Yesterday, at a conference in Florida, two participants asked me what I’ve been reading lately that’s stirred my imagination and challenged by assumptions. I share with them that I’ve been rethinking how the church needs to reach out to boomers more intentionally based on Keith Haemmelmann’s book, Growing Older, Thinking Younger. The book reminded me to focus less on who is not participating in our faith community and more on how we can more fully engage those who do come. Keith offers several ways to engage and utilize the many gifts boomers bring to ministry, reminding us not to take this generation for granted.
The other book that’s stirred my imagination was Peter Steinke’s book, A Door Set Open. I recently reread it and found several gems about the importance of mature and motivated leaders, framing problems as opportunities, maintaining a non-anxious presence in time of transition, and grounding change efforts in scripture and theology.
In addition to these two books, I always look forward to reading the most recent edition of John Roberto’s Lifelong Faith Journals which are filled with a treasure trove of insights. I’m guaranteed to get at least a few ideas that I can apply immediately from every article.
You are welcome to download my list of RecommendedResources that I find particularly helpful in life and ministry. Please share wisdom by listing one or two books or resources that you’d recommend to others.
I haven’t read that many ministry books yet, but I am in the middle of reading “Frogs without legs can’t hear” and so far it is good! But also, the book “Surface to Soul” by Jim Ladoux was very good and had TONS of really good points and information!!
I am currently in the diakonia program in the Northern Illinois Synod and the class I had last December was called “Images of the Life of the Church.” In that class, we used several books that help spark thought and conversation about what it means to live as a Christian, especially in today’s often messy world. I lift up the following books as good conversation starters:
Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
No Future Without Forgiveness by Desmond Tutu
Uncommon Decency: Christian Civility in an Uncivil World by Richard J. Mouw
One of my favorite books of all time (and one that changed my life) is Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer. This is the story of Palmer’s life as he continued to make all sorts of life decisions for the wrong reasons. He eventually grasped the Quaker concept of letting you life speak and began to realize that our feelings, expereinces, emotions, etc. really can clue us in to what we desire and who we are called to be. We only have to drown out all of the extra noise and really listen to what our lives are telling us. Powerful stuff!
A couple of books that I have read over the past year that have been extremely helpful to me are: Sustainable Youth Ministry by Mark DeVries and The Gospel According to Starbucks by Leonard Sweet. The first helped with alot of the nuts and bolts and structure of my program while the second was a more of a inspirational resource about how we ‘sell’ our ministry.
From the standpoint of opening my eyes to looking at my faith, I just read Mere Christianity by C.C. Lewis and it has given me a plethora of ideas on ways to talk about my faith and God with my youth while also expanding my horizons.