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Books

being churched : matthew paul turner

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today at our nashville cohort, matthew paul turner (whom i have two of his books showing themselves on my book shelves at the office) read two chapters from him upcoming release "Churched, One Kid’s Journey Toward God Despite A Holy Mess."

as with his other writings, churched is incredibly funny in a memoire fashion. he had us in stitches telling stories of his childhood, growing up in a fundamentalist christian environment. it will come out in hardcover in october, and though i do not buy many hardcovers (primarily because of the cost) i will be grabbing a copy of churched. i would encourage others to consider it as well. join in his facebook group for updates and touring info

justification : love

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There is no justification for love, for if there were, then it would not be love. If we love because we are compelled through force, then it is not love. If I give some money to the poor only because someone is holding a gun to my head and demanding the action, then this is not a loving action. Neither is it loving if I act in order to gain a reward, even if the reward is simply the feeling that comes from doing the act. As soon as we say that we should love, then love disappears, for love is the law that has no law, the way that knows no ‘should’. Love is the law that tells us when to subvert the law, when to obey the law and when to break with laws, yet love is a lawless law that cannot be argued for.

how (not) to speak of God, –peter rollins

mass of links : something i really should organize

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Brains

in my ever growing list of links. i realize i should probably at some point organize them, or offer commentary of my own.. naaah…

oh shit it’s Jesus : reviewing sorta

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one of the latest batch of books sent to me via the ooze was a real eye catcher. partly because it was on the top of the stack. it was "oh shit it’s Jesus, the relevance of Jesus without all the religious crap." i had fun showing it to many of our church staff and other laity that happened to be around (it was right before vbs, so there were quite a few people). i even started reading it myself. however, i have yet to finish myself and i’m not sure i will.. why? people keep taking it to read.

one of the first things that caught my eye with the book is that it has no publisher. i went looking for the publisher mark and found nothing. then reading into the book apparently no one wanted to touch the book. not even a self-publisher company. they equated it to ‘the shack’ in some ways that is was controversial enough that publishers didn’t want to touch it.. i could get that. throwing ‘shit’ in a title isn’t exactly literary norm.

however, in the youth office it has become a funny book for us. lots of giggles. so it wasn’t surprising that one of the interns showed his college friend the book during vbs week. she sat down and read it in one sitting, which essentially rendered her useless during vbs but she picked an okay day to do that. i told her she had to write me a review for it.. not sure she took me seriously… i wonder why?

she loved the book. the writing for her was simple enough (ie. no heavy terminology) and flowed well. she felt like the book made some good points that she could identify with.

i was intrigued to get past page 9 which is where i ended the one time i opened the book and subsequently fell asleep on the couch. but it was our mission experience week, not a whole lot of time to read when you are in my position. so in a conversation about books i said to one of our adult youth ministers "i’ve got a book for you" and showed him the book, which he laughed out loud at. then he took the book and i haven’t seen it since. i’ll probably see it again but not sure when.

i asked him what he thought of the book so far. he was less than impressed. "it takes some easy pop shots" which for him were not enlightening or challenging. at that point he was hoping for me. but he reads on.. i assume he is reading on. otherwise i’d like my book back. haha!

Ooze450

more on the links : and it’s not golf

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time just seems to be going everywhere but into blog posting. no biggie, just means i’m working with the youth who i am sorta paid to minister with. so for the time you can see some of the fruits of work & readings. this is my latest collection of stuff.