J.R. Briggs
Attempting to behold the miracle long enough without falling asleep
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Archive of "Good Books" Category
Book recommendation
I just finished reading The Search to Belong by Joe Myers. At first I was cynical of him deconstructing small groups and small group ministries, but he’s really on to something.
Instead of creating groups, our churches should be about cultivating environments and space for connection.
If you’re a church leader and you get a chance, pick up a copy. It’s worth the read.Book Recommendation: Let Your Life Speak
Recently I finished reading a little gem of a book: Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation. The book is small – only 110 pages long – but it’s introspective and profound.
It’s written by an educational expert of the Quaker tradition named Parker J. Palmer.
Palmer was mentored by Henri Nouwen.
I’m a big fan of Nouwen.
In college, when required to read some of Palmer’s books for my coursework I was incapable of appreciating his work and I was not a fan. Now I’m a big fan of Palmer.It’s the best book I’ve read in six months.
If you haven’t read it, buy it.
If you have read it, buy it for a friend. Right. Now.
The book is worth it’s weight in gold.Rob Bell’s new book
Pastor, speaker, Nooma video creator and author Rob Bell of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, MI has a new book coming out called "Sex God." I’m pretty excited about it and the first chapter was phenomenal.
You can read the first chapter of the book (PDF format) on Zondervan’s website.
Check it out here.Create a Caption
The Create-a-Caption contest is back here at brokenstainedglass. Here’s how it works: I post a picture, you post funny comments about the picture and then I pick the ones that are the funniest and announce the winners.
Feel free to post as many comments as you’d like.
Winners will be announced next week.
The Bible and Porn Stars
TIME Magazine reports that NavPress (the publishing house for my book) is making a controversial move that is making waves in Christian circles…and hopefully making an impact in the secular world as well.
Read about it here. (Don’t worry…this link won’t get you fired).
The Younger Evangelicals
Just finished a great book by Robert Webber called The Younger Evangelicals. If you’re having a hard time explaining to the ‘older’ crowd the spiritual shift in America among the predominantly under-30 crowd then send them to this book.
In the words of my friend Chris, "it’s the best modern explanation of postmodernism and its implications for ministry out there."
I’ll blog about it more later. It’s what every senior pastor of every church in America should read.
Great book
If you’re looking to understand more the changing shift of evangelicalism of twentysomethings then you need to pick up Robert Webber’s The Younger Evangelicals (Baker, 2002).
Fabulous book.
I’m digesting it slowly, because it is so rich and thought-provoking.
Best Books I Read in 2005
This time of year is flooded with superlative lists and television programs containing "the best of 2005." I seem to like these little lists and programs, highlighting the past year before we anticipate a new one.
So, since I have read dozens and dozens of books I thought I would include the "Broken Stained Glass Best Books I Read in 2005" list. (Links to each title have been provided should you want to learn more about them).
Best Spiritual Formation Book: The Divine Conspiracy (Dallas Willard)
Best Book on Social Justice: Rich Christians In An Age of Hunger (Ron Sider)
Best Thought-Provoking and Entertaining Book: A tie between Tipping Point and Blink (both by Malcolm Gladwell).
Best Paradigm-Shifting Book on American Society: Freakonomics (Steven Levitt)
Best Biography and Best Leadership Book: Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage (Alfred Lansing)
Best Biblical/Cultural/Archaeological Understanding (Popular): Walking The Bible (Bruce Feiler)
Best Biblical/CulturalArchaeological Understanding (Academic): Excavating Jesus (Dominic Crossan)
Best Church Leadership Book (Emerging Church): The Shaping of Things to Come (Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch)
Best Church Leadership Book (non-emerging Church): The Present Future (Reggie McNeal)
Best Book on Community: Community and Growth (Jean Vanier)
Best Book That Isn’t Out Yet: When God Says Jump (J.R. Briggs). Sorry, I just had to do a shameless plug for the upcoming release of my first book (release date March 2006).
Any books you all would recommend as a "must read" in 2006?
Book recommendation
Several weeks ago I recommended a book by Ron Sider called Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, a well researched book on our responsibility as Christians with the poor of the world. Here’s another book in the similiar line of thinking. Well-known journalist and author Barbara Ehrenreich wrote a New York Times Best Seller: Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America.
Ehrenreich, curious about what should be done with welfare reform in America, wondered how anyone could survive on $6-$7 an hour in America. So she decided to find out herself, going undercover (i.e. not telling anyone about her nifty little experiment) for a year by working six different hourly labor jobs in five different cities in the country– ranging from being a cleaning maid in a hotel to working at Walmart to waiting tables to being an aid in a nursing home. She recorded her experiences over those twelve months and put them into book form. It changed my perspective of the working poor in America. So, exactly how do people get by working a $6-$7 an hour job? Her conclusion: they don’t. One entry-level, hourly labor job is not enough to even eek by in America. She believes that you need at least two jobs.
Almost the entire book is a first-person account of situations she found herself in as the card-carrying member of the ‘working poor’ (or at least for a year). But in the last chapter of the book she gets reflective and shares research with the reader. Here are some final thoughts by the author:
"The poor can see the affluent easily enough — on televsion, for example, or on the covers of magazines. But the affluent rarely see the poor or, if they do catch sight of them in some public place, rarely know what they’re seeing since — thanks to consigment stores and yes, Walart — the poor are usually able to disguise themselves as members of the more comfortable classes" (p. 216).
"According to a survey conducted by the US Conference of Mayors, 67 percent of the adults requesting emergency food aid are people with jobs" (p. 219).
Most of the book is entertaining, descriptive and at times very humorous (Ehrenreich is a great writer) but she ends with this haunting exposition (i.e. an appropriate tongue-lashing) of the American system.
"The welfare poor were excoriated for their laziness, their persistence in reproducing in unfavorable circumstances, their presumed addictions, and above all for their ‘dependency.’ Here they were, content to live off ‘government handouts’ instead of seeking ‘self-sufficiency’ like everyone else, through a job. They needed to get their act together, learn how to wind an alarm clock, get out there and get to work. But now that government has largely withdrawn its ‘handouts’ now that the overwhelming majority of the poor are out there toiling in Wal-Mart and Wendy’s — well, what are we to think of them? Disapproval and condescension no longer apply, so what outlook makes sense?
"Guilt, you may be thinking warily. Isn’t that what we’re supposed to feel? But guilt doesn’t go anywhere near far enough; the appropriate emotion is shame — shame at our own dependency, in this case, ont he underpaid labor of others. When someone works for less pay than we can live on –when, for example, she goes ungry so that you can eat more cheaply and conveniently — then, she had made a great sacrifice for you, she has made you a gift of some part of her abilities, her health and her life. The ‘working poor,’ as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high. To be member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else" (p. 221).
If you get a chance, pick up the book. It will mess with you (for the better).
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