I know you've been waiting for it. It's finally here...THE BOOKS OF MAY

I read so many great books in May it seems unfair to put them all in one blog. But here they are:

The Me I Want To Be - John Ortberg
I love anything this guy writes. This book was very meaty and hard to read without taking time to reflect. Really, really good!

Making It All Work - David Allen
This book helped me understand stress in a completely different light than I have ever seen it before. Want to know why burnout is epidemic in the information age? Check this guy's stuff out! Lots of it is online.

The Right To Remain Silent - A Night to Remember - Joy Desjarlais
She is a great person, a local authour who has a powerful story that should be told. Thanks Joy for your hard work and vulnerability in writing this book.

By Design or Default - Creating Church Culture That Works - Kevin Gerald
This guy is doing church very, very well. Well worth checking out his stuff online as well, Champions Center in Seattle. Loved this book.

3 Questions of a Frantic Family - Patrick Lencioni
One of my new favourite authours. I have now officially read everything he has written...until he comes out with another book, and I am looking forward to that. This guy has a gift of writing in a way that is fun to read and finding ways to make huge improvements with simple steps.

The Monkey and The Fish - Liquid Leadership in a Third Culture Church - Dave Gibbons
This book was confusing and challenging for me. Very stretching and messed with my paradigms of how ministry works.

How To Break Growth Barriers - Carl George
The second time I read this book and liked it even better the second time. The best material I have seen on this subject.

Doing Church as A Team - Wayne Cordiero
Cordiero is one of my heroes. God has used him to hugely impact my life. Check out his Life Journals at www.lifejournal.cc

Corrie Ten Boom - Janet and Jeff Benge
Biographies inspire me.

Practicing His Presence - Brother Lawrence, Frank Laubach
My favourite book of all time. I am so excited to be sharing it with 20 or so people in our book club. Can't wait to hear their responses. Expresses the one longing of my heart which is to live in continuous conscious joy in the presence of God. (Psalm 27:4; Rom. 10:31; Phil. 3)

The Pursuit of God - AW Tozer
My second favourite book in all the world. This book has more great quotes than a hundred other books together. Definitely a classic. I hope someone makes a modern English version soon.

Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell
Fun stuff. Very interesting.

If Only He Knew - Gary Smalley
Oh man, now that I know I feel all guilty and everything though!  If only I did half of the stuff I learned in this book!

Mad Church Disease - Anne Jackson
Wow, cool, cutting edge, fun, very, very, relevant to where I am at and the church in North America is at. Well done!

Messy Spirituality - Michael Yaconelli
An excellent read that messes with any religiosity that you might have in you.

Yup, if you are counting, that's 15 books in May! Wow, I know what you are thinking. He must have skim-read some of them. Well...that's probably true, I confess. And some of them had pictures too...and popups, I love popups!

The Books of April

Here were the books of April; very challenging. Many of them were recommended to me by others for various reasons. Sometimes good to get me reading things I wouldn't normally read.

Blood in the Sand – Benny Hinn
The history side of this book (which made up most of the book) was very interesting. Definitely had a lot of historical information that I did not know and I found it helpful for understanding more of the Middle East.

Colossians and Philemon – Kent Hughes
I love Hughes' commentaries....definitely my favourite (other than John Stott). Colossians' focus on the centrality and supremacy of Christ is so cool. Probably my favourite book of the Bible.

William and Catherine Booth – Helen Hosier
Wow, these two were tireless and passionate. So inspiring to read biographies! The Salvation Army has some very cool history! Love it.

Colossians – Lloyd John Ogilvie
A great pastor writes about God's Word.

Leading Beyond the Walls – Adam Hamilton
This is one of the top 10 books on how churches should work that I have ever read. Aside from needing to be a total workaholic to be a pastor like this guy, I would like to implement a lot of what I learned.

Leading on Empty - Wayne Cordeiro
This is one of my favourite church leaders today. His "Life Journal" radically changed my life. This book is a classic in its field and will help thousands of church leaders. Depression and burnout is so incredibly common in church leaders; this book shows why and how to change that.

Getting Things Done - David Allen
I am still processing this book. I think it might become a "life-changing book" for me. I went and bought the sequel, "Making It All Work", today and am 100 pages in...it’s awesome. If I can ever actually make serious use of this stuff it will be very good for me.

How The Mighty Fall - Jim Collins
So fun to read Jim Collins. Made me think about something new..."Hubris"

The Resilient Life - Gordon MacDonald
This book challenged me and messed with me. Made me long to be more holy. Made me see so many areas I need to work on. Like having surgery, definitely good for me, but painful.

Finishing Well - Bob Buford
Very inspiring. Like reading the mini-biography of 60 people today who are worth learning from. I love Bob Buford. I feel like God may be calling me to do ministry similar to his. His book, "Halftime", changed my life when I was in my early twenties. I would recommend it for everyone in business or who finds themselves remotely successful in life.

The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller

I do a lot of reading and thought it might be beneficial to occasionally review a book on my blog. Here is one of my favourite books from this month.

The Prodigal God (2008) is recommended by Billy Graham and Rick Warren. It's a nice length (133 pages). It is one of the clearest and most powerful explanations of the Christian message I have ever read. It follows the familiar story of the prodigal son, but teaches it in fresh and compelling ways. I found myself saying as I read, "That's a great way to say it, I'll have to remember that." "Wow, that is life-changing; I will mark that and come back to it...ouch!" "If only we Christians could grasp this afresh, it would renew the church."

The prodigal son is a story of two brothers. They approach life two ways. These two ways represent humanities approaches to life. Jesus shows how both of these ways are wrong and introduces a radical third way. Keller introduces true Christianity as neither religion nor irreligion; rather it is something different altogether.

Rather than argue against the common trend in secular culture of blaming religion for many of the world’s problems and wars, Keller readily agrees. He simply sees the message of Jesus as something so radically different, that once understood it could never be clomped in with religion.

The elder brother and the prodigal son are both lost. But the elder brother is worse off because he is more blind to his lostness. This is why Jesus was so hard on devout religious people. "Elder brother" religion has it's claws firmly entrenched in all the world’s religions and in much of so-called Christianity. We desperately need the radical message of the gospel to be clearly seen.

"God's reckless grace is our greatest hope, a life-changing experience, and the subject of this book." (pg xv)

I highly recommend this read. Keller has good reformed theology (my favourite) and is solid biblically. He is a great communicator. I am sure you can order it at our great local Christian bookstore in Moose Jaw: Gemstones.