10 Books for 2010
I am thankful to my 3rd grade teacher for giving me a love for reading. It was Mrs. Hayes who encouraged me to read for 15 minutes every night before I went to sleep. I think she knew if you can get a kid to start reading for 15 minutes, it will create a ferocious appetite that won’t stop there. Since early childhood I have been an avid reader, but I realize that reading is not a discipline that many Americans, and many American Christians for that matter, enjoy. For with all the technology vying for our time and attention it’s no wonder that a 2007 poll revealed that 27% of Americans did not read a single book the previous year.
That being said, with the New Year upon us I know that many of you are desiring to make reading a part of your routine. In fact my wife made a New Year’s resolution to read more in 2010, so in light of that I thought I would pass along some recommendations for your new habit.
These 10 books are not necessarily new and they are in no particular order, but they will help you tremendously in your understanding of theology, culture, and the Christian life. Some of them are quick reads others are more reference books that you’ll refer to for years to come.
2. The Reason for God – Tim Keller
4. The Gospel of the Kingdom – George Ladd
6. Systematic Theology – Wayne Grudem
7. According to Plan – Graeme Goldsworthy
8. Unfashionable – Tullian Tchividjian
9. Vintage Church – Mark Driscoll
10. How to Read the Bible for all it’s Worth – Fee and Stuart
I would like to read the following books in 2010 -
1. Counterfeit Gods – Tim Keller
Random Stuff
I’m reading several books right now…if you are a pastor or church planter I recommend each of them. Not because I agree with everything that’s written but because I think it will challenge you and help you to think through things that you may not otherwise.
1. Launch “Starting a new church from scratch” (Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas)
2. Lost and Found “The younger unchurched and the churches that reach them” (Ed Stetzer)
3. Planting Missional Churches (Ed Stetzer)
Rory Rodgers begins his work here tomorrow…we will introduce him to the church and then he and I will work together in transition for about a month. My last Sunday here at CCCC will be Sunday August 9th. I can hear the collective cheers from those who are excited about our departure. 
Seriously we are going to miss this church, this community, and it is going to be really difficult to leave this behind. We are however confident that God is in this and that He is going to continue pouring out His blessings upon CCCC through the leadership of Rory and that He is going to begin a new work in Fort Collins through the planting of The Bridge.
On a completely different note…Riley Taylor, the son of Wayne Taylor (pastor of Calvary Fellowship in Seattle), has put together some stinkin’ hilarious videos for a teaching series in the book of Acts. Here is Acts 1…you can find the rest on youtube or around the web.
[youtube WO0PKQiZROE]
Bringing Masculinity Back
I was reading an article on The Resurgence and had to share an excert from the article here.
“Dr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was asked publicly why the churches of his day had so few young men in the pews. He instantly shot back, “Because there are so many old women in the pulpits.” Preaching should either send men away angry or turn them in heartfelt repentance. The one thing it must not do, but too often does, is dull them.”
Love it…
Speaking of masculinity…you can download Mark Driscoll’s e-book called “Pastor Dad” here for free.
Staying on Mission
Over the last several weeks, in our series in the gospel of Luke (9:1-26 “Our Mission” and 9:27-62 “Things that Derail our Mission”), I have been preaching about our mission as believers. The theme of the gospel of Luke is found in 19:10,
“for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Jesus, the first missionary, humbled himself and condescended to our culture filled with sin and all its repurcussions (Phil. 2:1-11). Unfortunately many churches that claim to follow Jesus are not on His mission but have settled for a pseudo-mission of moralism and isolationism which has resulted in an impotent Church that cares more about picketing, the anti-Christ, the timing of Jesus’ return, and conspiracy theories than it does about the lost people Jesus’ explicitly called us to convert into disciples (Matthew 28:18-20).
Because Jesus knows we’re not that smart He made our mission pretty simple,
“Go make disciples…”
In standard fashion we have convoluted this command and in the process we have veered off of our mission of taking the gospel to everyone who is living in separation from God.
As Mark Driscoll so often says, it’s about “taking the timeless truth of the gospel to the lost using timely methods.”
Jesus, Paul, and every effective missionary since has understood contextualization. In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 Paul makes it clear that he was willing to do anything apart from sin to bring the gospel to his context in a way that resonates with them.
“Contextualization is about making the church as culturally accessible as possible without compromising the truth of Christian belief. In this, what is sought is timeless truth and timely methods. In other words, contextualization is not making the gospel relevant, but showing the relevance of the gospel.” (Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears ,Vintage Church, p. 228)
Why is it that certain segments of Christianity are so afraid of this concept? Why are so many churches, pastors, and Christians content to isolate themselves in their Bible bubbles when we know full well that Jesus engaged His culture? Why do we insist on hanging on to our tried and true “methods” of ministry when we can clearly see they are failing?
Oh and why are those “methods” acceptable but anything that doesn’t fit into our little box labeled “philosophy of ministry” aren’t?
Catching Up
Hey all I just wanted to pass along a few links to you and catch you up on some things I plan to write.
Mark Driscoll’s short book on porn – This is very well written and to the point. I encourage every man, especially young men, to read this.
Art Azurdia’s “How to Study Your Bible” class at our church – The audio from all four sessions and a pdf of his notes are available there.
Spurgeon Fellowship Journal - Helpful articles for pastors and preachers.
I plan to write the second part of the Women in Ministry post early this week.
I also hope to write some of my thoughts about some recent events within Calvary Chapel including a new CCOF website.
Deadly Viper: Character Assassins
While we were at Andrea’s parents house the other night I picked up this book off the coffee table. My father in law informed me that it was very good and that it was given to him by my brother in law after his church’s leadership went through it together.
It’s a very unique book both in style and content. I have read about half the book and I’m pleasantly surprised. I wasn’t expecting much based on the title, some of the quote sources (Dog the Bounty Hunter for example) and the odd format in which it’s written.
The theme of the book is integrity. The authors believe that good character and lasting integrity is the result of complete honesty with someone(s) you can trust. They postulate that when we keep struggles to ourselves we empower those sinful proclivities, enslaving ourselves even further. I couldn’t agree more with this theory and hope to implement some of their ideas into our leadership and church.
What I like about this book is that they concede the fact that accountability is only as good as the people involved. It doesn’t do any good if I’m just honest after the fact. Accountability is supposed to keep me from doing stupid stuff…the only way this is going to happen is if I’m honest with the little things that lead to the big life altering failures.
My only criticism so far is the lack of Scripture. While I believe the principles they are purporting are biblical I’m curious why they chose to quote Duane “Dog” Chapman and not God Himself.
Unfortunately this is becoming more and more prevalent amongst those who claim to be teachers of the Word.
Tom Stipe Interview
(This picture may be a little old…kind of like Realtor’s pictures on their business cards)
Michael Newnham of the Phoenix Preacher recently interviewed Tom Stipe, a Calvary Chapel Pastor with whom I deeply respect. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Tom at the NWPC and what a privilege that was. Tom is intelligent, funny, and humble. Three things that pastors typically aren’t…wait I’m a pastor
Tom is a great man and a voice that I wish more men in our movement would tune in to.
You can read the interview on the PP here…or I’ve included it below as well.
Can't we all just get along?
Christianity is not very complicated.
Christians like to make it complicated but it’s really rather simple. For centuries those that claim to follow the Carpenter from Galilee have taken the simple truths of our faith and muddied them up. In light of this convolution the Church is now fractured into a myriad of groups that are divided by such minutiae as which version of the Bible to use.
I wonder what would happen if the Church in America was persecuted like the Church in the book of Acts. What if we had to gather in dark underground cellars crowded around one Bible. I don’t think Christians in Red China are too worried about what version of the Bible their underground Church uses. I’m pretty sure that Peter and the boys were not too concerned with Church politics while Nero was chasing them down and torturing them. (more…)
A Tale of Three Kings
I’m reading the book A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards.
Wow!
Can you say busted…this book is amazing and I recommend it to you all. The theme of the book is brokenness. It’s the story of Saul, David, and Absalom.
Here is an excerpt… (more…)