Good morning, friends... This one will be a rather short post... My in-laws arrive this morning, and we're having Christmas all over again. So I'm going to post this and get to work for a while. Sunday still comes, week after week, holidays or not... Ah, the life of a worship pastor.
Reading. Nothing feeds my soul like books. Here are the ones that rocked me in 2005, no matter when they were published:
Non-Fiction:
01: A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I Am a Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/Conservative, Mystical/Poetic, Biblical, Charismatic/Contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-yet-Hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished CHRISTIAN - Brian McLaren - McLaren is my favorite author, and here's another reason why. He continually makes me think. He makes me uncomfortable. He makes me angry. He raises questions that he doesn't answer. He helps me to be comfortable living with the Mystery that is God. As you can tell from the title, he's not comfortable with titles... Or, more accurately, he's comfortable with all titles, as long as he's not pigeonholed into one. My favorite adjective in that long string is the last one: Unfinished. We're still on this journey until we reach heaven, and we would do well to remember that.
02: The Last Word and The Word After That - Brian McLaren - What's that? Fiction? I don't think so... Sure, it's wrapped up in a story... Just like Jesus's parables, McLaren's teaching is best done through story. And over the course of three books, I've come to care about Dan and Neo and their families and friends. But mostly I care about their journey... because it mirrors my own in so many ways. McLaren will be the first to say these are philosophical books thinly disguised as fiction. Now this one was difficult. It deals with Final Things. Hell in particular. It started a journey of soul-searching, reading, sleepless nights and much prayer that isn't over yet. But that's the point, right? And through all of it, I've learned one thing: Trust in God. Trust completely in God.
03: The Present Future - Reggie McNeal - McNeal is a Southern Baptist, but you wouldn't know it. He travels the country, writing and speaking and consulting. He's convinced that church as we know it is quickly becoming a thing of the past. He's convinced me too. Talk about sleepless nights! This one kept me up too. Are we going to maintain "The Club" or advance The Church? I'm excited because Reggie has agreed to consult with my church, PCC, for the next six months. I had lunch with him a few weeks ago - just Tony G., Reggie and me - and he gave me so much hope for an amazing future here.
04: God's Politics - Jim Wallis - I heard Wallis speak at the Covenant Midwinter Conference last February. He's the founder of Sojourners, and this book gave me direction... a middle path. I think the Left has left God out of the picture for far too long, and the Right thinks that God's on their side, uniquivocally, not only on issues like abortion but military spending and tax cuts for the wealthy! Wallis has helped me see that Christians are to be involved in politics, being salt and light in a dark world, and alleviating suffering in the name of Jesus wherever possible. He's helped me to see that mundane things like budgets are a moral issue! So much more... Read and be enlightened!
05: Four Views on Hell - Clark Pinnock, Zachary Hayes, John Walvoord & Williams Crockett - One of the books I was compelled to read after McLaren started messing with me. Another book that led me to my knees...
06: Searching for God Knows What - Donald Miller - Miller, whose Blue Like Jazz is becoming required reading for 21st C. followers of Jesus, writes The Sequel. More of the same... And would we want anything different? Cool, quirky guy follows Jesus and invites us along for the ride. Makes we want to be his friend. Oh, and Jesus's too.
07: Read. Think. Pray. Live. - Tony Jones - This is a great, easy-to-read guide to the ancient practice of lectio divina. As a man who is better at wanting to read the bible than actually reading the bible, I appreciate this approach. It has helped me to get to the actual practice.
08: Praise Habit - David Crowder - Crowder fronts one of my favorite bands, the appropropriately named David Crowder*Band, and here he lets us into his head a little bit as he seeks to worship God and to lead others to do the same. I especially like the (near-) insight into the secrets of his hair.
09: Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2 - Steve Stockman - A thoroughly-researched, highly informative-but-enjoyably readable book on the overt and covert spiritual journey of Bono and Co.
10: Plan B - Anne Lamott - I put this on the list not because I thought it was so good - it wasn't. In fact, it was a disappointment after her marvelous Must Read, Traveling Mercies. But it was another perspective on Left Coast Christianity. My favorite thing was seeing a Left-Wing Radical like Anne Lamott admit that her hatred of President Bush was as poisonous and sinful as the Right's hatred of President Clinton. The cool thing? She confesses it, works on it and turns it over to God.
Fiction:
01: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling - Joshua and I went to Santa Cruz and partied in the release of this latest installation. I committed to him that I would not read ahead, and we got through it pretty quickly. Another father-son bonding experience. I love the HP books... And I can't believe that _____________ kills _____________!
02: Odd Thomas - Dean Koontz - The sweetest character I've ever encountered in a Koontz novel. I've blogged a bit about this one, so I'll lay off, but I really loved this book. Great plot. Great dialogue. Great romance. Great chills.
03: The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd - I've said that this reminded me of To Kill a Mockingbird. The protagonist is a young, spunky girl who learns a lot about life and love and God. I picked this up mostly because I was bored and curious. I couldn't put it down and it quickly became a favorite. Only time will tell, but I predict it will become a classic. My grandkids will have to read it in 9th grade.
04: THR3E - Ted Dekker - Although the plot was shockingly similar to a joke in the movie Adaptation, this book surprised me again and again. Dekker is a new discovery for me this year, and he helped me love fiction again. This book is thrilling... suspenseful, romantic, sad, horrifying. And I have to say this. Dekker is an evangelical Christian, but you wouldn't know it. That's high praise from me. I guess what I'm trying to say is that he doesn't fall (at least in this book) to the temptation of preaching when he should stick to telling a great story.
05: Black - Ted Dekker - The first in a trilogy. OK, OK, after what I just said about Dekker's not preaching, I'll admit that this one is a pretty thinly-veiled Creation/Fall/Redemption metaphor. But it's a darn good one, and I'm hooked. I actually had all three books home from the library and was ready to dive into the next one when I realized I needed a break. Not from Dekker or the series... just from spending hours every week reading fiction! I'll grab the next one in the new year.
06: Forever Odd - Dean Koontz - I was so excited about this; I was the first at my local library to check it out. I had it reserved two months before it was published. And while it retains some of the pervasive dread of the first book, and Odd continues to delight with his thoughts and words, the plot really disappoints. A great deal of the charm of the original novel lay in the colorful supporting characters and the little town of Pico Mundo. Odd is removed from both here, and the book suffers for it. Still, it was easily my most-anticipated read of 2005, and I was more than happy to spend three evenings with a great guy like Odd Thomas.