Friday, January 09, 2009

Wow!

So I get a packet from my denominational headquarters... they are promoting a Spring/Easter campaign that they have been doing for a few years now. In this packet, there is a letter and a pen.


Well, I'm used to getting pens in the mail all the time... It was a big ole fat pen with campaign title across the side of it. I just smiled and put it in my middle drawer where the rest of my ka-jillion pens rest.

It actually wasn't until the next day that I read the letter that came with it. The letter told me to enjoy my USB Pen. What?!?! A USB Pen?!

Sure enough... the pens breaks open at the middle and the non-writing portion of the pen is a USB flash drive. They had loaded all the campaign curriculum on the pen. Even better though, is the fact that it holds 1GB in memory!!!! 1 Gig!!!


Sometimes it pays to be a pastor! Great work, headquarters! You hit a home run on this one. (Of course, I'm sure there are some pastors out there who still think it's just a pen. Snicker, snicker.)

My Two Year Old

I'm not good at remembering little things like this… so I’m going to write it down before I forget it. Last night, Emily told on Aaron. Evidently, Aaron had thrown a toy and it knocked over and broke one of Melissa’s winter decorations. I gave Aaron a stern look and went into the other room to survey the damage. At that moment, I heard him take off… and I heard (through the baby monitor) his closet door moving.

So I went looking for him. I went down the hallway. I moved into his room. Still no sight of him. Finally, I opened the closet door… and there he is. Hiding. I had never seen him do this before. It was hard not to crack up laughing. Very clever. Also very Adam and Eve-ish too. It’s interesting to see how early we learn to hide from our mistakes…

Thursday, January 01, 2009

2008 Reading List

Much like last year, I feel like this list is not very big. I wish I would've gotten more reading in. However, I feel I should make a disclaimer... this list only represents the books that I actually finished. This would be a far greater list if I retold all the books that I started, parts of commentaries that I poured over, or early church reading that I did. Okay, here it goes:

Professional Reading

1. 5 Things Anyone Can Do To Lead Effectively (Phil Stevenson) 96 Pages
2. 5 Things… To Help Their Church Grow (Phil Stevenson) 95 Pages
3. Soul Cravings (Erwin McManus) 258 Pages
4. 7 Practices of Effective Ministry (Stanley, Joiner, Jones) 187 Pages
5. An Unstoppable Force (Erwin McManus) 224 Pages
6. The Knowledge of the Holy (A.W. Tozer) 188 Pages
7. Return to Worship (Ron Owens) 210 Pages
8. Comeback Churches (Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson) 226 Pages
9. The Wonder of Worship (Keith Drury) 298 Pages
10. The Church Jesus Builds (Various) 205 Pages
11. The Radical Reformission (Mark Driscoll) 204 Pages
12. The Shack (William P. Young) 248 Pages
13. Be Holy (Various Authors) 207 Pages
14. Authentic Faith (Gary Thomas) 253 Pages

Personal Reading

1. Star Wars: Death Star (Michael Reaves & Steve Perry) 363 Pages
2. The Last Templar (Raymond Khoury) 523 Pages
3. Star Wars: Sacrifice (Karen Traviss) 367 Pages
4. Sandstorm (James Rollins) 587 Pages
5. Star Wars: Inferno (Troy Denning) 299 Pages
6. Map of Bones (James Rollins) 521 Pages
7. Star Wars: Fury (Aaron Allston) 356 Pages
8. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Campbell Black) 178 Pages
9. Star Wars: A Practical Man - Ebook (Karen Traviss) 70 Pages
10. The Appeal (John Grisham) 358 Pages
11. Star Wars: Jedi Twilight (Michael Reaves) 343 Pages
12. Protect and Defend (Vince Flynn) 403 Pages


26 Books 7267 Total Pages


Top Three Professional
1. Be Holy - A fantastic book re-examining the Wesleyan take on Holiness.
2. The Shack - Not a theology text... so don't read it like one. Just enjoy and allow God to minister to your heart.
3. Authentic Faith - Challenging book about some Christian disciplines that aren't thought about as much.

Top Three Personal
1. Protect and Defend - Flynn continues to write engaging stories... probably the author that I most look forward to reading new stuff from.
2. Map of Bones - Great stuff by Rollins... I just hope he revisits this storyline again... very unfulfilling ending.
3. The Last Templar - If you can get past another Gnostic gospel book (like DiVinci Code)... the story is really pretty engaging.

One big observation: I continue to read Star Wars out of loyalty... but I enjoy those books less and less. Not sure what's going on there... but I'm hoping for a better Star Wars year this year... we'll see.