New Year, New Goals

Last year, I set a goal to read 50 books from January 1st to December 31st. I was able to complete my goal in the last few hours of 2011. Over the course of the year, I read a lot of different books and enjoyed most of them.

The book that I enjoyed the most was Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien. I've seen the movies so many times, but had not finished the books. Challenged by a friend to finish it, I read it and then had the most enjoyable time discussing it over coffee with friends. I would highly recommend the entire series to anyone. The books are so much better than the movie. With the Hobbit coming out this year, I will at least be reading that again this year.

Also, for the first time in 2011 I read an in depth biography. Through the booksneeze review program, I received the Bonhoeffer biography by Eric Metaxas. It was like running a marathon to get all the way through it, but it was well worth the journey. I also highly recommend this book if you have the time. Some of Bonhoeffer's works are on my reading list for this year and I cannot wait to dig into them now that I know more about his life.

2011 also saw some controversy. I normally like to keep my nose out of controversy, but I decided to review Rob Bell's book Love Wins. This was the most popular blog post that my blog has ever seen. It was an easy book to read and an interesting one as well. Bell stirred up a lot with this short little book and I think some people went a little overboard criticizing him. I enjoyed the book and was challenged by what he wrote. In the end, though, I still disagreed with him at a few points.

There were a bunch of other books that I read this past year, but this year I'm changing my focus. This year instead of pushing for more books, I'm going to try to read longer books. I'm not saying that longer books are alway better, some of the best books I have read have been some of the shortest books. This year I'm going to shoot for 30 books instead of 50. I'm going from an average of 4 books a month to 2.5 books a month. On my list are books like the 2 volumes of Justo Gonzalez's Story of Christianity, The Brothers Karamozov, First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong, and Humphrey Carpenter's biography of Tolkien.

I know that this is not the most exciting of blog posts, but it's important to make and share goals. I would encourage you to make a reading goal for this year. An easy way to do that is to use Goodreads and create a goal. It tracks it for your and lets you know if you are behind. Good Luck!

2012 Reading Challenge

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February is over.

February always seems like the longest month in the year. Thankfully, it's over. I am thankful because hopefully it will get warmer. This is one of the first winters where I have actively been wanting warmer weather since the end of December. I think it's because this is the first winter where I am paying for my own heating bill.

This has been a short and busy month. Great things are happening however. I'm almost halfway through my second semester of February. I love seminary and love continuing my education which is good because soon I'll switch to a longer degree. Currently I'm only getting a M.A. in Christian Education, but I'm switching to a Masters of Religious Education. In name it sounds the same, but it has twelve more hours added to the degree. Why am I switching? Because I like school. Also, because the longer degree gives me a better set up for continuing my education. I'm looking around, and have nothing even vaguely set in stone, but I would like to pursue a doctoral degree after seminary.

Other than school, I've started teaching. My friend David and I are teaching a class at Jefferson Street Christian Church. We are teaching History of Christian Spiritual Practices. I know, exciting name. We are looking back into history and seeing what Christians in history did to grow closer to God. It started with Jesus as the example of an everyday relationship with God. The we looked at the apostles and church fathers and their emphasis on baptism, communion, and the word of God. It's been exciting, I'll share more about it later, I'm teaching about the reformation a week from tomorrow. I'm learning to appreciate church history and just started reading Church History in Plain Language. I'd recommend this book to just about anyone curious in learning more about church history.

Hope this finds you well. Happy March!

I love books, especially when I have time to read them.

It was nice to be able to read some books over the break before school started. Unfortunately it has taken so long for me to tell you about it. But I'd like to share with you about the books that I have read the last few months.

First, I've been wanting to shamelessly promote my uncle's book, but I'm not just promoting it because it is my uncle's book. It was a fantastic and intriguing book. The book is called The Awakening and is a fascinating read about bioengineering. It is a fiction book about an young man name Art who finds himself at the center of a controversy dealing with science and bioengineering. Art a teen piano prodigy and orphan begins to look into his past and discovers much more than he ever bargained for. He and his friend dizzy dig deep into the conspiracy that turns out to be Art's past. The characters are well developed and the plot will keep you guessing. I don't want to reveal too much more for fear of ruining the story, but I will say if you are curious about what the future may hold or just enjoy a good thriller (and almost sci-fi) you will enjoy this easy to read (and hard to stop reading) book. You'll also be supporting a great guy. It's on amazon and on Facebook. If you want more info head over to www.theawakeningbook.net.

Secondly, I recently read a new book from one of my favorite authors. Don Miller recently put out a new book entitled A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. I have loved everything that Don has put out before and loved this one just as much. It's an intriguing look into how we ought to be living from the perspective on someone turning his life into a movie. When Don was asked to turn his book about his life into a movie, he begins to look into what kind of story he's been living. If you've read Don Miller before, you won't be disappointed by this book. I would recommend this book to everyone especially to those who are into writing and reading good stories. This book will cause you to reflect on your personal story and if you are really doing all that you can do to make it a good one.

I also read a lot of books for school. Recently I read the Jungle as a part of the class I lead a discussion group for. That certainly is a interesting and depressing look into the life of an immigrant around the turn of the century. Just don't read it while you're eating. Most of my books, however, but most of them end up being more technical than fun reads.

I leave you with this question: what have you been reading recently? And did it cause you to rethink something or think about something you never thought of before?

Post your thoughts.

somethings I wish I could do a little more

It's been about a month since I've been back at school. I've spent my time getting back into the swing of things and doing lots of reading. Since being back at school, I have read 4 books completely and I'm in the middle of 4 other books currently. I really wish that I had the time to read these books well, and other books for that matter. I am a slow reader and have to admit that some books get "mostly" read so that I am able to get the reading done. My semester is going to be a lot of reading.

One other thing that I wish I could do a lot more of I did a few nights ago. One of my friends was leading worship at the student lead worship service called Focus. I convinced him to let me play drums for the night. I played drums a few times over my internship and I've played congas once and drums once at Jeff St. CC since I've been back to school, but I can say that it's been a few years since I've really been forced to step up my drum playing. To understand why i had to step up my drumming, here are a few of the songs we played (these aren't us playing): overcome, all because of Jesus, and marvelous light. I was very grateful for the chance to break out my drum sticks once again and play the set.