AaronMarcelli.org

Posted By Aaron Marcelli on October 15, 2009

I have had a very bad year as far as reading goes.  I have done way more writing than reading, which is never a good thing.  It has been hard for me to finish some  of the books I have started this year just because about half way through I have found them to not be that good, and though I feel compelled to finish them, I am unmotivated.  Therefore I don’t get around to reading them and am unable to start a new read until I have finished the one I’m on (very OCD – I know!).

This has caused me to appreciate the good book I have read though; the ones that have added to my life, helped me see areas I need to improve, or given me tools in dealing with others.  So I have decided to share with you, very briefly and in no particular order, about the best five books I have read so far.

Searching For God Knows What by Donald Miller

Though it was Donald’s first book, Blue Like Jazz, I heard everyone talking about, I personally gained more from this follow up work of his.  Where Blue Like Jazz posed some good food for thought by giving an outsider’s perspective of Christianity, Searching For God Knows What takes you a little deeper and does not attack our religion as much as it does how we act it out.

I went through this book in November and December of last year and felt like it effectively grew me as a believer as well as helped me adjust some of my ministry ideals and evaluate how they could appear to others.  Miller discusses the Christian culture’s efforts to emulate the world but be better at it because “excellence” should set us apart.  He also convicted me when digging deep into the topic of comparison and uses a lifeboat example to illustrate how we evaluate ourselves to appear better and think that gives us credibility.  In simple and poetic form Miller writes about easy topics that had before gone unchecked by myself but now realize how present they are in my life.

Walking With God by John Eldredge

This book holds the record for perhaps the quickest I have ever read such a work from cover to cover.  I heard about it from some of the staff at church and was going through a time I desperately sought to know if God speaks to us and what He would have to say to me.  The book is written as a journal and consists of four long chapters (one for each year of Eldredge’s year) which would normally scare me away but I was unable to put this book down.  It flowed so well and gave me such insight and hope that the only thing that kept me from going through it faster was all the times I paused to underline, star, and copy down much of what I was reading.  If you want to communicate with God like you never have before, I highly recommend this book!

They Like Jesus But Not The Church by Dan Kimball

I began reading this book a few years ago with a little bit of jealousy.  When I was still in school and was considering going as far as working toward a doctorate in ministry leadership, I had planned to do my dissertation on the secular and immerging culture’s view of the church and organized religion.  I then saw this book and realized Dan Kimball had done the work for me.  My reasoning behind wanting to write on that topic was that I feel the church sorely misrepresents the world.  I think many times we tag them as hating our God and what we preach when what we are doing is associating their hate to Jesus and the things we preach when really they have only shown a hatred for the way we preach.

Kimball is a California pastor who has chosen not to isolate himself from his community in the name of ministry or study.  He tells the stories of several real life people he has developed relationships with.  He goes on to tell how many of those he has contact with think and even hope Jesus to be pretty much exactly what the Bible says He is, yet at the same time would never consider coming to church due to their poor experience with Christians.  Though some accuse Kimball of being too modern, progressive, emerging, or any other of those terms insecure, fundamentalist Christians use, I found him to be very level headed as he dealt with some of the issues that Christians have made a big deal of and in doing so are keeping today’s culture out of their building.  He did mention that most churches today are almost oppressing their female members but does point to some of the solid Biblical passage that are hard to get around regarding a female head of the church.  Kimball also condemned the act of engaging in homosexual acts while also stating that the church has gone overboard on this issue and made it much more of a main teaching than it was ever meant to be.  This book, perhaps more than any other, has deeply shaped the way I plan to do ministry, not to entertain Christians, but to reach the many and diverse group of lost people in our society.

Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell

I first wanted to read this book when a friend in college who I regarded as very intelligent and original bragged about how good of a read it was.  I wanted to read it even more after I heard a bunch of those around me criticize the both the book and Pastor Bell.  Velvet Elvis was an eye opener for me that challenged the way I thought about Jesus as well as how I interpreted many passages of Scripture.

Rob begins by showing the fragileness of our thinking when we think in such absolutes.  He uses a comparison of a brick wall and a trampoline when examining how some think about truth and those who say “If this one thing is not true than none of it is true”.  Bell then goes on to explain many culture and religious customs of the day in which Jesus walked and how Jesus actually being a Rabbi helps us to understand passages about His teaching and the calling of His followers.  I enjoyed this fresh look so much that I emailed Bell and he sent me a list of his suggested readings and commentaries.

I was able to find very few differences in the beliefs of Rob and myself, though many label him a heretic.  Bell is obviously more creative and scholarly than me though.  This book, like some of the others I’ve listed here do challenge the thinking and practice of modern Christianity, but Bell does so with a much more positive spin, showing the potential within the church and how the world has concluded about us all wrong.  He uses the example of the world referring to Christians as close minded when our message is about hope and the possibility of an after-life we cannot explain.  That sounds more open-minded than the “no point to life” argument of the atheist doesn’t it?

Winning With People by John Maxwell

I read this book while in college, knowing I needed to improve my charisma with others in order to successfully relate to, work with, and minister to others.  The book full of quotes and stories about dealing with people contains 25 chapters, each a relational principle designed to help you build trust and rapport with those we work, live, and worship with.  Maxwell teaches how to seek the best in others, add to their lives, and work through our own issues in order to be a person others truly love to be around.

This book was one I simply devoured and loved reading.  It gave me hope, making me feel as though I was capable of being someone who really could be great in dealing with others.  I think we all want to have good relationships and most of us want others to want to be with us.  This book has been a great tool I continually refer back to in seeking to grow more in my interpersonal skills.

Because these books have been such a great influence on me, I would love to encourage you to pick any of them up that appeal to your interest.  To show you just how important these books have been to me, I want to share them with you.  Everyone who leaves a comment on this post within the next week will be entered into a drawing and I will send the winner a free copy of the book of their choice from my “fav five”.

Category: Book Reviews
Tags: