reyes-chow :: FAITH

Reading Recommendations: Philippines, Taiwan and Hong Kong?

Because of my role as Moderator, this February, I and my family will have the privilege of traveling to Asia spending time in the Philippines, Taiwan and Hong Kong. This is such a great privilege to be able to take this trip to speak with other religious leaders and have a time to strengthen and build some relationships between the church I serve and folks doing ministry in other parts of the world. 

In a very brief time we are under no delusions that we will get any more than surface introductions to a great many things, but we are, nonetheless hoping to fill our hearts and heads with as much information beforehand as possible.  With this in mind, I would welcome any books, readings, etc that you think we should read before we head out.  Please feel free to offer books/reading about the history of any country or current political or cultural issues. 

Soon I will publish appropriate details of our itinerary and will be blogging the adventure on my official moderator blog if you want to follow along, until then, please feel free to leave your book rec's here.  Thanks in advance.

Book Suggestions from the Great Emergence Event

Lots to think about after The Great Emergence Event here in Memphis.   I met some great folks, enjoyed the presenters and was challenged to think more deeply about church, call and community.  More to come later, but until then, here are the books that I am going to suggest for some of you where were not able to be there*.

Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion by Sara Miles // I have read this book and absolutely love it.  This tells the story of Sara who found faith and started a food bank at St. Gregory's Episcopal Church in San Francisco.  Powerful stuff.  At the event one of her quotes was about knowing if you are in the house of God.  It was basically, "How you know you are in the house of God is because there is always at least one person that the institution would consider to be inappropriate and there would be least one person with whom you need to reconcile."

Great Emergence, The: How Christianity Is Changing and Why by Phyllis Tickle // This is by far the best book that explains from an historical perspective what is going on today in the life of the church.  She argues that we are in the middle of a new reformation, something that happens every 500 years.  She lays out how we have gotten to where we are and then what she thinks will happen next and by whom.  She challenged those in the emergent conversation for the past 10 years to explore what is next.  It is time for the conversation to move into some stage of maturity and that the mainline emergents will play a big role.  She posits that the biggest question that we face is "From where does authority come?"  I think she is right on and will blog about this more later.

Intuitive Leadership: Embracing a Paradigm of Narrative, Metaphor, and Chaos by Tim Keel // Tim is the pastor of Jacob's Well in Kansas City and blogs here.  I have not read his book, but thought his brief presentation was interesting, so I think I'll pick it up.  This seems like a book for those in leadership within a congregation.

The Fidelity of Betrayal: Towards a Church Beyond Belief by Peter Rollins // Peter is a pastor in Ireland who I have heard about lately, but have not had much interaction.  His presentation was profound and moving, so this book jumped onto my list.  He tells some amazing stories about how church must have strong beliefs, but we must not kill each other with them.

If you are only going to buy one, buy this one.

Salvation on the Small Screen? 24 Hours of Christian Television by Nadia Bolz-Weber // Nadia, who blogs at sarcasticlutheran was was part of the event offering some great insights from her book throughout the event.  Now normally I would have thought this was shameless book promotion, but in this case, it was so good, I didn't mind a bit.  I have been to events where they have tried the same thing and I was just grossed out.  This book is about Nadia's reflections about self, life and faith as she watched Christian TV for 24 hours.  If you are only going to buy one, buy this one.

Honorable mention goes to my friend and all-around awesome person, Nanette Sawyer who is the pastor at Wicker Park Grace in Chicago.  You may also want to pick up her book, Hospitality the Sacred Art: Discovering the Hidden Spiritual Power of Invitation and Welcome.

So there you have it.  Again, I'll blog more in depth about the event itself later particularly about questions of institutional authority, racial ethnic involvement in the emergent movement and possible next steps for emergent type mainliners.

*If you were not able to be there, you can always read through the live #tge Twitter Stream.

2.0 Book Project Possibilities

[image: Nate Steiner]

So I seem to remember a ways back on this blog, the snobbish mockery that emanated from a post about this whole book-writing thing.  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  You know it is coming, yep, I am in talks about a book.  Good Lord what are people thinking?  Clearly they are not . . .

Yes, I'll have some salt with that hat I shall now eat.

But I swear, I am going to do this differently.  Yeah right.  No really I am.

Okay how about this for a start . . .

1. I am going to inquire about getting something published online for free download in addition to a printed version.
2. I will not have the words "emergent" "authentic" "organic" "missional" or "conversation" in the title, but do reserve the right to use any words that have seems just as cool.
3. And this is the best one.  I want you to help me think about the book proposal.  Yep, you heard me correctly, my choices are wide wide open at this point: audience, topic, font, margin size, color scheme, etc. and really only want to engage in this project if might actually be useful.

So here are some ideas that I am think about.

The Third Church: moving beyond old school politics and embracing the ambiguity of life.
This book will look at my thoughts about the future of the church and specifically on the movement of the church away from modern polemics of liberal/conservative and into a new way of being church, denominations and institutions.

Pastor, Dad, Hack and Follower of Christ: memoirs of a 40-year-old church nerd.
This book will look at my life as a person of faith, growth into an ordained pastor and general thoughts on the future of the mainline church.

Sidelines No More: the search for the new denominational life.
While common wisdom says that we are in a post-denominational age, I think there is a rebirth of connectional yearnings and communal relationships.  Regardless of what these are called, if open to transformation, denominations may offer something to the future of being church in the world.

The Millennial Church: Musing on pastoring the largest generation in U.S. history.
This would look at ways of pastoring in this new culture.  Might use the backdrop of Mission Bay Community Church and/or other communities of faith that are effectively and creatively reaching this group.

Not really a “preacher”: a new look at proclamation in a flat flat world.
This would look at shifting perspectives and practices on congregational preaching.

Leadership: built on tradition, unleashed for the future
This would look at new thoughts on pastoral leadership and how we can be more adaptive to today's culture and worldview shifts.

Okay . . . so please leave your thoughts on this post as well as leave your vote/s on the poll below and be part of the journey.  Let me also know about other topics, audiences, etc. that you might think be useful.  And should all of this actually come to fruition, know that I will fully commit to being as 2.0 and open source as I can through it all.  Thanks in advance!

The dangers of the whole book-writing thing

A few of us were talking/teasing the other night about writing a book.  I mean isn't that natural next step for one who is claiming to have something to say to some group of people about something significant?  The whole book thing has always twisted my insides a bit because it is too easy to fall into some traps and just become that which would bring out the worst in me: a huge freaking ego and getting my worth by what I produce.  Yes, some people should be writing because that is their calling life and they have been gifted with the words, spirit and motivation.  But, come on people, lets be honest, some of the stuff that is getting published these days is just bad and self-indulgent.  Not EVERY pastor/Jesus-follower/rebel is a good writer.  Just as some writers are not all that engaging or impressive in person, some of the most personable, pastoral and thought-proving people do not good writers make.

And while I will never say never, here are the top three reason that there will be no book tour any time soon.

• Lack of motivation // I can't imagine sitting and writing so many of those word things in a row.  Um, blogger.
• Lack of skill // While I love blogging, I am under no delusions that I write well.  I think I ask good questions, am genuine and share openly, but on it's own, my writing is adequate at best.  And the typos, those ungodly typos!!!!
• Lack of imagination // Seriously people, while I enjoy "liberating" current trends and translating them to particular contexts, this is hardly creative or original.

I will say that a book could come about if I could simply run off my blog posts and take them to Kinko's to be copied and bound or the above mentioned ghost-writing hipster cousin walked into my life.  Now that would be the writer's life ;-)

[image: Abby]

Does the Ooze have any standards at all?

Apparently the Ooze does not have standards - at least not high ones - because I am on some list of people that are being sent free books in the hopes that I review and blog about most of them.  Of course all it took was a blog posting from the Adam Cleaveland, a technorati authority over 50 and a quick eMail to say, "Sure, I'll read free books" and voila, I am one of 50 book-reading, blog-spewing narcissists.  Hey I call 'em like I see 'em ;-)  Did I mention these were free books?

While will never be as sweet of a reviewer as Mr. Copeland, See his most excellent review of Tony Jones' New Christians, I will do my best to give you some reason to buy it now, wait until later or don't bother.

I am about 3/4 of the way through the first book, Pete Gall's reflective memoir, Beautiful Idol.  Should be done with it in a few days and will post something next week.

I just received in the mail four more books and a CD.  Not sure what I'll start next, probably the one with the coolest cover ;-)  Yes, and I also choose my wine by the attractiveness of the label.  Sue me.  My choices are from the following:

• Feel: The Power of Listening to Your Heart by Matthew Elliott
• Porn Nation: Conquering America's #1 Addiction by Michael Leahy
• Hokey Pokey: Curious People Finding What Life's All About by Matthew Paul Turner
• We the Purple by Marcia Ford
• Songs for a Revolution of Hope, Vol 1: Everything Must Change CD by Brian McClaren and The Restoration Project

So if you have any thoughts about what I should read next and/or have a great idea for a creative rating system for movies, books, ect. feel free to drop a note.

Interview with Rohit Bhargava on "Personality Not Included"

UPDATE ON APRIL 1, 2008 // My interview was chosen as one of the Top 12.  Pretty certain I am the only Presbyterian minister on the list ;-)  You can help me get a free signed copy of the book or a $100 Amazon Gift certificate if you vote for my interview.  And get this, just like Chicago, you can vote twice!  Jokes people, jokes.

• Vote @ PNI Blog
• Vote @ Rohit Blog
  

About six month's ago, I posted a preview of Rohit Bhargava's new book, Personality Not Included.  Well the time has come and it was launched this week.  Over the years Rohit has provided me some some great ideas and insights into the world of Social Media and some ways that the church and web 2.0 can meet.

And yet another very interesting idea.  Last week, Rohit put out the call to be blog "interviewed" by folks regarding the new book.  Talk about creating buzz and conversations.  Brilliant!  Me thinks I shall "liberate" this idea for my own use!

Never one to turn down some some traffic-generating and interesting interactions, here is my interview with Rohit.

What about the process of writing the book gave you the most joy?

Finishing.  No, just kidding.  Actually, it was uncovering great stories (like yours, which is in Chapter 4!) that I weaved together to tell the story of the book.  I love that the book is fully made up of stories and is an easy read as a result.  I've read too many long and boring marketing books and didn't want this to be one of them.

What about the process of writing the book most caused you to swear out loud ;-) ?

That's an interesting one ... it was probably all of the running around collecting permissions for quotes.  That was a major pain in the ass - especially because I clearly cited everyone from whom I quoted and wanted to follow the online convention of "as long as you provide a link, you're ok."  That's not really how it works for a book, and that frequently caused me headaches and even made me take out some quotes and just talk generally about a source instead because it was too complicated to get approvals.

What surprised you the most as you researched your book?

I shared this in another interview, but the thing that surprised me most was the direct access I was able to get to just about anyone who I wanted to talk to about the book.  Sure I dealt with my share of PR agency people (not to knock them, since I work for a PR agency too) - but pretty much everyone was willing to be helpful and point me in the right direction to get what I needed.  A far cry from 10 years ago when I might have spent all my time trying to get past secretaries.

What did you learn about non-profit and religious organizations?

I learned that they are often in the best position to have a brand based on personality because they are often led by a charismatic individual who inspires those around them.  As a result, they can often offer a model on how to use personality to build passion in a brand to corporations.

What is one piece of advice out of your book that you would give to someone leading a business or organization?

Give your employees and customers the opportunity and freedom to talk about you and respond to what they have to say.

More more more on PNI.

• Complete list of interviews
• Official Website
• Facebook Readers Group
  

Real People, Real Lives, Real Spirituality

[h/t: Presbymergent]

Always a willing participant in the viral nature of community building, let me pass along this note from Susan Baller-Shepard, from the www.spiritualbookclub.com.

I am a Presbyterian minister, social worker, and writer, and I’ve facilitated www.spiritualbookclub.com for nearly ten years now. I am a parish associate pastor at First Pres-Normal, IL. We also have a local spirituality book club group that meets in Barnes & Noble once a month, makes meals for the homeless, collects items for women in prison, etc. We now have a new blog www.spiritualbookclubblog.blogspot.com which I think would be of interest to the Presbymergent crowd.

We’re collecting interviews to highlight the spiritual lives of real people on this blog. If you’d like to be highlighted, please email me your responses to the below questions and a photo, and we’ll post them. Enjoy reading what’s already posted. We hope to get diversity both of opinion and geography, and so far we have responses from friends in India, England, Australia, etc.

Peace,
Susan Baller-Shepard

Real People, Real Lives, Real Spirituality…

Your Name (you can choose, you can put your full name or just first name):
Where you live (vague as you wanna be):
What you do as a vocation or avocation?
Your two favorite books:
Your two favorite CDs:
Why you are interested in spirituality?
Your favorite quote:
Your favorite web sites:
Your hero?
A spiritual lesson you hope to learn?
A place in the world where you feel spiritually “connected?”
Please include a photo of yourself, or something that represents you, so we can upload it to the blog.

1/2 Book Review: The Hip-Hop Generation

I have this really bad habit.  I am sure someone out there can analyze this for me.  I start reading a book and feel like I want others to join in on on the ride.  The good thing is that I really want others to experience something that is compelling.  The bad is that I have no idea where we are heading and might draw you into some catastrophic abyss of nothingness.  Be it church, books, social networks, whatever, my first inclination is, "Come on in, it probably won't kill you and it just might be good for you."

You all are grown-ups.  Jump in if you like.

My latest book adventure is Party Crashing: How the Hip-Hop Generation Declared Political Independence by Keli Goff.  I heard about this book while listing to a Talk of the Nation episode, Barack Obama and the African American Vote.  While the context was the African American community, there were some great thoughts put out.  The two that stood out to me were these:

• One, the cultural shifts in the African American community are between the Civil Rights generation (Boomers) and the Hip Hop Generation (born 1965-85);
• Two, this shift is not happening soley in the African American community, but also in the larger culture.

I am about half-way through this book and I there have been a few really good insights for me. 

• I am more of a HipHop Generation Person than a Generation X person.  I always knew there was something that didn't quite fit for me in the whole GenX world.  Maybe it was music, the city thang, my ethnic realities, whatever it was, I never saw myself as a GenX'er.   I resonate much more with the social and political realities of the HipHop reality.
• I am NOT crazy.  There are times when, in the midst of my ranting about the church needing to drastically shift with culture, I feel like I am really off.  This book reaffirms so much of what many of us have been talking about as of late.
• I just might vote for Jon Stewart/Chris Rock ticket . . . no seriously.

So, take a read of this one.  It is pretty quick and will give an entirely different perspective on the root causes and reactions to cultural shifts.

"Insights from the Underside" - Look who is published, well, sort of

Many of you have heard me rant a bit about the whole expectation of book writing by pastoral leadership.  Some are truly called to live out this gift, but others are just being goofy.  Most of us don't write good ;-), are not disciplined or original and, dare I say it, are a tad bit ego driven.  Plus there is the whole money/opensource/class thing as being debated over on Presbymergent.  A little harsh, I know, but I have to constantly remind myself of these things every time I being to think I need to write a book. 

Nice promo I know, because with that said, I just got word that I am published in a book, sort of.  YEARS ago, a friend on mine, Rev. soon to be Dr. Neal Presa, had this idea for putting together a book that had short articles written by "young" pastors and then responded to by "less-young" ones.  While certainly no longer young, I was put on the young side of the project and was given two chapters, one on conflict, Decently and in Good Order: Resolving Conflicts When People Do Not Want To and one on context, Location, Location, Location: Ministry and Living in the 21st Century.  My responder was Craig Barnes.   

With 16 other contributors, the result is Insights from the Underside: An Intergenerational Conversation of Ministers, Broadmind Press.

- Rodger Nishioka, from the Foreword
This book you hold is about all of this: constancy and consistency, perseverance in ministry, managing to live faithfully even in the days of ordinary time.  It is a collection of testimonies from those who are newer on the road of ministry with follow up thoughtful reflections from those who are farther down the road. It is invaluable in that it bears potent witness to Christ’s call to persevere. For all of us, I believe we are called to constancy and perseverance as a means of grace in our own lives and in the lives of others and ultimately as a point of entry into the world so that holy vibrations are created that radiate far beyond the church. To be sure, perseverance is not easy. Perseverance is not always fun. But it is the journey to which we have been called.

So, if you do feel the itch to get this book, here are a few things to note:

1. There will be no freaking book tour.
2. I will sign my chapters, but only if you babysit my kids for a night.
3. Please know that I am not getting any $$ out of this.  The only payment I get will be the razzing from my "friends" for my being in a book, and portion of the funds raised will go to the Theological Fund for Education.

You can Pre-Order on Amazon.

Let the razzing begin.

123 Book Meme

UPDATED 02.17.08 - Tagged by Adam.

Imagine my surprise when this AM I was tagged, not once, but thrice with the same meme. For those of you  new to the whole Meme thing, here is a good post on the Blog Meme from the Quixtar Blog.  Duly honored to be in the tag crew from ms. leslie, mr bouma and mr. coons.

Here are the rules.

1) Grab the nearest book of 123 pages or more.
2) Open it to page 123.
3) Find the first 5 sentences and write them down.
4) Invite five friends to do the same.

Here is goes . . . from a book I JUST started reading, It's Not the Big That Eat the Small...It's the Fast That Eat the Slow: How to Use Speed as a Competitive Tool in Business by Jason Jennings and Laurence Haughton.  Page 123 is the first page of the chapter titled, "Launch a Crusade."

The fastest companies in the world - those that get to market fastest - don't waste time sitting around a conference table processing visions with the creative types from HR. 

They don't need to. 

They share something bigger and stronger. 

Each has a cause that they use to launch crusades.

Whether it is a restaurant with 15 employees or a software firm with 10,000, most companies are filled with people who have no clue of the big picture - what the organization is really trying to accomplish - and because they don't feel that they or their contributions are important, they do their job . . . and nothing more.

Yummy.

Tagged: Monte M, Vox ex Machina, Kristen, Sarah, The Introverted One