Academic
This list will grow through the year, but here’s what I have for the spring semester of the MAGL:

Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch
Shaping of Things to Come, The: Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church by Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost
The Meeting of the Waters: 7 Global Currents That Will Propel the Future Church by Fritz Kling
The Invisible: What the Church Can Do to Find and Serve the Least of These by Arloa Sutter
Public Faith, A: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good by Miroslav VLF

Theology & Spirituality

Freedom of Simplicity: Finding Harmony in a Complex World by Richard Foster by Richard Foster
The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited by Scot McKnight
Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions by Rachel Held Evans
The Politics of Jesus by John Howard Yoder
Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann

Life, Relationships and Vocation
Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself by Daniel H. Pink
Keith Ferrazzi, Never Eat Alone
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question by Po Bronson

Fun
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
The Walking Dead: Compendium One by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Cliff Rathburn and Tony Moore
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

1. Don’t do certain bad things.

2. Don’t hang out with people who do said bad things.

At some point two things occurred to me:

1.  I will regularly do bad things.

2.  If I’m going to be like Jesus, I will regularly spend time with people who do things I don’t.

In many ways, these revelations were freeing.  It allowed me to relax a little, and embrace the forgiveness God promises.  It also means that my circle of friends has increased from people who are just like me to include people from different races, political parties, churches and sexual orientations.

I’ve learned a lot from this more graceful stance, and rather than fill a book with what I’ve learned, I point you to the words of Henri Nouwen.

But to be totally honest, it’s a bit exhausting.

Giving grace to yourself requires that you are conscious of when you fail to live up to your standards.  It also means that you regularly take time to ask God for forgiveness for your failures.  Just taking time to recognize those is exhausting.

Giving grace to others requires constantly staring at and listening to things you might not like.  It forces you to think outside the box and question why you do what you do.  It gives you far less opportunities to argue for your way.  Like anything that makes you stronger, it tears you up a bit first.

Although grace is exhausting, hope is enlivening.  This has altered how I look at the time I spend gathered with my church community.  Whether it’s liturgy or cooking dinner or going for a ride or hitting up happy hour we are brought together by a common hope. We rest in our hope that we are forgiven.  We rest in the humility that it is God, not us who will sort out the good and the bad.  We rest in our hope that history is headed somewhere.

We rest because we trust that no matter how exhausting grace is, it’s worth it.

Are you familiar with the concept of “brain drain?” It’s when a small town’s best and brightest go off to college, never to return. They are overqualified for their small town’s job market, and accustomed to a broader world. In a very real way, they “can’t go home again.”

That’s my experience with church. Growing up I was taught a very specific set of legalistic doctrines. Now, I have a few college degrees, a taste for beer, an understanding of evolution and more than few homosexual friends. My generation needs a church that wrestles with my reality.

Briefly here’s 3 things I need from a church:

1. Why not How. Donald Miller once said something along the lines of “we were asking questions like ‘why am I here?’ and getting answers like ‘here’s how to have a great marriage.’”

2. Action Oriented. Most of my generation would agree with Gandhi’s infamous statement “I like your Jesus, not your Christians.” I would like to be a part of community that is more concerned with doing what Jesus said than some of the unsavory things the church has been known for lately.

3. Deep Community. Keller said something along the lines of “chastity is impossible outside of community.” There is no reason nor foundation to live like Christ if you do life alone. Cool music and a good small group isn’t enough. We need sacrificial, intensely interconnected relationships.

Do you agree?  What would you add to the list?

We like to talk about churches as “bodies” or “plants,” but we forget that all life dies. Some churches die in explosions of controversy. Others fizzle down to a few gray hairs paying exorbitant bills.

Perhaps today we should also talk about churches as stories. Essential elements of stories include Setting, Characters, Conflict, and most importantly the plot–beginning, middle and end.

Leaders could cast a vision the churches whole story: How did your church begin? What God has done through it in the past? What would it look like for the church to end well?

Great stories require great endings. A church might reinvent itself to by handing over the reins to a new generation, or selling the property and giving the money desperate church planters.

A church’s death could actually be the most powerful thing it does for the kingdom.

How do you want things to end?

In his hilarious I Became A Christian and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt,  Vince tells how he came to Christ in college, having never met a single Christian in his life.  This led him to plant Forefront in Virginia beach, where they have grown a dynamic church, almost totally from non-believers.  Recently, Vince got the crazy idea to move to the Las Vegas strip and do it again.

Verve has an incredible vision and proven experienced leadership.  They have spent the better part of a year researching and reaching out in Vegas, which has led them to lease a property right off the strip, which will be home to a non-profit they’re launching, church services and more.  On Wednesday, Vince announced this on his site:

Shepherd of the Hills church let me know that they will match any donations given in December to our Verve Venture Capitalists campaign!! We are trying to raise $50,000 for the build-out costs of getting the warehouse turned into a space where we can do church services (and more). Our hope has been to have 500 people give $100 each, all in 100 days.

So far we’re about half way there, but with only 29 days left. So Shepherd of the Hills said to help us reach our goal, they will match your donations given in December, all the way up to $25,000! So, if you can PLEASE give, you can know that your gift will be doubled!! You can learn more, and give online, at www.verveventure.org.

Imagine the impact you could have by helping out this phenomenal ministry!  There’s only a few days left for the matching gifts, and only only a few left for those who need to give in 2009.  Please prayerfully consider how you can help the strippers.