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One of the books we read before writing our theology papers for ordination was Mainline or Methodist?: Rediscovering Our Evangelistic Mission by Scott Kisker, who teaches at Wesley Theological Seminary. We both loved the book. As the title suggests, the book addresses an identity problem in the UMC. In the foreword, Bishop Timothy Whitaker writes: … Read more
The importance of reading to children is well-documented and I think it’s something we do pretty well in our home. It certainly helps that both Ethan and Sarah love books! Of course, our evening family devotion time involves reading children’s Bible story books. But also on most afternoons these days, when one of us takes … Read more
In preparation for writing our Theology Papers (responses to the theological questions in the Book of Discipline) for ordination in the UMC, we did some reading in the area of Wesleyan theology. One of the books we read was Bishop William Willimon‘s This We Believe: The Core of Wesleyan Faith and Practice (you can read … Read more
I picked up a copy of The Future of the United Methodist Church: 7 Vision Pathways at annual conference and read it a couple of weeks ago. The book is edited by Bishops Scott jones and Bruce Ough with contributions from eight other bishops. In a previous post, I listed 4 Talking Points about United … Read more
One of the books I finished up during Lent, as part of my Lenten Growth Plan, was Eugene Peterson’s Eat This Book (which I wrote about a couple times after I started reading it last year: Eat This Book 1.0 and Eat This Book 2.0). Peterson also wrote The Message, a paraphrase/translation of the Scriptures, … Read more
During Lent this year, my sermon series focused on the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life, leading up to his crucifixion on the cross. One of the key study resources that I used for this series was Adam Hamilton‘s recent book, 24 Hours That Changed the World. I enjoyed reading the book personally and will … Read more
One of the books I’m reading during this Lenten season is Off-Road Disciplines by Earl Creps. I think I first saw the book in the Cokesbury bookstore at Asbury Theological Seminary a few years ago. I thought it was a creative look at a different set of spiritual disciplines in the 21st century, specifically for … Read more
One of the books on my rather aggressive Lenten reading list is Raising an Emotionally-Intelligent Child by John Gottman. The book was published in 1997 and I actually read it shortly after that, mainly due to my interest in emotional intelligence. I haven’t completely re-read it yet, but I have done a little reviewing. Based … Read more
Picking up where we left off five months ago (due to parental leaves), our Covenant Groups resumed last night (see Simple Church 1.0). Our Covenant Groups (a requirement of our ordination process) are discussing Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger’s book, Simple Church. Since we had only read chapter one for our September 2009 meeting, we … Read more
I am still making my way through Eugene Peterson’s Eat This Book. Earlier, I wrote about the first three chapters, and in this post, I’ll reflect on the last couple chapters of part one. In chapter four, Peterson talks about story and suggests, “Story is the primary verbal means of bringing God’s Word to us” … Read more