Friday, August 31, 2012

Inquiring Minds...

Recently I was asked to post my reading list.  So, I thought I would offer here in a blog post. Then we will switch over to a regular part of the blog so those of you who love books and sharing titles can keep up.  More importantly you might even make a suggestion to me!

Books I am reading currently:

Fiction:
The Yard by Alex Grecian
The Widower's Two Step by Rick Riordan

Non Fiction:
The Story of My Boyhood and Youth by John Muir
The M Factor by Lynne C. Lancaster and David Stillman
Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky

Books I recently finished:

Big Red Tequila by Rick Riordan
A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore
Unholy Night and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

Start with Why by Simon Sinek
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

 
Books for consideration from my bookshelf:
Leading God’s People by Christopher Beeley
World Shaped Mission by Janice Price

Climb Higher by Scott McKenzie and Kristine Miller

For Church Leaders:
I think there are some foundational texts that every church leader should be familiar with as they enter ministry.  Therefore I am recommending the following for clergy to have on their bookshelf when they graduate from seminary and to have read in their first three years of ministry.  These are in no particular order.
The shape of liturgy by Dix
 
Orthodoxy by Chesterton
Missionary Methods by Roland Allen
History of Global Anglicanism by Wingate etc
The Cross of Christ by John Stott
The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard

A Failure of Nerve by Edwin Friedman
After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre

Jesus the Christ and Harvesting the Fruit by Walter Kaspar
Fling Out the Banner by Ian Douglas

Primal Leadership by Daniel Coleman
Leadership Without Easy Answers by Ronald Hiefetz

Leading Change by John P. Kotter
The Word Made Strange and Theology and Social Theory by John Milbank

A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McClaren
Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky

They Like Jesus But Not The Church by Dan Kimball
Why Study the Past and Ray of Darkness by Rowan Williams

Christianity Rediscovered by Vincent J Donovan
Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times by Peter Steinke

Turn Around Strategies for the Small Church by Herb Miller
Hearing God’s all-Ways of Discernment for Laity and Clergy by Ben Campbell Johnson

The Leader’s Journey-Accepting the Call to Personal and Congregational Transformation by Herrington; Creech; Taylor

Here are a few pieces that are my recommended reading for guidance, comfort, assurance.  These are the books I turn to over and over again and are well dog-eared:

My Oxford Annotated Bible
Surprised by Hope by N. T. Wright
Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Cruelty of Heresy by C. FitzSimons Allison
Grace In Practice by Paul Zahl
Theological Turning Points by Donald McKim

 
Books from the recent past:

Burning Chrome by William Gibson
A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

The New World by Winston Churchill
The Willows by Algernon Blackwood

Shakespeare by Bill Bryson
The Birth of Britain by Winston Churchill

At Home  by Bill Bryson
Fever Crumb and Mothstorm series by Philip Reeve

The Hunger Games  series by Suzanne Collins

The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown

Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas
A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt
Trumanby David McCullough
Semper Fi by Dan Carrison, Rod Walsh
Gregor the Overlander series by Suzanne Collins
Club Dead series by Charlaine Harris

Uncle Fred in the Springtime by P.G. Wodehouse
Bossypants by Tina Fey
Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda
True Grit by Charles Portis
Lonesome Dove trilogy  by Larry McMurtry
Autobiography of Mark Twain by Mark Twain
Agenda for a New Economy by David C. Korten

Undaunted Courage by Stephen E. Ambrose
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo  by Stieg Larsson

 
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Quotes

  • "Christianity is not a theory or speculation, but a life; not a philosophy of life, but a life and a living process." Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  • "Most people are willing to take the Sermon on the Mount as a flag to sail under, but few will use it as a rudder by which to steer." Oliver Wendell Holmes
  • "Perfection, in a Christian sense, means becoming mature enough to give ourselves to others." Kathleen Norris
  • "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can." John Wesley
  • "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried." G. K. Chesterton
  • "One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans." C. S. Lewis
  • "When we say, 'I love Jesus, but I hate the Church,' we end up losing not only the Church but Jesus too. The challenge is to forgive the Church. This challenge is especially great because the church seldom asks us for forgiveness." Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey
  • "Christians are hard to tolerate; I don't know how Jesus does it." Bono
  • "It's too easy to get caught in our little church subcultures, and the result is that the only younger people we might know are Christians who are already inside the church." Dan Kimball