twenty-three

As the summer is now in full swing, my reading list is also now finally moving into full motion. During the year I find it hard to sit down with a book for any extended period of time, let alone finish with any semblance of recollection of the main point, so this has been a [...]

I just finished reading Jon Clinch’s debut novel, Finn, the re-telling of Huckleberry Finn’s father’s story. The story parallels the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and fills in the details surrounding his father (Finn) and his dark history. It was a fabulous book.
For a boy (now young man) who grew up loving the stories of Huck [...]

As I mentioned a couple days ago, I’ve begun going through "An Emergent Manifesto of Hope", a compilation of writings by leaders in the emerging church. This book has been a refreshing and thought-provoking read thus far. I’m planning to discuss it with a couple of INN small group leaders that I meet with regularly, [...]

Today I began "An Emergent Manifesto of Hope", the first book released by the "emersion" partnership between Emergent Village and their new publishing partner, Baker Books. I heard about this book as it was being put together last summer and I have been excited to get my hands on it and catch up with many [...]

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is the story of a child from Sierra Leone who is displaced from his family by war and who finds himself caught up in the fighting as a 15 year old. Ishmael’s memoir focuses on his life of violence and his rehabilitation from the psychological damage and drug [...]

I just finished Doug Pagitt’s Preaching Reimagined - The Role of the Sermon in Communities of Faith, a book we’ve been assigned to read for Senior Staff at the INN which evaluates the current standard for preaching in most churches. Overall it was a pretty easy read with a few challenging ideas.
Pagitt claims that the [...]

I’ve spent a fair amount of time reading this break, catching a chance to finish up on a few that I’d started and prepare for a book discussion with some good friends in a week or so. One book that I’ve been slowly go through with a couple of small group leaders this last [...]

The last couple of weeks have been a revelation in reading for me. It may sound small, but it’s been amazing I rediscovered a little thing called FICTION! It’s incredible!!
Now that may sound odd, but I really haven’t read a fiction book in a long time. I read a few short stories and a CS [...]

Well, I feel like I’ve got postmodernism down now. That wasn’t too tough. Next philosophical movement, please.
I finally finished Stanley Grenz’s Primer on Postmodernism and while I’m no where near understanding even 1/2 of what he said, or what the philosophers and writers he covers in this book meant, I feel like I have a [...]

Yesterday I finished a fascinating book, The Last Word by N.T. Wright, which covers the immense topic of Biblical authority. While I hardly know where to begin, I thought it might be worthwhile to approach some of what the book says and hopefully convince anyone who is interested to check it out.