Blog interview

My friend and colleague Dr. Adam DeVille interviewed me recently on his excellent Eastern Christian book blog which you can find below. Happy reading.

Click here for the interview

To read an excerpt from my new book and for ordering information you can click here

New Book Published

I am happy to finally announce that my new book, Encountering Jesus in the Gospels is being released today for publication. The book is a series of easy to read pastoral reflections on basic Gospel images of Jesus: Jesus the Bread, Jesus the Vine, Jesus the King, and so forth. Each chapter has a series of questions for personal reflection, for spiritual journaling, or for small group discussion. The book is a great resource for personal and group Bible study and sermon preparation.

You can read a sample chapter on my website if you click here

You can also order a copy directly from amazon.com if you click here

Bulk order copies for parishes or book clubs/studies can be ordered directly from my publisher if you send them an email info@orthodoxresearchinstitute.org

Happy reading!!!

Advanced Praise for Encountering Jesus in the Gospels:

In this welcome and wonderfully accessible book, Father William Mills very skillfully cuts through the fog of the current Jesus wars and helps readers discover for themselves the richly diverse answers provided in the gospels to Jesus’ own question: “Who do you say that I am?”"

Adam DeVille, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Theology

University of Saint Francis

"At first glance this book is a study of the names and titles of Jesus, proves to be far more, as each name proves, in the author's related experience to be a point of meeting with the Lord. Surely people will have a deeper intimacy with Christ from this brief, but life touching, book."

Bishop Seraphim Sigrist

Book Review: Between Heaven and Mirth

I have a love/hate relationship with Father James Martin, well, it's probably more love than hate actually. I love him because he is ruthlessly honest, truthful, funny, and has a great writing style. I devoured all of his books in one or two sittings. Then why do I hate him you ask? For all of the same reasons! Just to be honest Father James is my idol, my mentor, my muse, I want to be just like Father Martin (I'm kidding of course).

Father Martin's latest book is called Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life (Harper One, 2011). You need to go out now and get a copy of this book today. Read it once, twice, even three times. Read it in your adult class at Church. Give a copy to your pastor. Buy a copy to your grumpy neighbor. They'll thank you for it later.

Between Heaven and Mirth explores the importance of humor and joy in healthy spiritual development. I agree with Father Martin's thesis that a healthy spiritual life needs humor. Humor is everywhere, in the Bible, in community life, in ones own family. The problem is, and Martin mentions this several times throughout his book, is that we take ourselves too seriously and when we do this we loose sight of Jesus and the Kingdom.

Martin draws on a host of examples from both the Old and New Testament's, from the writings and lives of the saints, and from his own personal anecdotes. He also draws some examples from Jewish, Buddhist, and Islamic religious traditions, although these examples were not as abundant as the examples from the Christian tradition. The pages turned so fast that I forgot where I was in the book. Page after page Martin shares with readers the mental, physical, and spiritual necessity of humor. In one particular passage Father Martin highlights the importance of humor for bishops and priests. He asks (and I'm paraphrasing here): "why not require our leaders to have a sense of humor, after all isn't that an important quality to have in leadership?" How true. Having a sense of humor and joy means that we are in tune with God. This does not mean that we are crack jokes all day, i.e humor for humor's sake, but that we see ourselves from God's vantage point. After all, just look around you, there is humor in everyday life, we just need, as Jesus says the eyes to see and the ears to hear.

I could go on and on but I won't. Father Martin has written a thoughtful, inspirational, and funny book about living a life of joy. If you want more joy in your life and lightness than start today! Also, while you're at it, buy a copy of Between Heaven and Mirth, read a chapter a day and you'll see how your life begins to change.

For more information about Father Martin and Between Heaven and Mirth click here

To pre-order a copy of Between Heaven and Mirth click here

Virtual Tours Part 1

Many people would love to visit Christian holy sites in various parts of the world but due to time constraints, higher travel costs, and family and work responsibilities, travel becomes very difficult. However you can always take a virtual tour. What is a virtual tour? A virtual tour is exactly what the phrase says--a virtual tour of holy sites. Now with greater technology the internet provides pictures, videos, and plenty of written information about holy sites of interest.

Today's trip is to the many holy sites in Israel. Sacred Destinations is a wonderful educational website that has plenty of information about the Christian holy sites in Jerusalem as well as in the Galilee area.

Take some time out of your busy life and visit the Holy Land

Click here to begin your virtual tour

New Jerusalem Movie

I just found out that there is a new IMAX 3D movie coming out in 2013 called Jerusalem. It is being filmed right now and will be ready for viewing in a few years. The directors are filming aerial shots from across Jerusalem as well as in other parts of the Holy Land. The movie looks very exciting, I cannot wait to see it.

Below is a link to more information about the movie.

For more information about the Jerusalem movie click here

Book Review A Will to Lead by William H. Willimon

I came across the writings and sermons of William H. Willimon a few years ago while doing graduate work in pastoral theology. Willimon currently serves as a Methodist bishop in Alabama, but for over twenty years was the Dean at Duke Chapel and instructor of preaching at Duke Divinity School. Willimon is funny, but not just funny for humor's sake, but funny because he speaks the truth. Actually Willimon holds nothing back as the subtitle of the book states, Letters On Leadership From a Peculiar Prophet, and that is the God's honest truth! If anything Willimon doesn't care what people think of him because what he says is audacious.

The collection of short essays are edited blog posts from Willimon's weekly blog that he maintains in order to communicate with his pastors and laity in his district in Alabama. He covers topics such as Advent and Christmas, Women in Ministry, Discipleship, as well as Leadership, and Clergy Issues. A good public speaker may not always be a good writer and a good writer is not always the best public speaker, but after reading a few of Willimon's books and hearing him preach, well, he received a double portion of the Spirit. The book is good, actually it is more than good. I would suggest that a pastor read through this book a few times letting Willimon's words soak into the soul.

Willimon is correct when he says that too many pastors water down the Word of God. We want to make parishioners happy, we want them to like us, to feel good about themselves and about the world around them. Yet the gospel doesn't allow it, we are to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Willimon is right when he says that in many areas the gospel has lost its power not because the Word is weak but pastors are weak, we cave into the whims and cares of the congregation.

Those of us in the Eastern Christian Church could learn a lot from Willimon. Many of us live in our ethnic and religious ghettoes, and sometimes I think we have turned into a sect! One of my very good pastor friends said that he was aghast when he suggested to his parish council that the parish host a free luncheon once a week for the local neighborhood, the response, "Father, we don't want those people in our Church." What? Those people! Those people are the ones that Jesus loved, the poor, the lame, the blind, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the sinners. Yet many parishioners are turned in on themselves, seeking to placate their own egos rather than move out of the boundaries of the parish to the world around them, living what the great preacher and pastor St. John Chrysostom said, "living the liturgy after the liturgy."

If you like Stanley Hauerwas, Eugene Peterson, Marva Dawn, Andrew Purves, and Walter Brueggeman, you will like this new book by Bishop Willimon. As God once said to St. Augustine, "take and read" and read deeply.

For more postings from Bishop Willimon click here

For more information about A Will to Lead click here

Thoughts about Faith, Hope, and Love

Still reading William Sloane Coffin, his writing is "right on" when it comes to the Church and the world. Below are a few more "spiritual gems' to think about in the days and weeks to come.

"Love, and you are a success or not the world thinks so. The highest purpose of Christianity, which is primarily a way of life, not a system of belief, is to love one another. And the first fruit of love is joy, the joy that represents meaning and fulfillment."

"Love measures our stature: the more we love, the bigger we are. There is no smaller package in all the world than that of a man all wrapped up in himself."

"If faith puts us on the road, hope keeps us there."

"I love the recklessness of faith. First you leap, and then you grow wings."