lot of information, but without feeling scholarly. It wasn't a textbook, but it wasn't fluff either.
-I appreciated the thorough look at Constantine's influence on the Church, both good and bad.
-deconstructing what we know about Church can be good to a point, but after a while it seemed a bit wearisome. At times, it even felt a little scathing (but maybe I needed that?)
-Viola is a huge champion of the house church movement (maybe a bit too much?) which can translate into over-generalizations about institutional churches and could be interpreted as indirectly implying that institutional church is altogether bad. 
-the authors relegate Tradition to a lower priority than what most evangelicals would place it (and I am not sure if that is beneficial or not...still thinking about that).
-I'm grateful for the courage of the authors and the publisher to put out such a book.

Here is more information about the book.
If you are a pastor, elder or church leader and you want a book to rattle your brain and mess with you a bit, this is a good one to pick up.

Reading over the break...

Over the Christmas/New Years' break I've had a chance to read some good books.
I thought I would share them with you:

The Lost Virtue of Happiness (J.P. Moreland and Klaus Issler)
Communicating for a Change (Andy Stanley)
Pagan Christianity? (Frank Viola and George Barna)
Living the Resurrection (Eugene Peterson)
The book of Genesis (in both the NIV and the Message translations)

Anybody read any books recently that I should make sure I read in 2008?

Thou Shalt Check Out This Book

I recently read a fascinating interview with author A.J. Jacobs.
Jacobs, a nominal Jew, decided he would try to keep all the rules found in the Bible - even the obscure Old Testament rules like not cooking a kid in its mother's milk, stoning adulterers and not cutting the edges of your beard - for one year and then write a book about it.
It's an intriguing idea.
And an intriguing book that just came out called The Year of Living Biblically.

Check it out here.

Thoughts on Organic Community

A little bit ago I finished Joe Myers' book Organic Community. It wasn't earth shattering, but it wasn't bad either.
A few things stuck out to me in the book:

He talked about the age-old question of measurement.

"We must understand what we are measuring. We are talking about measuring life - community, relationships, health. we are not talking about measure inanimate entities. Reducing living organisms to a census count demeans the way we were created. Even the book of Numbers devotes only about 10 percent of its content to 'numbers.' The rest is about the relationship between God and Israel...Numbers cannot measure life...Story is the measure of community. Story emerges from live...story is the universal measurement of life" (77-78).

And then he said this:

"Churches don't become legendary on the community grapevine via reporting of numbers. They become legendary through the sharing of their story in mission within the community" (80).

The assimilation of most churches:

"Sometimes we get tunnel vision and think all mission must be accomplished in the church building or in the congregation's name. The church bulletin is full of ministry or study opportunities - all within the walls of the church or its members' homes. A better question for the church might be 'What can the church do to assimilate itself into people's lives?' instead of 'How can we assimilate people into the church's life?' The church will have a more robust mission in the community (and the world) if it would try to assimilate into people's everyday lives" (166).

On healthy environments:

"Develop healthy environments where people grow healthy lives. Healthy people grow healthy congregations. Programs do not necessarily grow healthy congregations...helping people connect is much more crating art than manufacturing a product" (170-171).

And the last few sentences of the book were rich:

"Environments are vital - alive. They are not inanimate - dead. When places encourage community to emerge spontaneously, they have motion, emotion, and a living spirit. The goal is not to manufacture community. Neither is the goal to build programs. The hope is to watch living community emerge naturally and collaborate with its environment in helpful, healthy ways. If there is one place where you can exercise an organic order way, may it be in your own life. Live as an environmentalist for your own life. Create healthy soil for your own growth. This will lead you to understand the environments that will help others" (171).

Scot McKnight's advice to Christian leaders on reading and buying books

Earlier I wrote on how I choose what I read. Since the post I've received lots of emails and had several people approach me offering book recommendations and communicating their own personal reading criteria. Ironically, I was sitting through the last weekend of my Biblical Seminary course on the subject of Galatians and grace-creating-freedom with Professor Scot McKnight and he started the Friday morning session by giving his advice to Christian leaders and pastors on what books to read and where to purchase them.

In light of my earlier post, I thought it might be a good follow-up to give the advice he gave:

(1) Build a reference library.
Have basic books in the major fields of Christian thinking. Make sure you different sections: OT books, NT books, systematic theology, ministry books, etc.  [A few specific books to add to the pastoral library: John Stott – Between Two Worlds, books by Eugene Peterson and Charles Spurgeon’s Lecture to My Students.] Have a good commentary on every book of the Bible before you start your first position as a pastor. Then bulid your library and buy 2-3 commentaries on each of the books of Scripture that you preach through. Buy the best book on that topic rather than the most popular one or the one that has the best looking cover.

(2) Don't read merely for your job.
Leaders make a big mistake by reading for preparation only – to prepare them for a sermon or a talk. That’s the way to dry out.

(3) Read according to your passions.
Make sure you allow yourself to just read whatever you want. Pick up books that look interesting to you. It will give you life.

(4) Read with bredth and great variety.
Blogging keeps you on your toes and helps to keep that variety.

McKnight then addressed the question of where should we buy our books?
(a) Support your locally owned independent bookstore, if you can.  Only go to Barnes and Noble or Borders if that is your "local" bookstore.
(b) Buy online – its cheaper. He suggested www.abebooks.com and www.abunga.com (It's a safe book purchasing site with a good cause:  5% of every purchase is donated to the charity of your choice. It seems like a great concept...)

(5) Read classics.
Don’t read popular books that every other Christian is reading. They can tell you about it. Read the ones that last. 

(6) Don’t read fiction:
McKnight: “I don’t read writers who make stuff up. I tried to read fiction, but I'm useless. I commit to reading two fiction books a year – and they are the same books each year: Dicken's A Christmas Carol at Christmastime and Hemmingway's The Old Man and the Sea during the summer.”

(7) Read magazines:
Read Books and Culture and Christianity Today.

Other random tidbits of advice:
-Your library should be a lending library, but write down who borrowed it so you can keep track of where your books are. But you should be generous with lending, borrowing and giving books away to others. -McKnight begins the day by reading two or three pages of Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Every single day. In order to be a better writer.
-McKnight ended with a gut-busting line: “Buy books and read ‘em. But buy my books, even if you don’t read ‘em!

I'm curious about what you think.
Do you agree or disagree with this list?
Is there anything you would add?
_________________________

Also, here's a picture of our class eating white pizza at Fiore's on our last day of class.

...and here's me sneaking a couple shots of Scot McKnight while he's speaking intensely about either the Cubs chances in the NL Central this season or expounding upon N.T. Wright's views on the New Perspective.

How do you choose what you read?

Someone emailed me last week and asked me: "It's obvious that you read a lot of books, but there are many to choose from. How do you choose what books you read next? And any recommendations of books I should pick up and read in the near future?"

Here is my response to her email, for anyone who cares.

"Thanks for your email.
I'm asked this question quite often. Yes, it's true: I do love to read. I used to be insecure about my nerd status, but I have learned to embrace it with great confidence now. I try to read for about an hour everyday - sometimes more - no matter how busy I am, especially at night. I am a fast reader; when I am not in seminary usually I am able to start - and finish - about two to three books a week. I hated reading and writing until I graduated from college and worked for a publishing company where I had access to free books and authors. It changed my life. I wish reading were a higher priority in our culture because we just can't get enough out of reading. (Forgive me if I sounded like a elementary school librarian with that last sentence).

People see the books I am reading and tell me that the list looks "boring and dry." Think what you want, but I find the books I read to be fascinating and engaging. Even reading a lot of books and fairly quickly (my wife tells me how much she wishes she could read as fast as I do) I found myself a few years ago getting overwhelmed and anxious every time I would walk into a library or a Barnes and Noble. It dawned on me hat it's because there are so many books I want to read, but I know that I won't be able to read every single book that I want to.

[Several people have asked me to develop a Top Ten list of my favorite books: impossible. The list changes every year because something gets added to the list, which means I have to leave some good book off of the list. It's a hard exercise so I normaly don't do it. But if you'd like my current list, let me know and I can send it to you. I usually divide the best books into categories - see list below - oh, and just so you know: the list of favorite books I've read will probably be different 6 months from now.]

So with all the books out there that I wanted to read, I had to develop a criteria for my reading, in order to be intentional. I realized that with every book that I choose to read I am choosing thousands of books not to read. It became overwhelming, but coming up with a 'filter' helped narrow the field for me.

Here are the ten elements of my personal criteria for choosing what I read.

(1) No fiction. I'm sorry. I know I realize I may have just turned you off, but I just don't do it. I'd rather just watch a movie instead of read about it. [You may be thinking, 'Yes, but reading the book is always better than watching the movie!'] Sorry...but I don't care if the Harry Potter books or the Lord of the Rings Trilogy is the most amazing thing you read, I won't do it. Of course, I do have exceptions. Two Christmases ago I read John Grisham's small, entertaining book Skipping Christmas and I am currently re-reading John Bunyan's classic Pilgrim's Progress.  In addition to fiction, I don't read any book with a title that starts out with "8 Simple Steps to..." or "30 Days to..." Turns me off. Life just isn't that simple. [I also avoid certain sections in Barnes and Noble: self-help, inspirational, new age, foreign, fantasy/sci-fi, cookbooks and most of the Christian section]. 

(2) Books on history, biography and leadership. There is much a leader can learn about leadership from the lessons of others, big and small, good and evil.  Books on leadership styles of former presidents or business leadership books or one that is in the pile that I want to get to in the next few weeks John Bright's A History of Israel.

(3) Classics: C.S. Lewis said that for every new book you read, you should read an old one. I'm not sure I have a 1 to 1 ratio, but I do try to be intentional about not just reading the books on the New York Times bestseller list or the front table of Borders.  If books have lasted for 100 years or more there's probably a good reason why and I probably should pick it up. As I said, I'm currently reading Pilgrim's Progress and am looking forward to reading Mark Twain's The Diaries of Adam and Eve (thanks, Lauren). There is a lot to learn from lasting truth throughout the ages.   If you haven't read a book written by someone who is currently dead, you really need to do that soon.

(4) I gravitate towards certain authors: Some of my favorites are Henri Nouwen, Mark Twain, C.S. Lewis, Eugene Peterson, Anne LaMott, Scot McKnight, Lesslie Newbegin, Don Miller and some Philip Yancey and Margret  and H.A. Rey (co-authors of the Curious George books).  It doesn't matter what topic they are writing on- I usually pick up their books when they come out.

(5) Recommendations from a few well-versed people I trust: I do rely on a few respected people who are well read in many diverse genres. They are my resource for what I should pick up. If they say, "Hey, there's this book I just read that was incredibly engaging" but the book looks dry,  nine times out of ten, I'll still take them up on it. And most of the time, they're right; and I'm glad I listened. My father-in-law has given me a ton of books to read and I don't think one book has been a disappointment. If he says I should read a certain book, I'm all ears because he's never been wrong (yet).

(6) Theology or In-depth spiritual formation books: I am a pastor, remember. So, this may seem boring to you, but this stuff can fascinating me, as long as the writer of the theology book is an engaging writer. I'm fascinated by the Jewish roots of our faith so recently I finished Jesus, the Jewish Theologian and I am looking forward to David Flusser's crowning achievement Jesus. A recent doozy: Sacred Rhythms - which was recommended to me by a South African pastor friend (thanks, Tom!)

(7) Fascinating concepts: Occasionally something will come up that looks so intriguing I'll just have to get it and read it. For example, I just started this book Farewell to God, about a guy who was a strong believer - worked for Billy Graham - and then decided he didn't want to be a Christian anymore. I'm sure that book is fascinating. Another book I want to read is The 101 Most Important People Who Never Existed - its a book about characters like Batman and Kermit the Frog and Big Bird and other cartoon characters and how they've influenced our culture and our lives. Fascinating! A few months ago I read The Timeless Way of Building, which is about the patterns all good architecture designs possess. A great book this winter was The Great Good Place, talking about the ever-increasing need for a "third place" in our lives. A book I purchased recently I'm looking forward to diving into is When the Church Became Theatre discussing how architecture of churches reveal more about our values and function than we realize. One more: Teaching As a Subversive Activity by Neil Postman - he just deconstructs the teaching methods we use in the school systems and says we need something better...amazing thoughts in there! Many of the sociological and anthropological books are fascinating: The Search to Belong, Divided by Faith, Bowling Alone, are a few I've read recently. All these topics are fascinating. They may no impact my life or improve my job skills, but hey, they are just really intriguing and I want to know more.  Usually, my father-in-law or a good friend will turn me on to some of these concepts and get me rolling. Oh, and Carter's favorite book that we read him at least once a week is Toes, Ears and Nose: A Life-the-Flap book. It makes him smile every time - it makes me smile, too.

(8) Required seminary reading: Almost all of my "pleasure reading" goes out the window when I start up another stint of seminary. Sometimes the books that are required are rather forgettable (i.e. Trevor Hart's Faith Thinking) and others are incredible: Reading Lolita in Tehran for our Galatians/freedom in Christ course and Doing Local Theology for my Missional Theology I course). But what I mourn at the start of each new seminary class is that I won't be able to pick what I read with as much freedom because I am forced to read books, many of which I would never have chosen to read if it were up to me.   

(9) Re-reading a few good ones: There are a few books worthy enough to be placed in the "I should re-read this at least once a year" category. Those would include books such as Mike Yaconelli's Dangerous Wonder, Henri Nouwen's In the Name of Jesus, C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity and Dr. Seuss' Oh, The Places You'll Go!

(10) Beyond books: Finally, I read beyond just books. I read websites for news, sports and entertainment. I read a few (but not a lot) of blogs. I read magazines such as Biblical Archeology Review (my favorite...I know, I really am a nerd!), Fast Company, SPIN, Sojourners, Newsweek and ESPN The Magazine. I read our local newspaper once a week and the USAToday weekend edition almost every Friday. 

I'm tempted to throw out a few books of recommendation right now, but I won't. Instead, I'll encourage you to come up with your own filter. Develop a criteria for how and what you want to learn and read in that direction."

____________________________

[UPDATE: To find out Scot McKnight's advice to Christian leaders on what to buy and read, see a later post here.] 

Book recommendation

I just finished reading The Search to Belong by Joe Myers. At first I was cynical of him deconstructing small groups and small group ministries, but he's really on to something.
Instead of creating groups, our churches should be about cultivating environments and space for connection.
If you're a church leader and you get a chance, pick up a copy. It's  worth the read.