Book Review: City of God

When reading the New Testament it’s easy to think that most Christians lived in small quaint hamlets and villages, after all the gospels often talk about Jesus traveling from village to village across the Galilee. Yet when digging deeper we see that Jesus spent a lot of time in urban areas such as Jerusalem, Caesarea Philippi, and Caesarea Maritima. Jesus’ hometown village of Nazareth was just a stones throw away from the vast Roman city of Sepphoris, which was still undergoing construction when Jesus was preaching and teaching. Paul too preached and ministered in major cities and urban areas such as Corinth, Athens, Ephesus, and Damascus where he encountered people from diverse cultures, religions, languages, and backgrounds. Just read the Book of Acts and you will clearly see the urban nature of early Christianity.

            We are reminded of the urban roots of Christianity in Sara Miles’ new book City of God: Faith in the Streets (NY: Jericho Books, 2014). City of God is literally a day in the life of her experience bringing ashes to her local community on Ash Wednesday 2012. Several years I recall reading an article about several Catholic and Episcopal parishes that decided to distribute ashes to people where they are rather than make them come to Church; some call it “ashes on the run” or “ashes to go.” People may think this is odd, but quite frankly the majority of our congregants spend a lot of time commuting to and from work, in carpool at school, or transporting their children to soccer practice or ballet lessons do not have time to stop in at their local parish and get ashes. Our lives and schedules do not often coincide with service times. Rather than turn their heads and shrub their shoulders, Sara and her friends at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco, have literally gone to the streets to bring Christ’s healing hand to those who are broken, hurt, and who are in need of forgiveness. What a novel idea, rather than have people come to the parish, let the parish come to them!

            This fast paced memoir can be read in one long sitting. Miles weaves her story like a natural story teller cycling back and forth between Ash Wednesday 2012 and the various chores and errands that had to be done that day, filling in her readers with background information about parish ministry, the people in her parish and neighborhood, as well as a bit of sociological and religious commentary. City of God reads very much like her other two books Jesus Freak and Take This Bread, which are also well written and inspiring. I have used several of her stories in my sermons and adult education classes.

            Sara certainly has her finger on the pulse of her local parish as well as her surrounding community. She is concerned with both good liturgy and serving her neighbor. She discusses some of the crazies and crackpots in her life, not as people to be avoided, but as sources of grace and forgiveness. I found myself laughing at times, especially when she put on her cassock and asked herself, “Do I look ok? Is it too hot outside for this? What will people think?” Questions that have gone through my own head many times!

            Toward the end of the book Sara confesses that the Church has left the building. I agree. This is not to say that we don’t need parish buildings anymore, because we do need places for regular worship. This of course begs the question whether or not we need multi-million dollar buildings when we could build simple and aesthetically pleasing buildings that are both functional and prayerful, but that is not her argument. When Sara says that the Church has left the building she means that when we look at the gospels we see Jesus literally leaving the religious communities, the synagogue, and literally traveling from place to place, preaching, teaching, healing, and raising the dead. While Jesus had a home base in Capernaum he was not bound by that place, he went around to where the people lived; in their homes like he did with Zachaeus the chief tax collector or Jairus whose daughter was dying, or in the streets like he did while healing the ten lepers or the blind man lying on the side of the road. Jesus was not bound by geography and neither should we. City of God reminds us that ministry takes place in a variety of places; home, school; work, on the metro and subway, over a cup of coffee in a café or in a bookstore. Looking back through my ministry I have probably heard more confessions in Starbucks than I have in Church that should tell us something! I laud Sara for writing a radically honest, and very funny book, but which has a serious strain throughout. I encourage you to take up and read City of God. Make it your Lenten reading this year. Make it your next read for your parish book club selection. You too, like Sara, might be inspired to take to the streets and bring the good news of Jesus with you!

For more information about City of God click here 

Book Review: People Pleasing Pastors

I wish I read this book in seminary. I wish I had re-read this book at least every year since seminary! Every pastor, whether young or old should read Charles Stone's new book People-Pleasing Pastors which has been newly published by Intervarsity Press 2014.

Charles Stone is the head pastor of the West Park Church in London, Ontario and is the founder of Stonewall Ministries where he serves as a pastoral coach. He is also the author of 5 Ministry Killers and how to Defeat Them.

People-Pleasing Pastors is a topic that is essential for all pastors. The pastor's life is complicated and complex, which is usually comprised of a meandering web of relationships including his or her family as well as those in leadership positions and regular parishioners. People often project thoughts and feelings onto the pastor which then encourages the pastor to have strained and sometimes strange relationships with him or her. Stone has served as a longtime pastor and his experience combined with good sound research makes for an excellent resource for pastors and those who are in ministerial formation.

The book is divided into three sections: The Problem of People Pleasing in the Church Today, The Solution, and the Leader's Toolbox. Each section is then sub-divided into smaller chapters. Stone weaves in personal stories as well as some medical research about brain development and the Biblical stories that are appropriate for the narrative. Stone's basic thesis is that nearly three quarters of pastors try to appease or please parishioners in order to keep the peace in the parish. By doing this the pastor then often feels shame, guilt, and sometimes anger and resentment, sometimes even lashing out at people.

What is so important about this book is not just the information that he provides but the fact that they includes many types of questions for the reader to think about as well as some short little "do it yourself quizzes" about your family of origin, about your thoughts about leadership and so forth. I found myself stopping along the way reading and re-reading certain passages.

People Pleasing Pastors is a great book for small group study as well as for journaling. I will certainly go back and use this book in my journaling time thinking about my style of leadership and the gaps in it.

I highly recommend People Pleasing Pastors, do yourself and favor and buy a copy today!

For more information about this book click here 

For more information about Charles Stone click here 

New Book Coming Soon!

Wanted everyone to know that my new book Walking with God: Stories of Life and Faith will be coming soon just in time for Lent 2014. My publisher tells me that it will be available on amazon soon and the price will be $14.95

Check back for updates! 

Wishing everyone a happy and peaceful 2014! 

Book Review Reading for Preaching

Every Sunday I have to prepare a sermon. For the first few years it was not that bad since I was preaching from the abundance of my recent knowledge at seminary. However, a few years into my pastorate I was having serious problems. Trying to prepare an inspirational, creative, encouraging, and thoughtful sermon every week is not easy! And it doesn't get easier with time either. After fourteen years in the parish it is still a challenge. I try not to repeat the stories that I use or recycle old sermons. Every week I draw on various life experiences as ways to explain the good news to the congregation. Reading has helped me tremendously. I read both wide and deep: novels, short stories, poetry, and some non-fiction. I read blog posts as well as the newspaper. Reading has helped my preaching and writing and the more that I read the better I become at both preaching and writing.

If you are a pastor and need inspiration for preaching than look no further. Cornelius Plantinga Jr has just written an excellent easy to read book about "reading" for preaching, hence its name Reading for Preaching: The Preacher in Conversation with Storytellers, Biographers, Poets, and Journalists (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2013) 

This book is a must read for preachers. It is not really a how to manual but a series of thoughtful reflections on reading and literature. Basically Plantinga encourages preachers to read wide and deeply and to read all the time. Too often pastors are very busy, we have meetings, reports to write, sermons to prepare, parishioners to visit, and meetings to attend. Then of course they have their families to attend to as well as their own personal time. Many pastors complain that there is no time to read. However Plantinga says that even if you read five or six good books a year is better than nothing.

For more information about Reading for Preaching click here 

A 30 Day Retreat Kindle Version

If you are in need of a spiritual retreat or renewal then look no further than my book, A 30 Day Retreat: A Personal Guide to Spiritual Renewal (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2010).  It is now on Kindle where you have a 30 Day retreat at your fingertips.

Most folks can't take 30 days away at a retreat hour or cabin in the woods, so why not take a retreat with you. Each chapter has a series of "Food for Thought" questions for you to contemplate and think about.

Click here to order the Kindle version of A 30 Day Retreat 

Book Review: The Good Funeral

No one wants to talk about death these days, actually most folks want to avoid it. My dad always said that you can't avoid two things in this world son, death and taxes! How true. He also said don't bother saving up too much because you'll never see a U-haul hitched to a hearse. That's also very true. We live in a culture that avoids death. We don't like to visit hospitals or hospices. We skip funerals and go to a general memorial service instead. Our culture never really discusses death. We never see rows upon rows of military caskets on the tarmac after they arrived back in the United States. Basically we'd rather not talk about death at all. Recently a local hospital had a large advertising campaign replete with billboards and paid advertisements in the local paper that said, "Come to (hospital name), we cheat death!" Needless to say the public actually was upset and the hospital president was fired and so were a few of the trustees. Apparently even the general public who is often out to lunch when it comes to deep moral and ethical issues like this did not like the blatant disregard for a deeper, yet often not spoken about issue, such as death.

If we take the gospel and our faith seriously then we will certainly talk about death and mortality and sickness and suffering. It's a part of the human condition and central in the gospel too. Jesus warns his disciples that eventually he will be arrested, put on trial, mocked, and finally crucified. Yet they too, like us, don't want to talk about that, it's too dark and gruesome. Give us more life they say. Talk about the flowers of the field and the birds of the air, anything but death!

If you want to learn more about death, grief, suffering, and community care then you must read The Good Funeral: Death, Grief, and the Community of Care (Louisville, KY: Westminister John Knox, 2013). Written by two very well known authors, Thomas Long who serves as the Bandy Professor of Preaching at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta and Thomas Lynch a longtime funeral director and author of many essays, poems, and memoir. I have been lucky enough to have read some of Long and Lynch's previous work which I enjoyed very much so I was looking forward to reading there new co-authored book. This book is really full of wisdom, humor, and God honest truth about the world and culture of the funeral industry as well as caring for the grieving.

The Good Funeral really deserves a longer review which cannot be done here in this blog post but needless to say if you are a pastor or a layperson who wants to learn more about funerals and having a good death then read this book. Both Long and Lynch are insiders. They are not afraid to speak the truth about how we as a society have lost touch with death. While reading this book I was thinking about my grandparents and great-grandparents generation and how death must have been so prevalent in their world, especially during the times of World War I and World War II where many families were touched by death due to wars but also to sickness: the Spanish flu, pneumonia, typhoid, premature child death, heart attacks, and so forth. I can imagine that in small towns and villages death was very common, not to mention of course the death of farm animals in the more rural areas. This is contrasted of course with our modern culture where I have met many adults who well into their 30's have gone to maybe one or two funerals in their entire lives! Seventy years ago the odds would have been very different.

If anything The Good Funeral might start good conversations in our parishes and congregations about living wills, end of life issues, planning ones funeral and so forth. This book may give pastors a door way into a very hot and often "avoided" topic in parish life. A few years ago a parishioner who was a lawyer and I gave an evening presentation at our parish about end of life issues and caring for the dead. People were very open to this sort of thing. They wanted to learn some of the ins and outs of the funeral service and funeral planning as well as how to obtain a living will and regular will. They wanted to learn more about helping the grieving and mourning. Hopefully The Good Death will spawn more conversations like the one we had in our parish about death.

For more information about The Good Funeral click here 

Book Review: Holy Luck

I have been a longtime fan of Eugene Peterson. I read most if not all of his books. His publishing output is extraordinary and he is an inspiration to both pastors and authors alike. Not only has he written books on parish ministry, vocation, Biblical spirituality, but he also translated the entire Bible! It first started out as a small project, he would translate a few chapters at at time for his congregation. A few chapters turned into a few books and eventually The Message was born. I heard him speak several years ago at a ministry conference and he received several standing ovations after his talk. He is a pastor's pastor! I hope God gives him many more years of writing!

His latest book Holy Luck (Grand Rapids: Eerdman's Publishing, 2013) is Peterson's newest contribution and it is a collection of poems. I cannot believe that Peterson still, after all of his years in teaching and parish ministry still has the stamina and the mind to keep creating.

Holy Luck is not a big book, its rather small at around 90 pages and is organized around three major parts: Holy Luck, The Rustling Grass, and Smooth Stones (Occasional poems). However, these poems are very much like prayers, short, reflective and meditative stanzas that deal with life, death, growing up, death, marriage, and the Church. One could read a few at at time, close the book and spend the rest of the day thinking about them. Poetry for me is a breath of fresh air, bringing new insights to the human condition. Below are just a few that spoke to me as I read them:

Lent

The pale winter sun slants
Cool warmth
Across my iced mind
And promises a future thaw.

Four horses thunder through the storm
Of sin's hot hail
And splash apocalyptic colors
On my white-washed sepulcher.

Baptismal rains release blossom
Bursting shrubs and trees
From a cemetery winter
Into a resurrection spring.

Charismatic colors claim the earth.
Every fruit branch swings a censer
Through the air
Floating smells of praise.


Tree

Jesse's roots, composted with carcasses
Of dove and lamb, parchments of ox and goat,
Centuries of dried up prayers and bloody
Sacrifice, now bear me gospel fruit.

David's branch fed on kosher soil
Blossoms a messianic flower, and then
Ripen into a kingdom crop, conserving
The fragrance and warmth of spring for winter use.

Holy Spirit, shake our family tree;
Release your ripened fruit to our outstretched arms.

I'd like to see my children sink their teeth
Into promised land pomegranates

And Canaan grapes, bushel gifts of God,
While I skip a grace rope to a Christ tune.


If you like these there are plenty more. Most of his poems are rather short, only about a page or so but they are very beautiful. Poets are lovers of words and since Peterson is both a pastor and a writer he is a lover of words about The Word and how the Word can be expressed in words!

For more information about Holy Luck click here