gavoweb

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Books

my beautiful idol : my review

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Mybeautifulidolvia the ooze i was given a copy of ‘my beautiful idol‘ to read and give my review.

i threw out some excerpts from the book early in reading. at that point i really enjoyed reading and there was some anticipation of what was happening next. where does this journey go, etc. it is a memoir of faith trying to be lived out in actions and some of those actions would be considered nutty by some, noble by others. i really liked seeing into some of the ‘noble’ actions and their less noble feelings. especially the attempt to be like henri nouwen. but like the impact of stories of people like henri nouwen or shane claiborne doing counter cultural attempts to the standard move upward in the celebrity/corporate world. the heart of their story and motivations is not that we all follow in their footsteps to enact their exact same things. so you get failed attempts at being who you are not.. and this went over and over and over

as i closed the book i was let down. the first half of the book was riddled with some fun stories, leaps of faith, and honest self-examination. but 230-250 pages in i was pretty much over with the self-exam that moved into self-deprecation. it just got old for me. maybe i need some epiphany to feel good. maybe the self-actualizations were not that profound for me. maybe i have my idols that are not allowing me to see past my own self.. maybe..

was it a good book? if you like memoirs then sure. it is written well and moves quickly. it has some cool spots too. i know i was really intrigued reading his understanding of speaking in tongues. something i am not familiar with as spiritual practice. but memoirs haven’t traditionally been my book. i like to be challenged in thinking and this didn’t take me there in the end.

blake has a more favorable outlook on the book. search for other reviews to see if i am full of crap.

mark yaconelli : youthworker movement podcast

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episode five of the youthworker movement podcast is up and going. subscribe via itunes

mark is the director of the youth ministry spirituality project and the author of "contemplative youth ministry" and "growing souls." i met up with mark to talk contemplative youth ministry approach & growing souls. how does a youth leader care for the soul of themselves
and the youth in their charge. we also bring back some 80’s music. interviewed at the national youth workers convention in atlanta, november of 2007.

contact me to get plugged in or ask questions on the podcast. i could use hearing from some friends.
email at: gavoweb(at)gmail.com or call: 615-357-3275

tuesday randomness : link love

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a run down on semi-interesting things

an evening with bishop nt wright : round up & audio

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last night erin & i headed down to west end, along with quite a few hundred cross cultural types to hear from n.t. wright, the bishop of durham. he’s on a book tour for "surprised by hope" which i am to read sometime this year. i was stoked to hear of his coming and by the turnout last night, quite a few others were as well. it was a nice evening out catching up with many friends. even erin had fun meeting up with the various friendships through blogging. being at the methodist church it was nice to see some metho-types in the audience as well. after-wards we went out for drinks at the broadway brewhouse, with the joneses for a new draft beer to town. the new beer, boulevard brew, out of kansas city. it is quite good, though it probably won’t take over from my early 20’s drink of choice back in nj.

back to last night. i am still processing. i don’t know if i have knowledge and language command to navigate what i heard in teaching and not making it sound like some purgatory realm. one thing erin & i liked was nt’s distinction that we are not building the kingdom but building for the kingdom. his analogy was a rock sculpture shape a rock, and that is what they do, but it is the architect who puts into its place where the true beauty shows.

many friends have already started to throw down their thoughts. so i give you a round-up of those conversations

another fun thing. i received an email from a older gentleman asking my response to his comments on the tennessean article i was quoted in. for the record, my church is "first" united methodist, not "faith" united methodist. common mistake.. not really, but oh well.

some of my conversations in the being interviewed were that. 1. this isn’t such a hard concept to grasp as we have always had a teaching of holiness movement and means of grace that is intended to be kingdom building 2. it isn’t so hard to imagine methodist’s interested in anglican folks as we are only 300 years removed from those anglican traditions of church. not to mention, we are a revival movement from that church body, so any revival in that church is probably something we are going to be interested in. but as with any of my "news" spots, my one liners are lame or total bs.

i do take down some audio of the bishop’s talk. the sound system was not in fine form. john, who was operating the system and a old family friend told me after-wards someone came in and messed it all up after he had it perfect. he was so mad. so the audio isn’t the best volume quality, but if you can plug into some speakers you can hear just fine.