Tag Archive | John Wesley
January 19, 2014  

Thoughts on Reading

pile of booksYesterday I mentioned that I’m trying to read more books this year. Right before New Years, I read a blog post asking “If you only read one book a year for the rest of your life, how many books will that leave you?” This was a huge kick in the pants for me because I used to read quite a bit and I have dramatically slowed down how much I’ve been reading over the last couple of years. Last year I read two books.  Not exactly thrilling, especially when there are so many books I want to read.

 
So I started the year with a list of twelve books I’d like to read before the year is over.  That list has grown now to 17.  I’m a little freaked out by the goal, but at least if I shoot high, I’ll hit something.  Anything is better than two books.

So, with no further ado, here is the list of books I’m attempting to read for this year:

What Jesus Started
T4T: A Discipleship Re-Revolution
BiVo: A Manifesto
The Permanent Revolution
Church 3.0
The Failure of Nerve
Three Roads to the Alamo
Jesus: A Theography
The Interior Castle
Apostolic Foundations
The Impossible Mentor
Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton
Getting Things Done
The Starfish Vision
The Starfish and the Spider
Church Transfusion
Life Together

One thing I don’t want to do, however, is get too focused on reading to the exclusion of everything else in my life.  I’ve certainly read more church planting books than I’ve planted churches and it’s always better to follow Jesus than read about somebody else following Jesus.  I’m always (and especially in this endevour want to be) conscious of John Wesley’s warning about books: “Beware you be not swallowed up in books! An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge.” So keep me accountable and keep me from adding too many other books to this list!

That said, have you read any of the books on this list? What did you think? And what are you trying to knock off your reading list?

Photo Credit: Pile of Books by Aaron Suggs

October 22, 2009  

A Charismatic Approach To Evangelism

This post is part of my continuing series which showcases the strengths of other great bloggers.  You can view other “Blogs I Wish I Wrote” by clicking here.

In today’s installment of BIWIW I’m featuring Lex Loizides’ Blog, which almost daily features a short story from the history of the church.  Currently Lex is blogging through the figures that influenced the First Great Awakening here in America: Jonathan Edwards, John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, and others.

The BIWIW comes from Lex’s retelling of a several day period in the life of John Wesley where Wesley approaches evangelism only when he felt moved by the Spirit, much like present day Charismatics.  I appreciate people who are moved by the Spirit to evangelize and have seen amazing fruit from the process.  But if the truth be told, I think many Charismatics miss something in this approach.  To find out how John Wesley faired, continue reading Lex’s post here.