Category: Books

  • 3 Books Youth Workers Need to Buy this Fall

    Of all the books that are new this fall, here are three that I’m recommending you buy: Parents Sticky Faith: Everyday ideas to build lasting faith in your kids – Put together a 6-week parents discussion group with the parents in your youth group and work your way through Sticky Faith together. You don’t want…

  • How do we minister to the poor with integrity & grace?

    It’s taken me nearly a year to work through the book, “When Helping Hurts.” The content and concepts weigh heavy on my heart. In my neighborhood the poor are easy to find. While not in the open, once you have eyes for it, you see poverty everywhere. We have people who squat in abandoned houses…

  • Steps of Justice

    If you haven’t yet checked out the Steps of Justice 30-Day Prayer guide you are really missing out. What I like about the guide is that it isn’t just something to read and put down. It’s an action guide. It raises your awareness, leads you to prayer, then gets you doing something about it. It’s…

  • Book Cover: How to Share Your Faith on a Plane

    [download id=”15″] I have a knack for getting an empty seat next to me when I fly Southwest. On more than 60% of my 2010 flights I sat in the window seat and had an empty middle seat. In January 2011, I flew with Southwest 11 times and had an empty middle seat 7 times.…

  • Cool book for small groups

    Earlier this year I posted a review of Tony’s Jones book about the Didache. I’m still thinking about this book and its effects on community life. So take this as a random recommendation. If you’re in an adult small group and you are looking for a book to get your group talking about what it…

  • Why Americans are Going Local

    Yesterday Kristen and I listened to an author, Andrew Potter, describe the American movement towards all things local and eco-friendly as conspicuous consumption. It felt like an elitist slap in the face. His book is called, The Authenticity Hoax. (I’ve not read it) You can see the transcript to the Marketplace segment, “The new holier than…

  • Stop reading books!

    No seriously. Books are great. Reading is fundamental. I’m all about practical resources and history and stories that carry you away to far away lands. But lets not get to the point where we stop thinking creatively about resourcing ourselves. Or acting in a way worthy of a historian writing about us. Or living a…

  • Go and Do Discipleship Model

    [video link] My view of discipleship has radically changed in the last two years. I’m increasingly convinced that my role as a shepherd to high schoolers is about putting them in moments of spiritual crisis so that they recognize that they need to learn more from God’s Word. This is in stark contrast to my…

  • C.S. Lewis is to Christians What…

    C.S. Lewis is to Christians what McDonalds is to American children. C.S. Lewis is to Christians what beer pong is to college students. C.S. Lewis is to Christians what Dave Ramsey is to those who suck with money. I first heard of C.S. Lewis in 6th grade. Lori, the girl who sat behind me and…

  • Vacation Reading

    Yesterday officially kicked off my summer vacation. For the first time since I was 24 I’ll only have two weeks of vacation this year, one of which I’ll use for my July trip to Haiti, so I have to make the most of this one. My intention is to disconnect as much as possible. (More…