I just finished the New York bestseller Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores The Hidden Side Of Everything by Levitt and Dubner. Much like my experience with Shane Hipps book, I was about a quarter through before I had to take a necessary reading detour with school last semester. After refreshing myself on the first 50 pages, I dove in and it was fascinating. This is one of those unique books that I found entering into a plethora of conversations on many different levels. Like a water drenched sponge, it saturated my thinking to the extent that I found it distilling into various areas of my thinking, reflections and conversations – coercing me to ask deeper questions about seemingly ordinary things.

Freakonomics may not have a solidifying theme but it does have a common thread as it discusses and critiques conventional wisdom from an economist point of view. I found myself repeatedly and verbally saying “fascinating” and “interesting” or “You’ve go to be kidding me” to the point where I was sure that others around me thought I was going crazy. All in all, it is an intriguing read and one that has made me question “conventional wisdom” and the fears and agendas it often feeds from.

If you haven’t read it yet…it is worth your time and money.

Well off to my next book: The Search to Belong by Joseph R. Myers.

I got a little behind in my reading this last weekend (things were insanely busy) and I am in the process of catching up. I finished Coming Home: To The Father Who Loves You a few days ago by Robert Jeffress and was disappointed. I guess the book is what it is but I was expecting something different and more profound. The book is based (more loosely than I anticipated) on the biblical story of the prodigal son and since I am thinking of preaching on it soon, I thought would be helpful. This was one of those times when the jacket cover seduced me. I though it might be better, more theological and reflective, giving me insights into this amazing story of Scripture but instead, I would define it as your typical “problem + solution = success” book. There were points where the book implied that if you felt far from God then with “these three or six things” you can fix the problem and have success in your relationship with God and thus in life. I don’t know? I just find the Bible and my life to be way more complicated than that and I ironically find that complication soothing. I don’t think God created us as a spiritual math problem and the Bible as the formula for success (as we in North America have defined it).

Instead, I think God is way more complicated and mysterious than that and on many levels I find books like this, or any spiritual message like this, troublesome. Maybe I’m just weird and bizarre and I’m alone in my questions, but I have a sneaking suspicion there are others out there like me. Others who find their spiritual lives to be way more complex and even their relationship with God to be more elusive and unformulative (I think I just made that word up) than these books or messages portray? Or, perhaps, I am quasi normal and there are others out there who either feel guilty their loves don’t line up with the formula or their problems easily solved by it. Or maybe they just think they are alone and are too afraid to speak up. If that is the case, I hope you can find comfort in others like me.

I believe truth is more than a formula or pattern…Jesus (the way the truth and the life) lived in a way that was unformulated. Even though the Pharisees tried to evaluate Jesus by their legalistic and self-serving spiritual formulas, Jesus reversed their formulistic view of God. In fact, I think human formulas by nature of their human origin, are self-serving. Like any postmodern, I question any formula that starts with a preferred answer and builds the formula to create that answer. This is the same reason why I agree with others that in many ways the modern scientific method is flawed – but that is a post for another time.

Anyways off to a completely different book I need to finish: “Freakonomics” by Levitt and Dubner.

Well I finished my first of 30 books in 90 days and I’ve been keeping up with my Bible reading. I enjoy reading and I normally do a decent amount of it, but this much reading is proving to be a bit of a challenge.

In terms of the book The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture by Shane Hipps, I found the first half incredibly interesting. I have to admit that I started reading the book several months ago but only worked my way through the first third of it until life got too crazy and the book ended up collecting dust. After re-reading some of the first third and the working my way through the rest, I found the second half to spark a lot of thought and reflection. I disagree with some of his conclusions but the main point of the book is fascinating. I agree with Hipps that the church has not dealt or reflected on how much it, as a medium, has affected the message (referring to the writings of McLuhan). The old adage that the medium can change but the message stays the same is well critiqued throughout this book. I agree with Hipps that the medium can’t remain neutral and inadvertently and with profoundly affects alters or even skews the message.

I also found his comments of Satellite churches to be interesting in regards to the medium having a profound affect of the message – even contradicting itself. If, as Hipps asserts, the church is the medium Christ choose to communicate his message, then we need to take that seriously. We can’t continue to pretend that media and technology are neutral in the life of the church. I am not against using technology, anyone who knows me knows this, but the medium has to always be evaluated and reflected upon so that we may understand how it is affecting, changing or altering the message. If we ignore that reality and ignorantly assume it is neutral and unbiased, then we are in danger of radically affecting the message of the marvellous gospel we are commissioned to share.

This book has prompted and reminded me to think and evaluate my use of technology personally and within the church. I am not going to give it up, but I will try to persistently consider its affect on the message and my faith.

Overall, it is a stimulating read. It has much of the same base material as authors like Postman and McLuhan but from a theological/ecclesiological point of view – one I found fascinating. Once again, I don’t agree with some of Hipps solutions but his critiques and insights are well-worth the price of the book.

Well, on to my next book: “Coming Home: To the Father Who Loves You.”

I finished No Perfect People Allowed by John Burke and it was remarkable. The book is worth reading just for the stories of people coming to God and God changing their lives. It is not a “how to” book but it is the story and journey of what God is doing in and through Gateway Community Church in Texas. It is a great read and although Burke can at times come across as always knowing exactly what to say and when to say it (probably the inevitable result of writing your own stories), he has some fantastic insights into church – especially the church in a postmodern culture.

This book really caused me to think and reflect on my ministry. I am not saying that I would do everything he or his church does, but I think there are some incredible lessons to be learned through it. Here are a few of the lessons I learnt and things I have been reflecting on:
1) We need to learn to give people space in church – allow them to be themselves and for God to work in their lives at His pace and not our own.
2) We need to create and facilitate a culture of dialogue where people can feel comfortable expressing and talking about their thought and even doubts without fear of judgement and rejection.
3) I love the fact that they are able to be relevant, accepting and tolerant (all ideals I share) without losing their convictions (something Jesus practiced).
4) I was reminded that we need to allow people to be human again – broken and bruised, to not be afraid by that brokenness as it is much like our own, whether we like it or not.
5) I was reminded that Jesus is the one that heals and changes people not us – something we preach about in church but seldom practice.

All in all I was moved, convicted, inspired, disturbed and propelled as it has permeated by thoughts over the last week or two. All in all it is a great book and definitely worth reading.

Last week, I read Understanding God’s Will: How to Hack the Equation without Formulas by Kyle Lake and for the most part I liked it. Although it has been on my every expanding “to read” pile on my bookshelf, I read it mainly because I was preaching on God’s Will and I found it was helpful in many ways as I was formulating my thoughts and ideas. Although there wasn’t anything really new in the book for me, it is rather well written and he is very good at relaying his thoughts with an effective and humorous use of sarcasm. The book would be great for those who have grown up in the church and have been indoctrinated with a very formulaic (modern) view of God’s will and want to read a basic but well-written critique of that view with a simple presentation of an alternative view. If however, you are already versed in different views of God’s will, specifically the difference between modern and postmodern views, than this book may be simple review.

In terms of sparking my thinking, I really liked the following quote as it resonated with me and sparked further reflection:

“The very nature of formulas [relating to the will of God like a recipe formula] collides head-on with the ways of God, because formulas are about control, predictability, and certainty.” page 8.

I think there are so many things we like to control about God, whether that is through understanding his will, our prayer lives, our hermeneutical (interpretation of scripture) practices, or our theology. The problem is I don’t think you can ever put God in the proverbial box and when we do, it only presents itself with problems. I also wonder how much of our current theological practices go back to the birth of the scientific method in which one presents a theory (hypothesis) and then tries to prove that theory with empirical, observable and scientific evidence. Although that may work for science, does it work for theology and can we ever understand God like the created natural world through a formula or a system? Maybe you can get a glimpse of the creator by his creation much like you can begin to understand an artist by their art, but how far do you take that? As usually, I don’t have answers, just questions but these are important question and ones I find filling more and more of my thoughts these days.

Before I end this post, I wanted to say that it is deeply saddening that Kyle is no longer with us – he tragically died recently. I never knew Kyle or heard of him before his death, but I have to admit his death had an impact on me. I think it is primarily because he would be about the same age as me, with a family (including twins) that are the same age as mine. He seemed like an amazing man, husband, father, pastor, leader, author and speaker that I wish I could have gotten to know – even if it was just through more of his published works.