One of the best things about being at the beach is the extra time to read. No better way to spend an afternoon than to have your feet in the sand and a book in your hand. In the last week I paged through three different books...one a spiritual novel, one a practical ministry volume, and one a bit of an expose. I enjoyed all three but for very different reasons.
The Shack After a significant loss, Mack, the main character (besides God, Himself) is invited personally by God to a lonely cabin in the woods. His interactions with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are full of theology and completely laced with real-life imagery. This book coerced tears from my eyes as Mack takes steps to minister to one of his daughters after his weekend in the woods. This is a great book that will challenge your preconceived notions about God and will cause you to hug your kids a little tighter. 
Pop Goes the Church, Should the Church Engage Pop Culture?Tim Stevens challenges us all to take a position in our culture. To leverage our culture so that people can catch a glimpse of God through what they are already watching and listening to. "The theology of our day is found in the cineplex" and we, as the Church, need to capitalize on this by sincerely engaging with our culture. This engagement will allow us to understand what is being communicated and use that as our springboard to the truth. This book is practically challenging with some great examples to "borrow" for your own ministry.
I once sat down at a dinner table at a conference at Billy Graham's the Cove in Asheville, North Carolina. Once I exchanged pleasantries with the people around me, the woman to my left said in a hushed tone "So you live near DC? Do you know about that secretive ministry with all the houses?" I told her what every good DC suburbanite says..."Yes, I do, but if I told you about it, I would have to kill you." This book is a "supposed" expose (depending on your point of view) of that under the radar group called "The Family" and it is all the more enjoyable when you personally recognize some of the names listed on these pages.
Order these, get a cold drink in your hand, set the umbrella just right and enjoy your reading.
This coming Sunday is one of my favorite Sundays on the Destiny calendar. There are 5 reasons for this:
Pop Goes the Church, Should the Church Engage Pop Culture?
This is the image that I hope to be seeing for the majority of my week next week. I won't be looking at a computer screen and therefore will not be blogging. You will have to fast the keen insights and tongue in cheek humor that you have, no doubt, come to appreciate in this little corner of the world wide web.
Now, just to keep you in the Destiny loop, we will continue the One Prayer series through the end of June. Our final week (June 29th) will highlight Scott Longyear of Maryland Community Church in Terre Haute, Indiana with his One Prayer being "Lord, Make us Dead". If you miss one of these dynamic messages, you can easily catch up because each of the 5 One Prayer messages will be available in podcast form at www.destinychurch.info.
Kate Hudson's character in Fool's Gold keeps her notes in a Moleskine notebook. I'm am an unashamed fan of these trendy books and somehow feel validated because a Hollywood starlet uses one in a fictional romantic comedy. 
Try taking your next meeting out of the conference room and see what it does for you and your team.
