09.21.09
metaphorically speaking…
While my last church-planting book for seminary was decidedly fascinating, my current church-planting book reads like a car manual. It basically gives step-by-step painstakingly verbose instructions on how to plant a church in 13 chapters and 8 appendices. Aside from the bore of it all, the author has a knack for cheesy metaphors and uses them to the point of overkill.
But the most unbearable is the overarching metaphor on which the book is founded.
The entire book compares church-planting to giving birth.
Here’s a sampling of chapter titles: We’re Going to Have a Baby!: The Conception Stage; Childbirth Classes: The Development Stage; It’s a Baby!: The Birth Stage; Feed Them and They Grow!: The Growth Stage; I’m No Longer a Kid!: The Maturity Stage; Let’s Have a Baby: The Reproduction Stage.
The ridiculousness of this metaphor is rivaled only by this author’s affinity for exclamation points.
So when I am in public and am reading this book, I feel like I have to hide the title page of each chapter so that people don’t walk by and assume that “I’m Going to Have a Baby!”
Who ever said that babies don’t come with instruction manuals? Have I got a book for them!
And while they’re at it, maybe they won’t mind writing a 7-page summary and critique for me? Pretty please?
09.24.08
reading is for lovers
In my 5th grade class I begin every day by reading a chapter aloud from The Trumpet of the Swan by EB White, the same guy who wrote Charlotte’s Web. It is such an excellent book with rich vocabulary, and a touching, but comical story. My kids have really been into it. They are always eager to hear what happens next, and groan when the chapter is over and it is time to stop.
The story is about a swan who is born with no voice. His father is ashamed of this “defect” because he knows the mute bird will not be able to attract a mate. So he steals a trumpet and the young swan learns to play it beautifully…there are a lot of details, but for the sake of the blog it is important to know that a young female swan has caught his eye. He tries to woo her, but is unsuccessful.
So today, I was reading and the swan left the lake to work at a boy’s camp as the camp bugler, playing Reveille in the morning and Taps at night. When one of my students heard that he was leaving the lake and his family, he said, “But what about his mom and his dad and his lover??”
At that moment it took all of my control not to burst out laughing. It is just weird to hear an eleven-year-old boy say “lover” in a correct, serious, appropriate context. I kept reading, but I had to stifle giggles every time I thought about it.
“What about his lover????”
08.02.08
reading list
I am a pretty avid reader, so I have a running book list of books I want to read. The next books on the list include:
The Shack – I want to find out what all the buzz is about.
The Zookeeper’s Wife – Christians hiding Jews in the Warsaw Zoo. This premise is too good to pass up for a Jew-loving, Poland-loving, zoo-loving Christian like myself!
30 Things Everyone Should Know How To Do Before Turning 30 – Marylyn doesn’t know this yet, but we are going to master everything in this book together to celebrate being real live adults in the big bad world.
Radically Unchurched – I get to read some fun stuff for seminary!
The Unexpected Journey – Again, for seminary! This one gives 12 stories of people who turned from other faiths to Jesus – everything from Mormonism to Buddhism to Satanism.
But right now I am in the middle of a REALLY good book. I recommend you all go buy this book immediately, or beg me to borrow it when I am finished.
Jim and Casper Go To Church: Frank Conversation about Faith, Churches, and Well-Meaning Christians
So Jim is an open-minded pastor and Casper is an open-minded athiest, and together they visited churches around the country and objectively rated them. Then they wrote this book about their experiences. IT IS FASCINATING! They went to mega-churches, home churches, black churches, white churches, emergent churches, super old fashioned churches, all sorts of churches. And we get an outsiders honest perspective. I was kind of expecting Casper to have a chip on his shoulder and an ax to grind, but he really is objective and gives some great insight!
At one point Casper asks pastor Jim why so many pastors seem to pick and choose isolated verses that fit with their sermon. He comments that the sermon where the pastor read an entire chapter made the most sense to him. He asks that if we believe this is the word of God, why do we not let it stand on its own? Why do we just use it as an additive to the beliefs we already hold? I thought this was quite insightful. Only one of the many ways he respectfully challenges the pastor to rethink the way we Americans “do church”.
I love having time to read! I loving having books in English to choose from!
If you want to find me, I will be at Starbucks inhaling the written word.
