Reading List

Judah is still blocked from the blog and has sent another post for me to paste - The copy paste function is being uncooperative and it appears I am going to have to retype it. Suddenly I am not so thrilled with the length of his thoughts.....


This summer has seen me in China quite a bit. I think I spent most of June and July (except for one week) over here. When I finally get back from this current trip, I will have spent 60 days of 2009 over here! Needless to say, I read a lot while I am here. I also listen to a lot of podcasts. I finally found a DVD store (they had closed the other one we went to), so I am able to watch movies periodically. Anyway, below, is a summary of the books I have read while over here.

1) "Seven Habits of Effective Ministry" A. Stanley, L Jones,, and R Joiner. This is an excellent church leadership resource. If you are looking to turn your 'good ministry' into a 'great ministry,' this is an excellent book to help. Andy points out "your ministry is perfectly designed for the results you are getting." This shows a much simpler and effective approach to ministry. The basic theme throughout the book is, "what is the win?" If you can define the win in any situation, you are half way there. Give it a shot.

2) "Essential Church? Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts" T Rainer and S Rainer. This book tries to answer the question "why do so many young adults(18-22) leave the church?" The Rainers us a lot of statistics to support their claims - if at times applied fairly loosely. The numbers are quite scary - 80%. The book reviews some of the concepts in Thom Rainers previous effort "Simple Church" which was a good (if repetitive) book. There are some new graphs in this book, but overall not as informative as "Simple Church." The concept that young adults need to have a place in the church I agree with, but the idea that we need to concentrate on them at this point I tend to disagree with. If you haven't established the connection and relevance before 18, it is a poor time to start.

3) "Principle of the Path" A Stanley. I absolutely loved this book. In fact, I am going to be doing a book study with our college class about this topic on Sundays for a few weeks. Andy discusses the question "Why do so many smart people make such stupid decisions?" He does a really good job of describing how we can justify huge mistakes. He offers this prayer "Lord, help me to see danger before it gets upon me. Give me wisdom to know what to do, and the courage to make the right decision." Bottom line: Direction, not intention, leads to destination.

4) "Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical" S. Claiborne. This book is mostly a compilation of Shane's exploits during college and a few years after. He spent time working with Mother Theresa at a leper colony in Calcutta, worked/lived with homeless people in Philadelphia, went to Iraq to protest the war, and many other things in the name of Jesus. He is one of the founding members of The Simple Way, a community in Philadelphia that tries to show Jesus to as many people as possible, in as simple a way as they can. He has some excellent points, but I disagree with his presentation at times, it can be a bit rough. I can sometimes hear a tone of "if you don't do it this way, what's wrong with you?" He has some issues with capitalism, but does mention a few rich people doing amazing things. I personally feel that the next mission field in the next few years will be to the rich. Imagine what we can do to poverty when the 20% who control 80% of the world's money decide to start spending it the way they believe Jesus would? I don't think capitalism is the issue, its the people and their intention for the decisions they make.

5) "The Drunkards Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives" L Mlodinow. If you are not into statistics, don't bother with this book. However, this is a very entertaining read. It gives a brief history from basic math, probability, and statistics. The author shows how basic probability and statistics can be used in our daily lives, and how we sometimes use these concepts to prove things that are not true. He points out that our brains are wired to see patterns, even when there are no patterns to see. Just knowing this concept can be extremely helpful with deciphering information.


I also read through Lamentations on my previous trip. Take my advice, never read the book by yourself in a hotel room away from all your family and friends.

Proverbs has to be my old standby when I am traveling. I read through it quite frequently. I also try to read through the Sermon on the Mount and at least one of Paul's letters, usually Romans, especially chapter 8.

During this trip I learned how to covert some of my DVDs to a format that I can load onto my Ipod. I have a video of Rob Bells' talk "Everything is Spiritual" He does a good job of showing how God is present in all things. This is a must watch.

And finally I listen to podcasts. The three I listen to the most are 1) Mars Hill Bible Church, 2) North Point Ministries:Andy Stanley, and 3) Southeast Christian Church, Louisville, KY

There are a lot of other things I do while here. If Michelle hasn't posted the pictures of me climbing Washan Mountain, I will do that when I get back. But for this post I though t the book list was appropriate.

So what are you reading?