Updated Reading List

I began a youth ministry training cohort with a group of youth workers in September 2014. We meet every other month for support and encouragement as we discuss strengths and weaknesses in both personal life and youth ministry. Just one of the many benefits that has come out of this group: great accountability for reading. Below is a list I’ve read so far and I can say that they’ve stretched my thinking in many ways. I’ll be posting about some of them soon.

Finished Reading – Sept 2014-March 2015:

Youth Ministry 3.0 – Mark Ostreicher

Orbiting the Giant Hairball – Gordon MacKenzie

In the Name of Jesus – Henri Nouwen

Finding the Space to Lead – Janice Marturano

Leading Up – Joel Mayward

Introverts in the Church – Adam S. McHugh

Currently Reading:

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – Patrick Lencioni

A Beautiful Mess: What’s Right with Youth Ministry – Mark Ostreicher

 

photo credit: Memoirs of Napolean Bonaparte via photopin (license)

How I Drastically Increased My Writing Overnight

I want to be a writer. I think. Probably partly because I’m influenced by those types of people but also because there’s a lot in my heart that I’m pretty sure is worth sharing. However, I’ve always struggled with this task of writing; it’s a lot of work.

Recently I read an article that said if you want to be more productive, wake up every morning and hand write three pages. So the next day, I did that. Except it was one page. Then the next day I did it again. I struggled with what to write and it didn’t feel like I was becoming any more productive, but I kept writing for just a few more days and then something really cool happened.

The Ragamuffin Gospel – Chapter 6

Ch 6 – Grazie, Signore

It’s been tough for me to summarize these chapters because I find myself wanting to underline the entire thing. Each chapter has a ton of illustrations and sub-points, and without reading them the main point doesn’t really make much sense. So it’s a deep book and difficult to summarize briefly.

This chapter really hit me though, for a number of reasons that have something to do with my experience in the church.

The Ragamuffin Gospel – Chapter 2

Ch 2 – Magnificent Monotony

I started reading this book with some guys from church last week, and today Chapter 2 raised some discussion over how the author intended to use this word monotony to describe God’s relationship with us. Sure, the title says it’s magnificent, but still.

It was another great chapter where in the end he says that “anyone who has experienced [God’s love] will tell you: the synonym for monotonous is not boring.”

There’s a lot I could quote (as Dean said: “It’s like pulling a piece of straw out from a haystack” haha) and I’m not very good at book reports, but what stood out for me was reading about God’s power (i.e. he created) and his love. He loves just because I am (referring back to grace from Ch 1?). But if in return, I love God because I think I need to (i.e. because he’s powerful), then I’m not getting it.

 

He then talks about how we’re in a similar situation with each other. We think we need to be popular or powerful; we focus on these things. But to “accept myself as I am…is an act of faith in the God of grace.” p48-49 This doesn’t mean we become lazy. Instead, he says that “love is a far better stimulus than threat or pressure.” p49 (another reference to God’s power?) But when we begin to see ourselves as accepted, “we decrease our hunger for power…we no longer fear criticism…we are less often plagued with the desire to please others…we are grateful for life” etc. p-49-50

For me, this chapter had that aha moment on the last page when I read that “the gospel of grace ends any apparent dichotomy between God’s power and His love.” p50 (Dichotomy: a division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed or entirely different.)

I think this is difficult to grasp as a Christian. There’s a lot of info in the bible that leads us to think that we need to stand up for what’s right, or we need to make sure that everyone knows the truth about who Jesus is, etc. And to a certain extent, maybe we do. But isn’t that the same as using our power or trying to please others or whatever other big list of to-dos you can come up with?

But then, the gospel of grace doesn’t mean I just sit around. It means I’m free to love more.

I think you need to read the chapter to get where I’m going with this, but hopefully you can see that there’s a difference between loving God because we’re supposed to and in loving others because God loves us.

The Ragamuffin Gospel – Chapter 1

Ch 1- Something Is Radically Wrong

The idea that we have to do something to earn our salvation. “Put bluntly, the American church today accepts grace in theory but denies it in practice.” He says that “our culture has made the word grace impossible to understand.” p16

“Though the Scriptures insist on God’s initiative in the work of salvation–that by grace we are saved–our spirituality often starts with self, not God. Personal responsibility has replaced personal response…The emphasis is on what I do rather than on what God is doing.” p17

But “sooner or later we are confronted with the painful truth of our inadequacy…We discover our inability to add even a single inch to our spiritual stature.” He says then that “life takes on a joyless, empty quality.” To this, “something is radically wrong.” p17-18

The remainder of the chapter takes a pretty poetic look at grace. Too much for me to quote. I’m left desiring a deeper practice of grace in my life, but at the same time I feel like that is missing the point.

“Our approach to the Christian life is as absurd as the enthusiastic young man who had just received his plumber’s license and was taken to see Niagara Falls. He studied it for a minute and then said, ‘I think I can fix this.'” p18

His stance is basically that we need radical acceptance of anyone and everyone in the church. That’s something we say, but difficult to practice.

I think his main point about grace in this chapter is based on Romans 1:17, that the “gospel reveals the righteousness of God to us.” He quotes Martin Luther who asked during the Reformation, “How could the gospel of Christ be truly called ‘good news’ if God is a righteous judge who rewards the good and punishes the evil?” I’m struggling to fully understand this point, but I think he’s saying that if the gospel (which means, good news) allows us to know God – and to know that he is good – how could it be a negative message if I don’t follow it? That would be bad news. He explains then, that the light clicked for Luther when he understood that God’s righteousness was not for himself (passive) but “for the sake of Jesus Christ, God made sinners righteous (that is, active righteousness) through the forgiveness of sins in justification.” p19-20

So apparently there’s a connection here between being made right with God, and his love for me. “Justification by grace through faith” then means that God loves me no matter what I do. He says “this is almost too incredible for us to accept. Nevertheless, the central affirmation of the Reformation stands: Through no merit of ours, but by His mercy, we have been restored to a right relationship with God through the life, death, and resurrection of His beloved Son. This is the Good News, the gospel of grace.” p20-21

I’m still a little confused. I’m reading this book with some old guys from church though, and maybe they’ll help clear it up.