Darryl tagged me so here goes...
Number of books I own: I couldn't believe it myself but I own about 670 books. At one time I owned at least double that. However, a few years ago I decided that I wanted to get down to only two bookshelves. As a result each year I get rid of, give away, send overseas several boxes of books.
The Last book I bought: "So you want to be like Christ - Swindoll"
The Last book I read: "Monster - Peretti"
Book I'm reading: "God in the alley: Being and seeing Jesus in the real world - G. Paul"
Books that mean a lot to me: In no specific order.
1. Pursuit of Holiness: First Christian book I read as a teenager that lead to, well, the pursuit of holiness in my life.
2. The Applause of Heaven: One of Max Lucado's earliest and in my mind best works - on the beatitudes.
3. The Great Divorce / Mere Christianity / Till we Have Faces: My three favourites by C.S. Lewis.
4. The Life You've Always Wanted: Spiritual disciplines for ordinary people - Ortberg
5. A New Kind of Christian: The first book that told me it was ok to be me and have questions that didn't fit my traditional Christian worldview - McLaren.
6. The Jesus I Never Knew: It was like meeting him for the first time - all over again - Yancey.
7. Preaching with Freshness: Fictional but purposeful and good advice to preachers, not just on preaching but their lives - Mawhinney
8. The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good news for the bedraggled, beat-up, and burnt-out - Manning
9. Church Without Walls: Moving beyond traditional boundaries - Petersen
10: Good Fiction: Some of my favourites; A Skeleton in God's Closet, The Oath, This Present Darkness, Safely Home, The Circle Trilogy: Awesome!!!Black, Red, White - Ted Dekker...too many more to mention...I usually read a fiction book after two or three non-fiction books - But those are some of my favourites.
Tag 5 more - I refuse, I'll only tag four:
1. Wilsonian
2. Onion Boy
3. Chris
4. John Carnes
Wow, is it true that you can quantify a Pastor's holiness by the number of books read not just owned?
Posted by: TrishSome people like to read, some don't. Pastors or not, I don't believe that has anything to do with holiness. Even if they only own one book and it's a Bible.
Posted by: edWow ... 670 books ... that's awesome. I agree with your #6 favourite .. it certainly is one of mine along with "Where is God when it hurts" another Phillip Yancey book.
Posted by: IanTrish: Don't listen to Ed. It is true that the more books, the holier the pastor. This is just because I have more books than Ed of course. ;)
Posted by: DarrylHehe. I got tagged back on June 7th. You must have been distracted by the serious posts in the meantime...
But thanks for inviting me to play :)
Posted by: wilsonianI went back and checked it out, I missed it before. You read cookbooks like others read novels...how delicious :)
Posted by: edYou might be interested in this review of a Generous Orthodoxy.
http://www.crosswalk.com/news/weblogs/mohler/?cal=go&adate=6%2F20%2F2005
I read the review for the sake of reading it, but honestly it didn't tell me anything I didn't expect for it to tell me. And honestly, I can think for myself and make my own judgements without having to go read what everyone has to say about something before I know where I stand on it.
Posted by: edI liked his last paragraph: "Orthodoxy must be generous, but it cannot be so generous that it ceases to be orthodox. Inevitably, Christianity asserts truths that, to the postmodern mind, will appear decidedly ungenerous. Nevertheless, this is the truth that leads to everlasting life. The gospel simply is not up for renegotiation in the twenty-first century. A true Christian generosity recognizes the infinitely generous nature of the truth that genuinely saves. Accept no substitutes."
It's a good paragraph! But boy there's a lot of room for generosity in our orthodoxy & that's the greater point that McLaren makes in my mind.
Posted by: ed