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Bring in the Poets, Not the Politicians

February 6, 2013 in Book Reviews, Leadership with 0 Comments

By now, in the year 2013, social media is ubiquitous. A pastor or church leader who does not have at least a Facebook or Twitter profile – let alone an Instagram feed, LinkedIn profile, or Tumblr account – is in the minority. But the more avenues of online connectivity we have, the more digital noise threatens to muddy our lives. How should Christians – church leaders especially – approach the use of social media?

Leonard Sweet’s latest book, Viral, addresses this issue and, quite frankly, hits a home run. In Viral, Sweet analyzes the generation gap that exists between the “Gutenbergers” and the “Googlers.” He examines the changes that have taken place culturally, and makes the case for why the church absolutely cannot be left behind in the world of cyber-communication. Social media, Sweet contends, provides an incredible outlet for connectivity and storytelling. Tweeting and status-updating are a matter of discipline and focus that stem from a mission of reaching into the lives of other people. “[It] is a discipline of transparency. The knowledge that my tweets will be read by thousands of people keeps me more focused on my mission, makes me less whiny and complaining, and keeps me more sensitive to what others may need to hear. It’s a discipline to serve others and to simply express what I’m feeling.”

Sweet makes the case that even the simple things are important, just as every relationship is made up of both surfaces and depths. The important thing is to tell your story; we are to leverage the tools at our disposal to both draw others into our story and to engage in theirs. After all, Sweet reminds us, echoing the words of Plato, “If you want to change the world, don’t bring in the politicians who make the laws; bring in the poets who tell the stories.”

Viral is an invitation and exhortation for the Church to share the greatest Story ever told with a world who is already listening.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review

Break on Through

December 5, 2012 in Book Reviews, Faith/Hope/Love with 0 Comments

Boldness is tricky trait. It implies a certain amount of confidence, though it often may stem from a grander ignorance. A boldness that is too bold can be perceived as brash. Despite the fact that the timid or reserved are often intimidated by the bold, most of us reach a point or come across a circumstance where we all wish that we could be a little more bold. How many times do things go unsaid because our fears win the day? How often do our minds get swallowed by the “what ifs” because we lacked the boldness to take a risk.

That really is what boldness is about, isn’t it? Taking risks? Putting yourself out there?

And is there anything as bold as love?

Love requires that we completely open ourselves up to another. Love means that our emotions, passions, hopes, dreams, and desires are handed over to another. We hope, we trust, that we will not be damaged in the process, but to reap the benefits of love we must be bold. No relationship can thrive unless we are willing to let another break through the walls and defenses that we build to protect ourselves. We can never hope to experience the fulness of this life – the deepness of friendship and the richness of love – unless we are willing to be bold. Bold as love. Continue Reading…

You Have A Pretty Face, I’m Just Not That Into Your Body

July 18, 2012 in Book Reviews, Faith/Hope/Love with 5 Comments

Date Night

It’s date night, and a wife steps out of the bedroom and presents herself to her husband, who waits in the living room, car keys in hand. “Does this look ok, honey?” She asks, twirling ever-so-slightly to the side as she flashes a brilliant smile and holds her hands out at her sides, awaiting the verdict from her beloved husband.

“Meh,” he grunts. “Your makeup looks great, but the rest of your body is a bloated, disheveled mess.”

Date night over. Marriage, too, perhaps.

——————

Headless

“I like Jesus, I just don’t like the Church.”

Ever heard that sentiment before? I’ll be honest: not only have I heard that many times in the past, but there was once a time when I would nod my head in agreement and think, “Yes, more of Jesus; less of broken humanity.” But after spending the last decade-and-then-some laboring with, laughing with, worshipping with, and crying with the Church, I understand how wrong I was. Continue Reading…

Life After the Afterlife?

June 25, 2012 in Book Reviews with 0 Comments

Author/blogger/speaker Rachel Held Evans wrote a post late last week admitting her skepticism towards all these “I died and went to heaven then came back to life” memoirs that seem to be popping up all over the place. Her basic premise was that, while not wanting to automatically discount the authors of said books, she was not willing to blindly believe all the accounts as true and accurate, either.

If you are a reader or a Christian or both, it is hard for these books to go unnoticed. Heaven is for Real, the “account” of young Colton Burpo’s experience in the presence of Jesus, has been on the New York Times Best Seller list for 83 weeks, as of this writing.* Now Dr. Mary C. Neal’s book, To Heaven and Back, is attempting to make the same kind of push for popularity and influence.

All of that begs the question that Evans reasonably asks: are books about heaven being for real….well, for real? Did these people really die, experience a taste of heaven, and then come back to life in their earthly bodies? How much of their accounts can be believed? Our responses will lie across the entire spectrum: some steadfastly skeptical and unwilling to believe an ounce of it; others diving heart and soul into the stories, hopeful that in these tales they can find some piece of hope to cling to. Many of us will probably try to find a reasonable stance somewhere in between. Continue Reading…

Fearless

June 13, 2012 in Book Reviews with 0 Comments

I knew it was coming, but I cried anyway. Over the course of a couple hundred pages, I grew to love and respect the character of Adam Brown, as well as his wife Kelley, whose part in this story is impressive in its own right. Though I knew from the moment I opened the book that Adam would not make it to the final page, I wept almost uncontrollably in my bed as Kelley and her children were told the news her husband – their father – had been killed in action. They were tears of pain for Kelley and they were tears of joy for the hope and peace that Adam was welcomed into after a life of military and personal warfare.

Fearless is the biographical account of Adam Brown, a Navy SEAL who was killed in combat in the mountains of Afghanistan just two years ago. A member of SEAL  Team SIX, a group forever etched in history as the men who took down Osama Bin Laden, Adam Brown was described by all who knew him as truly fearless. Even more powerful, perhaps, is that his fearlessness was matched only by his selflessness. He truly was a soldier and a servant, in every sense.

If Adam’s story was only about the road to becoming a Navy SEAL and the ultimate sacrifice he paid while serving his country, then it would still be worth reading. But this story is so much deeper. And so much darker. When Adam – a guy everyone loved and who once had the whole world at his fingertips – fell into a spiral of drug addiction and pushed away any attempt at help, it seemed that prison or death were the most probable outcomes. Continue Reading…

Dug Down Deep

February 20, 2012 in Book Reviews with 1 Comment

When I was a kid, my family lived in a growing subdivision on Ithaca’s East Hill, overlooking the campus of Cornell University. When we first moved into the home, ours was one of only a small handful of houses that existed on that street. Over the next six or seven years, however, the street turned into a large circle, and the 4 or 5 houses turned into 15 or 20. I can barely remember a time on that block when there wasn’t at least one house – if not three or four – in the construction process.

Without a doubt, though, the thing about these houses that I remember most is how long it took to build the foundations. See, these foundations – while being built – were like a McDonald’s play land…minus the calories, and plus a few loose nails. My brother and I, along with a crew of friends that had moved in over the years, would ride our bikes around the block, stopping to play at the construction sites. We’d play tag, cops and robbers, capture the flag, “don’t fall off the cement wall onto a piece of rebar,” and any other kind of game that elementary school boys might play. And it was great fun that lasted for years, because it seemed like there were always foundations being built. The cement basements would sit there for months, it seemed. Then, almost overnight, the houses would be framed and a new family would move in. It always seemed crazy to me that the actual house part of a house could be built so quickly, but the foundation seemed to take forever.

But I guess those construction workers knew what they were doing. Continue Reading…

The Grace Effect

January 25, 2012 in Book Reviews, Faith/Hope/Love with 0 Comments

The first time I heard of Christopher Hitchens – that I am aware of – was the day he passed away. On December 15, 2011, my Twitter feed blew up with comments about his life and death. These comments ranged the gamut: some mourned the death of legend and pleaded for others to live like Hitchens; some clearly thought that the world was a better place without him; others found themselves struggling to respond to the passing of someone who so vehemently stood against their own personal values.

Ironically, that very same day, I picked up a book by Larry Taunton – a Christian apologetic and Executive Director of Fixed Point Foundation, and another name I with which I was unfamiliar at the time – called The Grace Effect. Taunton opens the book by recalling an amicable debate between himself, John Lennox, and their good friend (and theological arch-nemesis), Christopher Hitchens. At the basis of the argument was the common agreement that man, by nature, is evil; whether atheist or devout Christian, all parties in this conversation easily conceded this point. The discussion came, then, when examining which world religions worked to mitigate and ease this depravity, and which intensified it. “The problem is not religion,” Taunton argued. “It is man. A religion, like, say, radical Islam, might exacerbate man’s nature, but it is not responsible for it…Christianity, on the other hand, not only understands that the problem is man, but it seeks to redeem him from the evil that is inherent to his nature.” Continue Reading…

Uncommon Life

January 9, 2012 in Book Reviews with 4 Comments

In the world of sports accolades, Tony Dungy bears the honor of being the first African-American head coach to win a Superbowl, a feat he accomplished with the Indianapolis Colts in 2007. While that undoubtedly stands out as a highlight in his life, I think Coach Dungy finds much more meaning in the name he is building for himself as a champion for men. Dungy’s success in the world of professional football has given him a powerful platform from which to voice his passion and commitment to encouraging dads to be dads, and men to be men. A devout follower of Christ, Dungy is highly respected both in and outside of NFL circles.*

I had always been impressed watching Dungy’s career from his time in Tampa Bay to his final tenure in Indianapolis. His character was always evident – in every sideline camera shot and every post-game press-conference. Watching he and Peyton Manning win a Superbowl was just plain cool. Shortly after that winning season, Dungy released his first book called Quiet Strength, a biographical tome that shed light on those amazing NFL experiences, while also letting us into the deepest, most painful moments a father could imagine. My respect for the man only increased after reading that book. Continue Reading…

Start Something That Matters

December 21, 2011 in Action, Book Reviews with 5 Comments

I had some pretty hip students back in the day who wore TOMS shoes before TOMS were cool. These days, it’s difficult to walk anywhere in public without seeing at least a few people sporting the stylish, Argentinian-inspired footwear.* Like many people, the first I really became aware of what TOMS was doing was the AT&T commercial that aired during the 2009 Master’s Tournament.

Chances are that if you are reading this blog it means that you have heard of TOMS.** And unless you really, really hate skinny shoes, you are probably impressed with their business model. At the time, it was a novel idea: build a for-profit business that is driven by a world-changing philanthropic vision. TOMS operates with a surprisingly simply model called “One for One.” For every pair of TOMS shoes sold, the company donates one pair of shoes to a child in need. From a sustainability standpoint, this does not seem like a workable plan; yet, for founder and “Chief Shoe-Giver” Blake Mycoskie, it turned into a million-dollar idea. Or, rather, a million-shoe idea.***

The success that Blake and TOMS saw was so rapid and so unique that, to the rest of us, it seemed to pop up overnight. The reality, however, is that Blake turned down some amazing and potentially lucrative business opportunities because he wanted to do something with his life that mattered. For a twenty-something guy who knew nothing about shoes, the challenge was daunting. But he saw the need, allowed himself to be troubled and inspired by the injustice, and believed that trying to make a difference at the risk of coming up short was infinitely more important than doing nothing at all. Continue Reading…

Decision Points

December 8, 2011 in Book Reviews with 2 Comments

I have said it before – I am not a juggernaut of political and/or economic knowledge.* I’m working on it, though. I have, however, discovered over the past couple years that I thoroughly enjoy reading memoirs and biographies from interesting people – often people who are far outside the lines of where I typically work or play. This includes politics, military, beet farming, and almost anything else under the sun, so long as it could never be featured on a Martha Stewart special or the Oprah channel.

I turned 18 and voted in my first presidential election in 1996. Four years later, I voted for George W. Bush in the 2000 election. Again, I am no history buff, but I cannot think of another U.S. President who had to endure a more difficult set of circumstances – global and domestic – in the early stages of his first term as President Bush did.** At the time, I respected his decisions to go to war in Afghanistan and, later, Iraq. With regard to much of the other foreign affairs in North Korea, China, and other portions of the Middle East, I was largely ignorant. When Katrina hit, I felt the information the public received thought the mainstream media was skewed, and I didn’t fault the President or the Federal government for the problems with the response as much as many others wanted to. With regard to the recession and the financial woes our country faced during his presidency, I was naive and content to know that people much smarter than me were working on the issue. Continue Reading…

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