Awake

     A week ago I was awakened to the wonderful world of records. My friend bough me a real record player on craig's list and the first album I've ever known is U2's "The Unforgettable Fire." I know our Fuller Seminary rapid reading instructions tell us that music impairs us from reading well, and  know the instructions are correct. Some habits are hard to break, but I'm glad I didn't. 

     While reading Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership I find myself repeatedly setting the book down because the lyrics and tones of the songs intersect perfectly with what I'm reading. It is too much of what my soul needs to be a coincidence. The album's title just hit me! "The Unforgettable Fire!!!"

     Rock and Roll may not be your cup of tea, but I thought I'd share my experience because I feel like I'm so good at sharing the struggles I have, especially with my friends in ministry and at Fuller. At times I fear I'm too honest. The image manager inside my soul kicks in and I wonder if everyone thinks I'm a "downer." These past two weeks have seen major times of renewal in my family, professional, and soul life. 

• Marie and I are finding "the new normal" with two kids instead of one.
• Conflict and Crisis at work doesn't take the emotional toll on me like it used to. 
• I'm having personal time with God more regularly again. I even dusted off my personal rule of life (from my first Fuller class) and set up a reminder for the doc to automatically pop up in my outlook calendar at the appropriate intervals. My soul is feeding for the first time in a long while.

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Spiritual Formation. How do you do it?

Just came across this quote while doing a paper on Character, Community, and Leadership.  

"There are no formulas-no definitive how-tos-for growth in the inner character of Jesus. Such growth is a way of relentless seeking. But there are many things we can do to place ourselves at the disposal of God, and "if with all our hearts we truly seek him, we shall surely find him" (Jeremiah 29:13, PAR)"

Of our studies this far, this book has impacted me the most. I have a feeling that there will be more to come. Back to the paper.

The Bible and Missions

     Helen Montgomory was more than an author. She was a public offical, missionary, scholar, political activist and preacher (Rochester Regional Library Council 2000). Living at the turn of the 20th century dramatically effected her worldview, especially in the area of justice. I think this plays a large part in her perspective on the Bible and Misisons. She spent most of her life on missional projects and her education, culture, and gender must have made the missioal motifs of justice, God’s heart for the oppressed, and the nations leap off of the page.

     Her thesis is clearly claims that the Bible is concerned first and foremost with God’s mission (Page 7). Her thesis goes so far as to claim that when one reads the scriptures, “the missionary message is inescapable.” (Page 7)

     Montgomory remains true to her predominant modern culture by presenting a well constructed linear presentation to support her thesis. She shows the reader what she will say in outline form (Page 5-6; 52-53) before each chapter. As she begins to unpack her arguments she opens with definitions of various missinal motifs and key concepts (Page 8). Her prose is lively and it conveys the feeling that she strongly believes in what she’s writing.
     Then she gets to work. In he following secsions she highlights in broad strokes the missional motifs in the major sections of the Hebrew Bible. She strengthens her claims by admitting that she cannot mention every motif and every example because there are too many for a brief treatment. This concession only helps her declarations because it makes the reader wonder how many other examples there are to support her thesis. Montgomery repeats the same pattern for the Christian Testament in the second section, organized first by section or genre and stopping at various high points of each book.

     I must respond to Montgomory’s thesis as directly as I can. To put it bluntly, She had me at Goethe. Her diction and writting style was thoughtful, but not too thick to take down. I did make liberal use of the dictionary feature in my PDF reader though. To analyze this book after the ML 520 seminar is not much of a fair fight. I came into this assignment with some strong preconcieved ideas, so I must admit my bias.

     I was particularly drawn to her treatment of Micha where she highlights his distaste for as she calls it “formal religion” (Page 35). Working in a Mega Church causes a tension inside me as I reconcile my weekly activities. I want so badly to make sure that I’m pleasing the Lord, but the seduction of performing or working to make things look good is an easy pattern to fall into. This book is familiar to me, but she highlighted something new to me in the previous sections. I never consicously considred that most the Hebrew prophets wrote about cultures similar to mine. I knew it, but the reality never sunk into my heart in a way that got my attention.Taking Micha’s words to heart, I am asking God to continually “purify” my religion and make it an offering that will please him.

     This book will compliment shifts in living and thinking Marie and I are already attempting to make. We converse about what kind of children we think God wants us to raise and what kind of family God wants us to become. My preaching and teaching topics are also more missional in the kinds of words I use. Many of the topics are the same. However, I approach them from a different perspective of God’s mission. For a while, I will use this book as a resource for preaching. When I’m preaching on a text, I’ll make sure to glance at Montgomory’s comments about it, as to avoid proof texting or justifying my mission (Page 7).

References Cited

Rochester Regional Library Council: Western New York Suffragists. 2000. “Helen Montgomory” http://winningthevote.org/HBMontgomery.html

What is the Bible?

Our ML 520 Biblical Foundations of Misison class is exploring the idea that the Bible is a missionary book. Of all the ways I've heard the Bible explained, (handbook, rulebook, instructionbook, etc) this is the theory I'm most attracted to. I'll post my report soon. Can't wait to dig into this one!

"That Book is not the book of a nation, but the Book of nations, because it places before us the fortunes of one nation as a symbol unto all the rest, because it connects the history of this one people with the origin of the world, and by a series of earthly and spiritual developments, of facts necessary and accidental continues it unto the remotest regions of the farthest eternities." 

-Goethe 

Stanley Hauerwas on Leadership

We just finished a book by this guy. It was a collection of his essays and it really challenged the was I look at my family, Shoreline Church, and topics like sex and abortion. If you are a youth leader or a leader in the church. This is a guy you should know about. He's brilliant. He's a bit over my head, but it's a good stretch. Check out this video and get a few nuggets of wisdom out of it.

I also think he may be the voice of Jesus in the Vintage 21 videos. (posted below) :-)

Book Review: Jesus and Community

About the author: Gerhard Lohfink grew up in Germany in the midst of rising national tensions as nations built up to World War II forcing him to move many times. He excelled in the field of academics gaining permission to pursue higher degrees while serving as pastor and chaplain in various posts. His perspective as a German, a priest, and college professor uniquely qualify him to make bold claims with his thesis and to support it with evidence from scripture, early church history, and first hand experience.

About the Thesis: His thesis claims that Christian Community’s form must come from the practices of Jesus that we have in the form of the gospels, which was uniquely focused on Israel, gathering it together so that the world my experience the kingdom of God, bringing God’s reign into the earthly realm, standing out in the midst the dominant culture, and acting as Christ’s agent of change.

About the Structure: He supports his thesis using a 4-section structure. First sections define Jesus’ model of Community as implied by his actions on earth and Old Testament precedent. The final sections outline how Apostles and early followers continued the important aspects of community instituted by Christ. These practices include but are not limited to: praying for the sick, living as a contrast society, bearing the identity of “God’s people,” passively resisting the kingdom of this world, and cultivating a community of equals that serve each other.

Personal Reaction: Lohfink’s repetitious structure aided my understanding of his thesis. With out the repetition of a claim, a scripture, an explanation of the passage, and conclusions, he would certainly have lost me. Thankfully we did not have to read it in German. From my perspective these insights are valuable, but perhaps too familiar. This may be a byproduct of the generation I’m a part of and the generation of people I work with, but I found myself too easily agreeing with Lohfink’s highly authentic, communal, egalitarian, peaceful, and accountable version of Christian community. After reflection, I find myself asking, “Why don’t more people in my stream of Christianity know about this book?”

About Application: As for application to my ministry situation, I think this book will find it’s place in a stockpile I’ll return to in a search to provide Shoreline’s youth an alternative to consumerism. The image I found most vivid was in the introduction. It talked about a priest, a counselor, and physician roaming a city “on call” (Location, 84). This vivid picture illustrates a tension I currently feel in ministry to a large church. We want to help people, but Lohfink challenged my thinking about the way Mega Churches serve congregations. There certainly isn’t anything wrong with serving a parishioner, but what if the structure of a community actually encourages individualism? If Jesus was in charge of my youth group, (a bold thought, I know) what would he say about our programs and the impulses they feed? How would they compare to the picture of Christ’s community provided by Lohfink?

Initially, I think we have a long way to go as a contrast society. We have a gathering, but I wonder about how much of Lohfink’s community we experience. There are brilliant moments that punctuate our program, that come in Small Groups, Retreats, and Summer Camps where young people catch a glimpse of what God’s Kingdom might look like, but this rarely translates into the day to day life of our community. This issue cannot be solved with a sermon series or a small group study. Perhaps I need to look at my own life and ask if I’m buying what I’m “selling?” My gut level hunch is that young people will not do it until they see it, so perhaps what our group needs is a contrast society within our community.

Book Review: Spiritual Leadership: Moving People onto God's Agenda

     About the authors:The name Blackaby carries a great amount of influence in many church circles, particularly with those in the Baptist denomination. Both Henry and Richard have pastored churches and written books together, Experiencing God is one of their more well known projects. Their background is conservative, but their influence reaches beyond those on the Theological right, which is evidenced by the glowing endorsements they receive from ministry leaders. Training leaders is a huge part of what they do and the heart of this work is to point leaders, and especially pastors toward drawing primarily from God as a source of ministry strength.
     
     Thesis: The authors use their thesis to claim effective leadership is dynamically connected to a leaders correctly understanding God’s calling on his or her life (Location 141). For a leader to function at full capacity, an understanding of “God’s call” and “God’s agenda” is absolutely critical (Location 140).
     
     Structure: The Blackabys organized this book by topic. There is a linear flow to the way the topics progress beginning with the challenge of leadership in section 1, establishing the leader’s role in section 2, sections 3 through 9 deal with practical issues facing a leader such as casting vision, time management, and the kind of person a Spiritual Leader is. Sections 10 and 11 warn of leadership “pitfalls” and unveil potential rewards of leading God’s way. These sections support the thesis by unpacking leadership principals and then showing the positive and negative consequences of leadership decisions. Though there is a flow to the logic from definition to outcomes, these sections need not be read in order and can be used as a reference for anyone interested in specific topics.


     Application: Since I have a Christian worldview, the thesis is difficult for me to argue with. I know that if I’m not dependent on God to lead effectively. I find this thesis important because sometimes we can become so familiar with a truth that we forget it (Willard 1998). I came away from our seminars with a preconceived notion that somehow this resource would not be my cup of tea because of its linear more modern structure. I still would prefer that the authors celebrate the interconnectedness of these principals, but I found the information practical to my ministry experience and beneficial to my day-to-day life.
     The section on making decisions (Location 3216) immediately drew my attention because I am self-conscious about this leadership competency. My grandfather was a ‘big time’ church leader and showed strong leadership in our home as well. I learned to follow, but did not exercise decision-making capabilities. This regularly hampers my ministry life. The Blackabys gave me much comfort in this area by relieving the pressure to come up with the right answer on my own (Location 3244). I was hoping that the topic of people pleasing would come up more but I did find the thought of being first and foremost accountable to God very helpful (Location 3403). I have already gone forward with a change in youth ministry teaching format to a more “guide on the side” approach because I know it’s the right thing for our group to do, instead of worrying about what people will say.
     Practically, I plan to use this book in meetings with my paid staff, our volunteer youth workers, and Leadership college. Each chapter lists key ideas outlined in bullet form and they lend themselves to serve as a map for discussion, which will be great for my staff meetings and monthly volunteer meetings. This content would be beneficial to our leadership college students at Shoreline Church, but I will have it on our ‘suggested reading’ list because I feel its language is more readily beneficial to paid staff members of a church who oversee several people.

3 Books Read in 2010

A few years ago (13 already?!?!?) Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline really challenged me about my desire to read the latest material out there. It pushed me towards reading classics and things I really need to know instead of merely "keeping up." 

I didn't read a ton in 2010 because Shoreline Leadership College, the Easter play, Summer Camp/Conference, Fall Retreat, the Christmas play, and new youth ministry responsibilities kept me pretty busy. I read more than three, but these books helped keep my soul resourced, fed, and floating.

• This year I went through Eugene Peterson's practical advice on the kind of person pastors should be. I read this every year. The Contemplative Pastor gave me the vocabulary to describe myself as unbusy, subversive, and apocalyptic. These words are not often used to describe pastors and I have not become the kind of pastor Peterson describes with these words, but they are what I aspire to. 

 

• I think I was supposed to read this book at Oral Roberts University. For whatever reason, I just got around to picking up this book. I wish I read it sooner. The advice found within is a must read for any Christian that wishes to serve in any capacity. Dads, Moms, Pastors, or whatever/whoever should read this book. 

• Peter Scazzero's bold and honest account of his personal journey towards emotional health. As a direct result of this book I was able to deal with interpersonal conflict, process negative emotions in a more positive way, and establish better personal boundaries. He also suggests a new paradigm for discipleship within the local church that will take me a while to chew on.

Video Updates

I apologize for the complications with the videos I've been posting lately. I'm learning to blog from my phone for better youth ministry updates. The issue should be resolved by next week!

Today I'll be putting the finishing touches on a presentation I'll be giving tonight at Shoreline Leadership College based on Gordon Fee's book, Reading the Bible For All It's Worth.  We're trying to equip people for significant ministry in our community. So many are hungry to get into the "meaty" stuff of the Bible. I could never go into all of this book in one session. Tonight's class will be an introduction to Hermeneutics and then an example of how to do it with the book of Ephesians.

Sy Rogers and The Fourth Turning

Recently Sy Rogers came back to our church to elaborate on much of what can be found in One of the Boys: The Sy Rogers Story. He referenced this book called The Fourth Turning in his talk and impressed Marie so much that she bough it...for me to read.

I wouldn't classify it as a quick read. I'm 40 pages into it after a month, but I haven't read it every day. As I understand it, the authors are offering a different (or returning to an older) way of looking at history. Instead of seeing things as Linear, history can be viewed in seasonal cycles comparable to the season of weather. As I read, I keep thinking of Thomas Cahill's profound work, The Gifts of the Jews. It it Cahill talks about Abraham's move away from civilization as a liberation from this cyclical view of history predominant in Sumerian cultures. I took a negative view away from reading this book, but perhaps I sold it short. I think my own linear historical leanings added a few things to Cahill's book that he did not intend.

Now I'm seeing that history has ebbs and flows, ups and downs, peacetime and war. Wait, that sounds familiar...

I'll be posting on The Fourth Turning more I'm sure. For now, I'm very interested to connect feelings, moods, and seasons with so much of the historical data American education forced on me. Now instead of dates and names and the order of presidents, there are deeper connections and undercurrents of history to consider and that consideration makes the subject seem less sterile.

Wanna be cool?

Bret McCracken just wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal. It talks about the image makeover that evangelical christianity is trying to achieve.  He takes potshots at people all over the spectrum, Rob Bell, Mark Driscoll, and several other churches. He advocates his point of view as a "true-er" or more authentic version of following Christ. I agree with his premise, that following Jesus is not trendy, easy, or always popular. I had difficulty with his tone toward other authors, pastors, and Christ followers. He lumped them all together with the assumption that a catchy title or an idea was meant to first and foremost make Evangelical Christianity popular again, or worse yet...more palatable. There are many perils of "wanna be cool" christianity for sure! I'm not so sure that the examples in his article highlight people who are trying to be cool. 

Perhaps his book offers a better solution, but his article didn't. He made no attempt to differentiate between contextualizing communication and giving into the culture around us. I have a hard time believing that all the pastors and ministries he mentions in his article are as shallow and narcissistic as he makes them sound. I'll read the book for sure. I just wish his article included a clear alternative for the people he mentioned. Are they supposed to come up with ideas that are offensive and boring? Are they supposed to purposefully create barriers to others hearing about Jesus? Hmmmm...that might be a catchy idea!!! (insert smily face)

An Overdue Book Review: 2nd Hand Jesus

This is a book review I wrote for Secondhand Jesus: Trading Rumors God for a Firsthand Faith.  I appreciate Glenn Packiam’s perspective as a pastor, musician, theologian, and worship leader. He currently lives in the context of western Christianity, and recently weathered one of the biggest church scandals to ever come along, with perhaps the exception of PTL in the late 1980’s.  He also has a unique perspective of Jesus from outside the Mid-Western church box since he lived in Malaysia and England. In the tradition of Donald Miller and Mark Steele he writes in a memoir story style that is perceptive and easy for the reader to digest.

As a youth pastor at Shoreline Church in Austin, Texas, I ask questions along the lines proposed in 2^nd Hand Jesus. I’m grateful for the tone of his questions. It wasn’t bitter or snobby. I can tell he genuinely loves the Church (with a big C). At Shoreline, we have great volunteers, a supportive pastor, more than adequate meeting space, and a genuine desire to help youth in our community. However we as a youth ministry, feel like we are missing something. Glenn puts his finger on many areas youth ministries need to work on.

Specifically, Glenn highlights Jesus teachings about the “good life” dismissing the rumor that God just wants people to have “easy” lives. Glenn Packiam also observed the propensity for many churches to become a “one-stop spiritual shopping” church. We have groups for everything that you can think of and if we are not careful churches can point people to themselves and their organizational structure instead of Jesus.

Thankfully, Glenn Packiam didn’t attempt to wrap everything up in a nice little bow with trite formulas and cheesy slogans. He doesn’t set himself up to have all the answers. Instead, he leaves these rumors open for dialog. This is a great book for conversation and to read in community. I look forward to adding this book and its ideas into the curriculum of our ministry to teenagers and young adults and recommend it without reservation. 

Feed

Doug Fields often says, “leaders are learners.” That’s the subject of this week’s leadership thought. Mature people intentionally nourish their souls. They take time to listen to G-d’s voice in many ways, community, books, sermons, quiet times, and even play. Here’s a short list, in no particular order of my soul feeders. What are yours?

• Running with a music or sermon podcast on. It’s not a particularly ancient discipline, but it works for me. It’s great to get outside, get   exercise, and also listen to challenging thoughts.
• Did I mention Podcasts? I know I did. They are a fire hose of information ready for you from Pastors, leaders, colleges, and seminaries that will nourish your soul.
• Study Bibles – Carlos in Shoreline’s Bookstore can set you up with a nice bible to dig into. 
• Google. If you have a question about the Bible or want to find an online devotional reading, google one. You need to be careful to test what you read, because posting something on the Internet doesn’t make it true, however this is a valuable resource for devotions and teaching. Try it!
• www.followtherabbi.com  – I love this website. I get lost on there. I just love reading about Jesus.
• www.sacredspace.ie - ever done an Ignatian Examine? This is a sweet place to have a quiet time. The site tells you what to do, prepares the scripture for you and even has help buttons along the way. 
• The Hinges of History Series by Thomas Cahill – Particularly The Gifts of the Jews, and The Desire for Everlasting Hills for profound insights on our faith and the people we come from. 
• My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers is a classic devotional book that will challenge you to depend more on G-d, surrender more of your life to Jesus, and focus your heart mind and soul on His glory. Online Versions available. Google it!
  
  
• Shoreline’s podcasts. Have you guessed that I learn audibly yet? For me, this is a great place to feed myself because I’m usually teaching the lesson in the middle school aged service. I can still take part in “grown-up” worship and conversations in my church community.
• www.relevantmagazine.com This site is fantastic. God. Life. Pop Culture. Great devotionals and a chance to interact with other people’s journey of faith. Try it!

So that’s my not-so-official feeding spots. What stirs your soul? Comment below!

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.

At the advice of my friends and peers in ministry, I'm taking a lot more time to spend with the text I preach and to use fewer texts. I'm really enjoying Paul and His Letters by John Polhill. I forgot how rewarding it was to explore what the writers of the Bible said to the original recipients. John Polhill is helping tremendously with that. He takes in scholarly concerns with skill without leaving behind some practical applications for the Church today, or at least making it easy for the reader to connect the dots.

I'm also trying to avoid drowning our congregation in scripture after scripture and many points. I'm going to try to say one thing, Jesus' works, not ours cause real and lasting revolution. This also goes along with Andy Stanley's book, called Communicating for a Change.
Here are some themes that I've observed so far that I'd like to highlight:

-The supremacy of Christ's work over the work of human beings for salvation.
-Our culture also spreads false gospels including, self help, outside beauty, materialism, and good works. None of those are God's dream for human kind.

Where is all this going? The word revolution gets tossed around in our culture a lot these days. Paul was certainly involved in a revolution. He understood that the best kind of change, the only real lasting change comes from an inside out revolution. He was furious with the Galatians when they went back to their old ways. He was fierce when talking to his Jewish peers about the dangers of trying to get to God from the outside in.

These thoughts aren't finished yet, but that's what I got cookin'.


Here's links to the sources I've been using for Paul's Letters and for getting better at teaching:

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Invisible Lines of Connection

This book inspired me. It changed the way I teach and look at the world. Here is something that I remembered from my life because of reading this book.I picked this book up again the other day.

I usesd to be an avid baseball card collector. Recently I was looking through the pages of the albums that I had collected. I realized that these cards were more than money value. These cards were a tangible connection to different periods in my childhood and adolescence. Looking at them brought back a flood of memories. I laughed at the thought of some of my buddies. I got a little nostalgic thinking of the times I spent in my friend Zach's living room trading cards. I remembered going to a junky baseball card shop with Kyle and Ryan in Safety Harbor, Florida and the excitement I heard when my mom said, "yes" to my inevitable question, "can I buy a pack?"

Perhaps that is why my cards sit on the top shelf of my closet collecting dust, even after nine moves. They sit there as a physical representation of all the memories that are stored inside me. They are a portable reminder of a time when I felt safe and the world made more sense. In the scriptures, God instructs the Hebrews to set up stones when they are to remember things. Perhaps some of those cards are my stones?

Secondhand Jesus: A book Review

I just reviewed this book on Amazon, but thought I'd repost it here.

I appreciate Glenn Packiam’s perspective as a pastor, musician, theologian, and worship leader. He currently lives in the context of western Christianity, and recently weathered one of the biggest church scandals to ever come along, with perhaps the exception of PTL in the late 1980’s. He also has a unique perspective of Jesus from outside the Mid-Western church box since he is from Malaysia. In the tradition of Donald Miller and Mark Steele he writes in a memoir story style that is perceptive and easy for the reader to digest.

As a youth pastor in a mega church in the Southwest, I ask questions along the line of Packiam’s thinking. I’m grateful for the way he articulated his questions. It wasn’t bitter or snobby. I can tell he genuinely loves the Church (with a big C). At our church, we have great volunteers, a supportive pastor, more than adequate meeting space, and a genuine desire to help youth in our community. However we as a youth ministry, feel like we are missing something. Glenn puts his finger on many areas youth ministries need to work on.

Specifically, Glenn highlights Jesus teachings about the “good life” dismissing the rumor that God just wants people to have “easy” lives. Glenn Packiam also observed the propensity for many churches to become a “one-stop spiritual shopping” church. We have groups for everything that you can think of and if we are not careful churches can point people to themselves instead of Jesus.

I’m thankful that Glenn Packiam didn’t attempt to wrap everything up in a nice little bow with trite formulas and cheesy slogans. He doesn’t set himself up to have all the answers. Instead, he leaves these rumors open for dialog. This is a great book for conversation and to read in community. I look forward to adding this book and its ideas into the curriculum of our ministry to teenagers and young adults and recommend it without reservation.

Secondhand Jesus

I read this book a couple of weeks ago. I've been working on a short review of it, but want to do Glenn's book justice. Here's a sneak peak of what it's about. For those of you seeing this on facebook, you wont be able to see the video unless you go to the original post on blogger.

Walking the Bible: Part I

      The second time through this book is even better than the first! I also own the DVD documentary that Bruce Feiler made about his experience tracing the story of the first five books of the bible. His adventure greatly inspired me along my own journey of faith. Last night I was reading about Bruce's inquiries into Biblical Archeology.

     He was talking to Gabi Barkay, an accomplished Archeologist. Gabi is also a great resource when it comes to the Bible's relationship to historical fact.He guided Bruce through this tricky relationship.


     "I'm a local Jew," he said. "I don't care whether this or that detail is incorrect in the Bible. It doesn't change my attitude toward the Bible, toward religion, toward God. Or toward myself. But In America, there was an idea that the Bible is a kind of machine; if you prove that two of the screws really existed, then the whole machine existed, and if you take out two of the screws, the whole thing collapses. But the Bible is not a machine. It doesn't have screws."

   Gabi switched on a light for me in many ways. First of all, I noticed how my western mind and cultural influence effected the way I look at the Bible. I had to ask some tough questions about what I believe, which I think strengthened my faith in the end. Lastly, he taught me that the writers of the first testament (most Christians call it the Old Testament) did not have an interest in recording history as we know it today. I can't expect the writers of these texts to anticipate what people thousands of years in the future would be interested in. They recorded a magnificent story about land, people, creation, and redemption.

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Book Flood

I've been going through a dry spell when it comes to reading. Part of me really misses the time I had in Japan to absorb so many ideas from books and pod casts. My grandmother gave me some book money, so I went wild on Amazon's used books. Thanks MIMI!!!!!! I've eyeballed most of these since Rob Bell's Poets//Prophets//Preachers conference in 2004. It's taken me since then to get through his suggested reading list. I'm a little more than 3/4 through it.

Here's what I bought.

If Grace is True: Why God Will Save Every Person by Phillip Gulley

Adventures in Missing the Point: How the Culture-Controlled Church Neutered the Gospel by Brian McLaren

Exodus: The Traditional Hebrew Text With the New Jps Translation

Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler

Mysteries of the Middle Ages by Thomas Cahill

Sketches of Jewish Social Life by Alfred Edersheim

A book every person should read

I just found this little promo and wanted to post it here.