Summer Reading Confession

For those of you who know me I tend to read a lot, I like to live by the motto Readers are Leaders and I found out a few weeks ago that Donald Miller Agrees with me. What I thought I'd do here at the end of the summer is just share my top three books that I read this summer.

Lets start with Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell: This book is the story of success, it's a business minded book that goes deep into the study of what makes certain people succeed in certain fields. These Outliers as Gladwell calls them can be anything from being born in a string of 3 certain years as they found with people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs in the computer world to Canadian Hockey players born in the first three months of the calender year. The most fascinating study for me was the 10,000 hour rule, which is the fact that it takes one 10,000 hours to really become great at it. Great read and would highly recommend it.

The Christian Atheist by Craig Groeschel: This book was convicting for me, the whole idea of the book was believing in God but acting like he doesn't exist which I have seen as a problem in my own life and the lives of my fellow kingdom livers. chapters explored ideas such as these "You believe in God but don't really know him". "You believe in God but aren't sure he loves you". "When you believe in God but don't forgive". There are 7 more chapters similar to these.

And lastly my number 1 favorite summer read was "Deep Church by Jim Belcher".

This book was about a genuine third way between reformed theology and more liberal minded emerging churches, it was a book written by a guy who is friends with bot Mark Driscol and rob Bell who both tend to be opposite of one another and Driscoll who has even gone as far as being condemning of Bell's Ministry. He talks a lot about how it is both and not either or which is important for the church to grasp, Jesus is the point and preaching Jesus is the point other than that we should encourage each other and not bring each other down. It was a refreshing read and would highly recommend it to any pastor out there who tends to be dominant in either one camp in particularly.

Hope you found this insightful.

Grace and Peace,

C-DUB

This is It

This is it, what I mean by that little phrase is that in about a week I will be beginning my final year at Florida Christian College. To say that the transition from internship to return to Florida was easy would be a lie, in a lot of ways it has not been easy it's been frustrating, it's been joyous, it's been very confusing and it's also been meant with great anticipation. I love FCC and I will always love FCC with a deep passion, this is the main reason why I look forward to this new year. It's my last year to truly love the place that honestly only God could have brought me to, cause this was not my first school choice (This will always be a shame for me to admit).

This past week I've been contemplating where is God leading me? I've never been a guy who could stay stagnant for very long, I often grow board with the status quo and my surroundings and yearn for a new adventure. For me this means ministry of some sort, since Indiana I've been searching, praying and longing for a new ministry a new adventure a new calling if you will. I've learned what my passions truly are this past year which are preaching, discipleship, networking and seeing people come to know Jesus in any way they can. Jesus is the reason I wake up in the morning, a good mentor of mine once told me that "when you wake up and have someone to poor into it's a good day". I have lived by this wisdom for 2 years now and it lets me know in these seasons of desert and stagnation that although I may not be serving in a local church or ministry it is still a good day, it's a good day cause I know those people I can poor myself into and I know that part of the reason I am in this season is because Christ has called me to poor into them.

This is it, the last year living at a place that I will always call home in one way or another. I am here for a reason and for those incoming freshmen let me say that it is no accident that you are at this place known as FCC. Christ has called you here and he is going to grow you here, my mission is to poor into this place and these people as much as I can and continue to learn and grow form the wisdom of some of the best professors and faculty around.

It's gonna be a great year.

C-DUB.