Tag: reading

i finished so beautiful: divine design for life and the church by leonard sweet yesterday. i have mixed feelings concerning sweet’s writing. he makes some incredible points but he does it by making tons of one line statements that vary from cheesy to brilliant. for example he states that when we de-story something we in essence destroy it. i would usually dismiss an author who writes in such a manner BUT sweet makes some incredible points.

sweet structures the book around the mri concept that he has discussed at other points. sweet says that the dna of the church is m.r.i. (missional, relational, incarnational). this again is one of those things that drives me crazy and attracts me at the same time. i can stand lots of cute little acronym’s and dr. sweet uses them all the time. for example the opposite of the mri church is the apc church (attractional, propositional, colonial). the book is full of these little things.

yet sweet’s writing has a great deal of depth to it. the acronyms that would typically drive me nuts hit the mark instead. i love what he says on the church being missional, relational and incarnational at its core. he hammers this home chapter upon chapter. this is why i enjoyed reading “so beautiful,” it is why i have enjoyed reading several of sweet’s previous works, and it is why i will read his future works also. in some ways i think saying “i don’t like his writing style” is part of the highest compliments i can give dr. sweet. this is because i read his works in spite of his style. i read his writing because his point are so good that it doesn’t matter that i don’t enjoy the way he makes them.

it’s a good read and i would recommend it.

tuesday i finished dan kimball’s book “they like JESUS but not the church: insights from emerging generations." this is not a new book. it’s not old either but it’s not brand new (written in 2007). i bought it a couple of years ago and it has sat on a book case waiting for me to read it. i wish i had picked it up earlier because it was an excellent read.

no, it’s not a book of statistical research. it is based on his conversations with people who like JESUS but not the church that he met in public and became friends with. these conversations form the “data” that he analyses through out the book.

yes, you could dismiss “they like JESUS but not the church” because of the fact that it is not based on statistical information. you could say to yourself that since it isn’t statistically based it doesn’t fit your situation. i think you would be wrong to do so.

for me kimball’s book is more meaningful because the points of the book came out of kimball’s discussion with friends he had made. i think that was really the point of the book … CHRISTians, especially ministers, desperately need to get out of our buildings and subculture and make friends with non-JESUS followers. kimball lived this out in the manner that he wrote the book and in the manner that he ministers. he lived it out by having people who like JESUS but not the church over to his home for supper, going over to their home for supper, spending time with people where they are rather than expecting them to come to some religious building, and most importantly LISTENING to people who like JESUS but not the church.

it’s a good read.