2012: A Book Odyssey

I am better at admiring books than reading them. If I loved reading books as much as browsing book stores, I would be very well-read. But alas, though my intentions are good, my practice is often lousy. So for the first time, I'm putting together a reading list for the coming year. The following list excludes the books I will be required to read for graduate courses and any "pleasure reading" (even though I think I will find pleasure in reading these). And most notably, I have each of these on my shelf already! No need to purchase more until I knock some of these out. So here they are, with categories and explanations:

Passing on the Faith by Merton P. Strommen and Richard A. Hardel

• Youth Ministry/ Family Ministry
• I'm currently reading Sticky Faith. Hopefully, Passing on the Faith will help me learn even more about how the family and the church can work together to create lasting faith in our children.

The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns

• Christian Living
• I'll let the back cover speak for itself: Stearns, president of World Vision U.S., "uses his journey to demonstrate how the gospel--the whole gospel--was always meant to be a world-changing social revolution, a revolution that begins with us."

The Shack by William P. Young

• Fiction
• I missed the boat on this one and I'm fully aware that it is "sooo three years ago." It's high-time I finally read it.

The Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard

• Spirituality
• I've never read anything by Dallas Willard (I know I need to get The Divine Conspiracy some day) and I am very interested in spiritual disciplines.

Speaking to Teenagers by Duffy Robbins and Doug Fields

• Preaching/ Teaching
• I had the privilege of meeting Duffy Robbins at NYWC this year. It reminded me that I needed to read his book.

The Blue Parakeet by Scot McKnight

• Bible Reading/ Bible Interpretation
• McKnight is a great writer--of books and on his popular blog Jesus Creed. 

A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian D. McLaren, Why We're Not Emergent by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck, and The Great Emergence by Phyllis Tickle (in this order)

• Church Issues
• I've been needing to read about the emergent/emerging church movement for some time now. These three are the books I already have so these are the ones I'll start with.