What the staff have been reading this year

You may or may not know that the Emmanuel Bristol staff team meets up each Wednesday for training and prayer, and that one of the things we do together is discuss the next part of a book that we've been reading. Here's what we've read over the last academic year:

Over the last couple of summers we've read novels with a pastor as the main character. In 2013 we read Marilynne Robinson's beautiful Gilead. 
Last summer it was Alan Paton's moving Cry the Beloved Country. 

"Kumalo said humbly, Maybe you will pray for me.
- I shall do so gladly. My brother, I have of course my work to do, but so long as you are here, my hands are yours.
- You are kind.
Something in the humble voice must have touched Msimangu, for he said, I am not kind. I am a selfish and sinful man, but God put his hands on me, that is all." Alan Paton, Cry, The Beloved Country, p.24.

Come September we were challenged by reading and applying Kevin DeYoung's Crazy Busy. 

"The busyness that's bad is not the busyness of work, but the busyness that works hard at the wrong things. It's being busy trying to please people, busy trying to control others, busy trying to do things we haven't been called to do."  Kevin DeYoung, Crazy Busy, p.102. 

We then turned to Claire Smith's God's Good Design. 

"On the one hand, we need to recognize the limits of our ability to know God and his will, and work hard at identifying those things - in ourselves and in our society - that work against us hearing and understanding it correctly. 
And on the other, we need to have confidence that, in the Bible, God has told us everything we need to know in order to please him. We need to have confidence in God's ability to communicate clearly in the Bible and then we need to search and study it, and prayerfully and humbly get on with obeying it." Claire Smith, God's Good Design, p.219. 

All the books we read challenge us all in different ways - but this year we particularly wanted to read a book we would disagree with but which would help us better understand and appreciate those we might disagree with. So we read Matthew Vines' God and the Gay Christian. We agreed with his desire to end homophobia but parted ways in his aim to re-interpret what the Bible teaches about marriage.

"...this book envisions a future in which all Christians come to embrace and affirm their LGBT brothers and sisters - without undermining their commitment to the authority of the Bible." Matthew Vines, God and the Gay Christian, p.3. 

Come January we spent time thinking through why churches are losing young people as we read David Kinnaman's You Lost Me. 

"I want to suggest that when we accept the terms of the debate - exclusion vs. tolerance - we lose. When we chose exclusion, the church circles the wagons and becomes a fortress-like, members-only organization overcome by a siege mentality. We bar the door to everyone who looks scary or asks questions that make us uncomfortable. 
When we choose tolerance of every person and ideology, on the other hand, we shrink from sharing the very, very good news of Good's love, demonstrated like never before or since in Christ, and from confronting sin and suffering that is sin's results. Exclusion lacks love; the wrong kind of tolerance lacks courage." David Kinnaman, You Lost Me, p.180. 

CS Lewis rightly warns against the narrowness that comes from just reading contemporary books. So once a year we read a Christian book from a different age. This year it was the Puritan Thomas's Brooks' Precious Remedies against Satan's Devices.

"...let no saints judge themselves not to be beloved, because they are tempted. It is natural for saints to be tempted, that are dearly beloved, as it is for the sun to shine, or a bird to sing. The eagle complains not of her wings, nor the peacock of his train, nor the nightingale of her voice, because they are natural to them; no more should saints of their temptations, because they are natural to them." Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices, p.177.

A book we've been dipping in and out of over the last couple of years is Tim Keller's Center Church. 

"Because the gospel not only converts nonbelievers but also builds up believers, the church should not have to choose evangelism over discipleship. Because the gospel is presented to the world not only through word but also through deed and community, we should not choose between teaching and carrying out practical ministry to address people's needs. Because the gospel renews not only individuals but also communities and culture, the church should disciple its people to seek personal conversion, deep Christian community, social justice, and cultural renewal in the city. These ministry areas should not be seen as independent or optional but as interdependent and fully biblical.' Timothy Keller, Center Church, p.291.  

Keller's latest book is on prayer. So as those who are set aside for the ministry of the word and prayer it's been good to be have read Prayer this term.

"To discover the real you, look at what you spend time thinking about when no one is looking, when nothing is forcing you to think about anything in particular. At such moments, do your thoughts go toward God? You may want to be seen as a humble, unassuming person, but do you take the initiative to confess your sins before God? You wish to be perceived as a positive, cheerful person, but do you habitually thank God for everything you have and praise him for who he is? You may speak a great deal about what a "blessing" your faith is and how you "just really love the Lord," but if you are prayerless - is that really true? If you aren't joyful, humble, and faithful in private before God, then what you want to appear on the outside won't match what you truly are." Timothy Keller, Prayer, p.22.

And this is what we're reading at the moment: Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert's When Helping Hurts. 

"If poverty alleviation is about reconciling relationships, then we do not have the power to alleviate poverty in either the materially poor or in ourselves. It is not something that we can manufacture through better techniques, improved methods, or better planning, for reconciliation is ultimately an act of God. Poverty alleviation occurs when the power of Christ's resurrection reconciles our key relationships through the transformation of both individual lives and local, national, and international systems." Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert,  When Helping Hurts. p.75. 



Do ask any staff member (Anna, Ben, Ed, Ellie, Ian, Jim, Lindsay, Mike, Ollie & Sim) which they've enjoyed most - and how their ministry has benefited from reading these books together. If you want to read any yourself do visit our friends at 10ofthose (who stock most of them) - or ask to borrow a copy from one of us!