“It is one of the remarkable features of human existence that wondrous and awesome things become familiar and banal, that we live in the world completely and self-satisfyingly blind to its marvels. In the words of scripture, we forget that the Lord has done for us.”
The Permanent Revolution, Alan Hirsch and Tim Catchim

I don’t know what to add to this. I feel like one of my life goals is to constantly remind others (and myself) how amazing the world we live in is and, even more so, how amazing it has that the God of the universe humbled himself to become man and dwell among us. I know this world is broken and crazy and all kinds of screwed up. But its full of beauty and wonder at the same time. I count on the belief that this God loves me, cares for me and promises to fix this broken-beautiful place – and that includes me.

I can’t hit them all but the books that follow were some of the more influential and formative books for me as I continued to mature in my understanding of the church, her mission and my role in it.  I’m going to start from the beginning and move toward today… I’m not sure they are in perfect order but they generally follow the timeline of how they influenced me.

The Church on the Other Side

by: Brian McLaren

For many of of us who were part of the early emergent conversation, this book was mind bending.  Actually, it may not have been so much as mind-bending as it was totally affirming.  ”Someone put into words the things I’ve been thinking” and “I’m not the only crazy one” are a few of the quotes that come to mind as I remember reading this book. Funny story, when we were still young in our journey of replanting The Well (then Jericho Valley Church) I distinctly remember reading this book with my co-pastor Brad and then emailing Brian McLaren with some questions about next steps for us.  He wrote back within the hour with some excellent advice. Of course, we were too smart to listen to it and probably brought ourselves some hard earned lessons that we could have avoided.

The Celtic Way of Evangelism

by: George Hunter

This is one of those books that was extremely formative for us early on. It’s as short book but in my mind, it’s a classic. This book looks at the missionary journey / story of St. Patrick and brings out some important themes for ministry in mostly secular settings.

Beyond Foundationalism

by: John Franke

This book, along with taking his class at the same time, totally wrecked me.  But, in a totally good way. I graduated from Bible College with a pretty strong set of assumptions about God and faith. I kept them all in a tidy little box with a cute little bow on it. John’s book took my box and totally smashed with a sledge hammer.  I remember driving in the car with my wife on the way to pick up a used sofa in 2002 and telling her I didn’t know how to believe in God anymore.  Thankfully I finished the book and the class and John helped lay the ground work for a faith that was more real than I had ever experienced.

The Divine Conspiracy

by: Dallas Willard

Instant classic. Hands down one of the most important, shaping books I have ever read. I remember reading the beginning of the book and being so excited that he took the arguments I’d heard about in college as so important (Lordship salvation) and totally reframed it and blew it out of the water by coming at it in a completely different direction.  For many of us, this book was a game changer – and I’d argue it still is.

The Continuing Conversion of the Church / The Missional Church

by: Darrel Guder

These two books by Guder were awesome. I actually read The Continuing Conversion of the Church first and it completely blew my mind. I started reading it on a trip to Sedona, AZ and I remember my wife being upset at me for reading too much. I think most of the pictures of me from this trip had me with this book and a highlighter in my hands. It TOTALLY reoriented my ecclesiology.  Guder’s other book, Missional Church, then reconfirmed it all for me and I was totally hooked on Missional Theology / Missional Ecclesiology.

Transforming Mission

by:  David Bosch

If I wasn’t hooked on Missional Theology after Guder’s books, this one sealed the deal. A friend and I have joked that no one should be able to call themselves “Missional” unless they’ve read this book.  Basically, Bosch takes a look at the theology of mission through the lens of the Bible and Western church history.  If you haven’t read this book. You need to buy it now and start reading it. Warning: It’s massive. I read it in chunks and it took me like 3 years to finish. But, it was totally worth it.

The Shaping of Things to Come

by: Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost

Again, one of those books that was a game changer. This book was fresh back when it came out and I’d argue its still just as fresh today.  While some people might argue that its a little too “low ecclesiology” I’d respond by saying, “maybe, but it’s awesome.”  Hirsch and Frost lit a fire under so many church planters / pastors with this book. I really believe we are still experiencing the effects of this book in the revitalized church planting scene we are seeing today.

Under the Unpredictable Plant

by: Eugene Peterson

This was my first introduction to Eugene Peterson. It could not have come at a better time. I’ve read this book quite a few times and it continues to challenge me and call me in ways that make me uncomfortable – and I mean that in a good way.  He sets a standard for pastoral leadership in this book (and frankly, all his books) that is so high and so healthy.

The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience

by: Ron Sider

While I knew that caring for the poor was important from all the other stuff I’d been reading and talking about with other pastors, this was really the first book I digested on the subject. I think I highlighted about 3/4 of it. It was a short book, I read it on the airplane from Seattle to Philly and have never been the same.

The Search to Belong

by: Joseph Myers

This book changed my whole understanding of community. I can’t begin to tell how important it’s been for us as a church. We constantly hear how The Well “does community well” or “has such a unique approach to community” and I’d credit this book for almost all of that.  I was able to take a class with Joe after reading it and he and I became good friends and he’s been a bit of a mentor me to over the years. This book is one of those books that I think pastors kind of struggle with but parishioners are like, “yeah, duh.”

Giving and Stewardship in an Effective Church

By: Ken Callahan

I was introduced to Ken Callahen through Joe Myers. Ken, Joe’s mentor, is in his mid-70′s and is a Methodist church consultant who is absolutely brilliant and way ahead of his time. He was using the word missional in 1990 in his book Effective Church Leadership (also excellent) and this book on stewardship has single-handedly changed the way we talk about money at The Well.  I have honestly had someone say to me “When you talk about money on Sunday mornings I want to open my wallet and give you everything I have.” This philosophy laid out in this book is the reason that person said that.

Embracing Grace

by: Scot McKnight

This was my first introduction (in print at least) to a “whole” gospel that didn’t just include the salvation of souls.  While I would now credit N.T. Wright for further developing this understanding, I’m actually going to say that Scot McKnight’s book opened the door for me to appreciate N.T. Wright’s work.  We used this book in a small group study and it was absolutely excellent. Scot’s other books could just have easily been on this list (especially A Community Called Atonement) but this one was the most important one that I read because of the timing of it.

The Gospel in a Pluralist Society

by: Leslie Newbigin

Um. This book was amazing. I don’t even know what to say about it. I’d argue that most of  the good, missional, emergent theology/thinking finds its roots in Newbigin.  You have to read this book. The chapter of Church Leadership is worth the price of the book itself.

The Suburban Christian

by: Al Hsu

When I was wrestling with living in Suburbia this book saved my suburban life.  It was instrumental in the writing of my Missional in Suburbia article and thus my naming my blog “Missional in Suburbia” for about 5 years.  Al came and spoke at The Well a few years back and helped us continue the journey of what it means to be a Christian in individualistic, consumeristic suburban America.

Countdown to Sunday

by: Chris Eardman

I think this book is out of print. But, as a bi-vocational pastor this book has been so helpful.  Eardman lays out how he prepares each week when we can’t spend tons of time in his study. He refers to it as “Preaching on the Run.” I’ve adapted his weekly rhythm for me a bit but it totally changed how I approached preaching. I wrote up a longer blog post about this book and my rhythm here.

Church Dogmatics, Volume 4.3.2

by: Karl Barth

I said earlier that all good missional theology finds its roots in Newbigin right?  Well, I’m willing to bet that Newbigin finds his roots in Barth’s dogmatics.  This is some heavy stuff but here is where we find Barth’s ecclesiology and it’s absolutely brilliant.  Aside for the Bible, I’d say its the mother of all missional theology.

Resident Aliens

by: Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon

I read this book two summers ago while at the shore in New Jersey. As I’ve continued to shape my ecclesiology this is the book that has come the closest to describing where I’ve landed.

The Next Evangelicalism

by: Soong-Chan Rah

Over the years I have been challenged by some close friends (who are not white) about the challenges faced by non-white, middle class congregations and leaders.  I continue to find myself in conversations that make me want to use my place of privilege to come partner with leaders and congregations of marginalized people groups. I am still on a journey to understand what this actually looks like but Rah’s book was vital in confirming that and helping me on my journey.  Some might think that Rah is just angry in this book. Maybe he is.  But its a vitally important book nevertheless. I wrote about this a little bit here.

A Failure of Nerve

by: Edwin Freidman

Hands down the most important leadership book I have ever read.  Tim Keel recommended this book to me and he said, “hang onto your hat.” I’m glad I did because it blew my mind (wait, no pun intended?). I’ve subsequently recommended this book to almost every leader I know and those who have taken me up on it have said the same thing.  It basically addresses the problem of “leadership in the age of the quick fix” and talks about the importances of being a leader who is “self-differentiated.”  I wrote up a simple overview of the book here.

Community / Stewardship

by Peter Block

Peter Block is awesome. These two book are quickly becoming my most recommended leadership books (behind Freidman). Community lays out a framework for having conversations that build community and togetherness and Stewardship talks about how we lead communities where people naturally buy in, without the need of coercion and manipulation.

What books would fit into your “most influential books” that you’ve read?  Which books shaped your journey? 

As churches, we have to stop asking the question of “What do we get out of it” and begin asking “How is what we are doing impacting the kingdom”.

Leaders do this all the time. When we talk about our budgets, our leadership time, our “investments” one of the first things we ask is “What does this do for us?” We might not ask it out right, just like that, but we ask it.

The Well‘s involvement in the Ecclesia Network is a good example.  Early one we framed our involvement in Ecclesia as a network that we got something out of being part of it – and we do. But we had confusion as to why we were joining the network because frankly, its not a denomination that funnels lots of cash our way.

But, recently we’ve been reframing the way we talk about our involvement in Ecclesia. We’ve moved from “what do we get from being part of Ecclesia” to “What investment are we able to make in the kingdom because we are part of Ecclesia.”  The answer there is exciting: We get to be part of planting local churches all across the country that are reaching people with the hope of the gospel.

We do the same with leadership do we not? When our paid leaders are spending too much time outside of “our church” (usually with other area churches) we begin asking, “what do we get from them spending their time like that?”

Instead, don’t we need to be asking, “How is the Kingdom being impacted because our leaders are spending their time that way?”

Measurement needs to change from “what we get” to “what we give”.

This isn’t radical.

But it is.

Here is my short, executive summary of the book:

Some Facts:

• We live in chronically anxious society.
• This society is oriented towards safety rather than adventure.
• In this anxious society, resistance to leadership often has less to do with the “issue” that ensues than with the fact that the leader took initiative.

This anxiety can be dissipated by clear, decisive, well-defined leadership. 

But…

• We often leverage power to the extremists.
• We choose to data over maturity
• Technique over stamina
• Giving Empathy over calling for personal responsibility

As a result:

The most dependent members of our churches set the agendas and drive the institution rather than the most energetic, visionary imaginative and motivated.
After all, our job is to make everyone happy, right? (sarcasm)

As leaders we tend to rely more on expertise of “experts” and better technique rather than our own ability to be decisive and leadership instincts.
If we could just read one more missional leadership book and go to one more conference, we’d finally be successful!

Obsession with data and technique that allows us to spend all our time researching and never making decisions.
FYI, no one should spend 6 weeks and three leadership meetings researching and making a decision about a water cooler. 

Leaders assume that we can convince our most toxic members through reasonableness, love, insight, role-modeling, striving for consensus.
I’m so pastorally gifted that I can reason and love the most anxious and unhealthy people to perfect harmony. Right?

The Way Forward, We Need Leaders Who:

Focus on their own integrity in the midst of crazies.
Are you sure you’ve walked with integrity? 

Maintain a healthy, steady, non-anxious presence in the midst of the storms.
We need more Tim Tebows!

Give more voice to the the healthy, creative, energetic, motivated voices.
This isn’t a call to ignore the fringe!

Grow into becoming a well-differentiated leader
No one does this easily, most leaders can improve their capacity.

Who can remain separate while still remaining connected.
We aren’t emotionless and unattached. 

Able to manage own reactivity to the automatic reactivity of others and take stands at the risk of displeasing.
How do you respond when you piss people off  even when you make the right decision?

“My concern about evangelism is that sometimes there is a greater emphasis on the need for some kind of response than on the clear exposition of the gospel. Telling people they need to come to Jesus, that they must be born again, that they should commit their lives to Christ, and so on, is not preaching the gospel. It is, at best, telling them what have out to do, or in the case of the new birth, what has happened when they have received the gospel. It is a remarkable thing in Acts 2 that Peter’s sermon contained no appeal. That appeal came from the congregation: “What should we do?” It was the power and clarity of the gospel message that impressed them with the need to do something about it.”

- Graeme Goldsworthy in Preaching the Whole Bible

That being said, as adoption has grown more and more popular, I’ve also noticed an uprise in talk about the romantic side of adoption. Frankly, it seems as if adoption is the cool thing to do if you are a hip and progressive. Now, don’t get me wrong I don’t think that everyone who adopts now does it to be hip – I imagine even some movie stars do it out of good motives.

Of course, there is a romantic aspect of adoption. There is nothing that compares to the moment when, after years of waiting and mountains of paper work, you are handed the child you’ve only seen pictures of for the last 10 months. It’s labor and delivery in its own unique way. I could go on and on about all the amazing, romantic sides of adoption. But in the midst of all this – sometimes I think we forget that it’s not all perfect and is, at times, extremely difficult.

We have four kids (all boys by the way). Three of them are biological and one is adopted. Frankly, it’s difficult when you have a child that just doesn’t fit like the rest of your kids do. Our adopted son has a lot going against him. He was ten months when he was taken from his home and his family and given to strange looking white couple that spoke a completely different language (He was with a foster mom and foster family those first 10 months). To those of you who have children: can you imagine giving up your 10 month old child? At that point, there is quite a bond, no? How does a little 10-month old mind process the reality that he’s just been taken from the only people that have ever loved him. It’s clear to us by now that Mason struggles with this reality. No, he can’t explain it nor can he even recognize it as such. But there is no doubt that he struggles with abandonment issues. His identity is likely all out of whack. He’ll probably battle this for the rest of his life.

He is a bundle of energy that at his best keeps our house alive with excitement, singing, joy and laughter. But at his worst, he cracks and doesn’t know how to control his emotions and just totally loses it.

Now, when our other kids go crazy, we can pretty much say “yep, that’a a little version of your father” or “you definitely got that from your mother” and we can figure out easier how to handle them – because, well, it’s like handling the child version of us.  With Mason, we have no framework. We don’t know his biological parents, his biological brothers and sisters. We don’t know their personalities. Their strengths, their weaknesses, their habits. With this, we’re flying blind.

The point is this: Mason has a lot stacked against him. He’s an adopted, second born, middle-ish, Guatemalan born, darker skinned child in a white family and his personality is totally different than his brothers.

But it all of this, he’s our son.

Now, it’s not always hard. Like I said before, he’s one of the most entertaining, creative kids I’ve ever met. He’s spunky. He makes us laugh. He’s one of the most generous five-year olds I’ve ever seen (he probably gave away more than half of his Halloween candy to his brothers and friends).

But the truth is, having him as part of our family makes our life together more challenging. There is just no way around that. Perhaps that sounds awful. But it’s reality. In all of this, there is one belief that my wife an I have to keep telling ourselves:

We did not adopt Mason to make our lives easier or to make ourselves happy. 

I cannot bold, italicize this enough. This is a truth that we cannot ever forget. (By the way, this is a truth that any parent – adoptive or not – not matter how challenging the child is, cannot ever forget.)

The adoption of Mason was not about us. It was about him and our belief that God cares for those who are orphaned. It was about giving a child a better chance at a healthy, whole life. It was about opening our home and family to love a beautiful child who was made in the image of God and is worth more than we could ever imagine. It was about welcoming him into our family.

1. In the traditional / established church world you aren’t a “real pastor” unless you are paid full-time by the church.
2. In the church planting, missional, emerging (whatever words you want to use here) world you aren’t totally legitimate unless you are bi-vocational.

Why don’t we just go ahead and say that neither of these assumptions are healthy.

There is a time and place for full-time paid pastors. There is a time and place for part-time paid pastors.

Neither one is more spiritual than the other.

That is all.

A lot is currently being said about marriage these days due to the recent publication of two books on marriage by two famous (and/or infamous) pastors. I won’t link to one of them because I just don’t think it would be helpful, but I will link to the other one because (while I haven’t read it) I imagine it’s probably helpful in some ways because I really respect the author.

But, over the years I have developed a some thoughts that I (and others it seems) have found helpful when it comes to the vocation of marriage. Now, I don’t fancy myself an complete expert when it comes to being married, just ask my wife. But, in the midst of our struggles the following thoughts have aided us in putting our marriage, and all that goes with it, within a helpful mission-centered framework (how’s that for a catchy phrase?).

I think for us to begin talking about marriage we have to go back to the creation. Most people do too so this isn’t anything new. But, I want to take a bit of a different look at the image of God and it’s implications for our vocation as individuals and more importantly, together as a couple.

In Genesis 1 we read, “In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth. On the 5th day he created mankind and said, “Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness…So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

Okay, again I am not telling each of you anything new. You, me, all of us are created in the image of God. Of course, there are many different implications to being made in the image of God. The most obvious is that we are His beloved creation, worth more to Him than we can ever imagine. Worth so much that God chose to become man himself, walk among us in the dirt and suffer death on the cross. This is an amazing beautiful truth that I am not sure we will ever really comprehend.

But there is another side to being made in the image of God that I think we can sometimes miss. If being his beloved children shows us who’s we are, this second piece speaks of who we are to be as his children.

In order to understand this side better, it might be helpful to use a alternative word to “image.” Perhaps the greek version of the word is more helpful. That is “eikon.” (All this “eikon” talk is stolen taken straight from Scot McKnight’s book Embracing Grace)

For many of us, the word “eikon” brings some more tangible ideas. Some of us may associate this with religious icons, or pop icons (like Michael Jackson) and those of us who spend our time in front of computers will associate this with the little images that we click on to open up applications like our web browser or wordprocessor.

In each of these cases, the icon is not the object of focus. Rather, what these icons point to is the thing that is important. A religious icon serves the purpose of pointing the worshipper to God. A computer icon serves the purpose of pointing to, or being a shortcut to a computer application.

As beings who are created in the image of God, we serve a similar purpose and role in this world. We are not meant to be God, but rather we are meant to point to God. We are not meant to be the creator, but we are meant to point to the Creator. Following the computer line of thought, if you double click on us, that is, if you look at our lives, you should see God. (Cheesy, I know, but it works right?)

But, here’s the thing: Image bearing doesn’t stop with at people being individuals. 

The Bible continues in Genesis and says that the man and woman are to become one flesh… Two become one. And because of this, in a very real sense, the married couple makes one eikon of God. 

I think the implications of this are huge.

When we look at marriage in our culture there are many different definition of success. A good job, a family, a great sex life, beautiful grandkids, a wealthy retirement and other culturally-based goals.

But, I believe that according to the Bible, the mark of a successful marriage is when two people come together and their lives continually point others to God.

This then is our vocation: To join our lives together and spend the rest of them pointing others to God. So, my wife and I judge our marriage based on how well we point others to God. As God called Israel to be blessed and be a blessing, as God calls the church to be blessed and be a blessing… So God calls the two of us to come together as one, not only to be blessed but to be a blessing and point others to God.

We raise kids with this goal, we neighbor with this goal, we argue (yikes) with this goal, we shop with this goal, we spend money with this goal, we date with this goal, we live in community with this goal, we do everything with the goal of being a shared eikon of God.

If we wake up when we’re 80 and we can say, by the grace of God, we’ve done this. I’ll be happy.

At the heart of all temptations, as we see here [in the temptations of Jesus], is the act of pushing God aside because we perceive him as secondary; if not actually superfluous and annoying in comparison with all the apparently far more urgent matters that fill our lives. Constructing a world by our own lights, without reference to God, building our own foundation; refusing to acknowledge the reality of anything beyond the political and material, while setting God aside s an illusion – that is the temptation that threatens us in many varied forms.

Pope Benedict XVI,  Jesus of Nazarath

All that to say, Scot McKnight has put out a really interesting little e-book called “Junia is Not Alone.” It’s a book that tells the story of a Junia, and other women in church history, who have long been ignored and brushed to the side by our history books. Somewhere in the church history Junia, referenced in Romans 16:7, actually was changed to “Junias” and therefore called a man by those interpreting the text. Ladies and gentlemen, the first sex change recorded in the bible!

Scot McKnight (successfully) argues that Junia was, in fact, a women and that she is not the only woman to be marginalized throughout church history. I gave this book to a friend of mine (a woman) who has been wrestling with this stuff and she found it both alarming, encouraging and maddening! Definitely worth a read if this stuff interests you.