Last Year's Books

My poor, neglected blog. One of my goals for this year is to write more; we'll see how that goes. To start:

Last year was a very long, strange year, and I kept terrible track of what I read. I also have a lot of started books, either because they are for my church history classes (homeschool and high school) and we're not through church history yet, or because I had trouble focusing on finishing books for a while (a long while, so I have a lot of partly-finished books to read this year), so this book list is just a mix of what I read that I remembered to record and that I enjoyed.

In no particular order:

1. I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf by Grant Snider. It's true; I judge a lot of people by their bookshelves.
2. The Law of Kindness by Mary Beeke
3. Royal Deceptions by Fred Butler, about the King James Only controversy
4. Trusting God by Jerry Bridges. I think I've read this 4 times (or more), and every time there's something for me to gain.
5. The Battle of Seattle by Douglas Bond. This was really fun to read.
6. Killing Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. I enjoyed the story and learned more history.
7. On the Far Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George, one of the sequels to My Side of the Mountain
8. Side by Side by Edward Welch
9. The Crystal Tree by Jennie D. Lindquist. This is the third in the series, and I have loved them since I was a child.
10. Applesauce Needs Sugar by Victoria Case, a lovely and often humorous memoir of farm life a hundred (or so) years ago.
11. Brother Hermitage’s Christmas by Howard of Warwick
12. The Short, the Long, and the Tall by Jeffrey Archer
13. Anatole by Eve Titus. Actually, I read 4 Anatole books this year, and read them regularly. They are popular books with my friend's children, and I read them to the kids every time I visit.
14. Getting Over Yourself by Dean Inserra. I wrote a book review on this. Go find it.
15. Being a Writer by Travis Elborough and Helen Gordon
16. Lord Brocktree by Brian Jacques
17. The Tunnel King by Barbara Hehner, about the Canadian involved in the Great Escape (the movie is good as well).
18. What’s Your World View? By James N Anderson
19. Why Children Matter by Douglas Wilson
20. A Vessel in the King’s Hand by Abigail Froese. One of my former Sunday School students wrote this. It's very good; go read it.
21. Kings and Queens of England, A Dark History by Brenda Ralph Lewis. There is, of course, a lot of torture and beheadings. Also, my high school history class now uses "hunting accident" as a euphemism for "killed by a sibling who wanted the throne".

Getting Over Yourself (a book review)

 Getting Over Yourself by Dean Inserra; subtitled "Trading Believe-in-Yourself Religion for Christ-Centered Christianity"

Inserra has written this to discuss a problem that he has seen in many modern churches: the "Instagramification" of Christianity, with "trendy pastors who preach a message of personal success, betterment, and victory" who are social media celebrities, which "allows one to have a theistic source of faith and an emotional connection to Jesus without the demands of biblical discipleship and conduct." (pp.12-13) He refers to it as "pop-Christianity" or "new prosperity theology" that has replaced rags-to-riches and immediate healing with God-sized dreams and visions and achieving "God's best" while ignoring the tough parts of Scripture.

Inserra does a good job showing the problems with "pop-Christianity" from different angles, looking at what it is, where it came from, and what it is doing, all the while comparing its teachings to Scripture. He looks as the dangers of being gospel and doctrine-lite and trying for church growth through pragmatism (what you draw them with is what you draw them to, so if you're not drawing them with Christ, you're not drawing them to Christ). He shows how Scripture is being misused in these churches and by these teachers to encourage self-fulfillment instead of being disciples, and he does it while pointing clearly to the gospel. 

At the same time, he does not deny that God has a plan for our lives or that His plan is good and amazing; the problem is that His plan isn't necessarily what we think it is and it was never meant to focus on us (or to encourage us to focus on ourselves). Inserra isn't making Christianity into drudgery or something boring, but shows that it is actually bigger then we imagine when we make it about ourselves.

In the final chapter, he points to how we can have abundant life in Christ: Ask God to help you be gospel-centered; by grade, through Scripture, seek to increase your knowledge of God; pursue the ordinary life; find godly community; and pray for willingness to be marginalized.

Getting Over Yourself  is written in a simple, straight-forward way that is accessible for anyone.

"I received a copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of this

review."

Nehemiah

 A very long time ago, when I lived in Thunder Bay, my pastor preached through Nehemiah. I don't remember everything he preached (I don't even remember every book he preached through), but two of the Nehemiah sermons have stuck in my head and I remember them every time I read Nehemiah.

The first is from the very beginning of the book, when Nehemiah asks about Jerusalem, hears what is happening, prays, and plans. I think the sermon was titled "Look Out, Look Up, Look In" (or something close to that). The general idea is to know what is happening, pray about it, and see how you can help. My memory is pretty short on details; I just know that I've remembered it at various times when I've felt overwhelmed. First I look properly at what it happening, then I pray about it, then I think about what to do about it. It works much better than my temptation to worry about it until it's even more overwhelming and then pray about it.

The second comes from the list of people building the wall in chapter 3. It lists groups and people who worked on the wall as well as what part they worked on. The think I remember is the Tekoites who are mentioned twice as making repairs, but the first mention adds that their nobles did not support the work. It seems to be generally agreed that the nobles felt that the work was beneath them and they refused to stoop to manual labor. The question, if I remember correctly, was: "How do you want to be remembered? As someone who did the work of the Lord or someone who refused?"

This read-through, I made a list of people who are mentioned as working on the wall; specifically, I looked for the groups who aren't usually thought of as builders: priests, goldsmiths, perfumers, officials, daughters, and merchants. None of them would have been used to building walls, but all of them helped. 

Sometimes I think that we get stuck in "this is who I am" and forget that we may be needed to serve in other ways, for a greater or lesser period of time. I'm pretty sure most of those people did not become builders after the wall was done; they served where they were needed and then got back to their regular life, whatever that looked like.

Sometimes I think we can also get stuck in "this is who this other person is" and not ask them for help or expect them to do anything other than what we think they can do or should do.

I think we should try harder to be like the people building the wall. Sometimes we can and should do things that we (or other people) did not think we could do.

Jack vs. the Tornado: A Book Review

Official disclaimer: "I received a copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of this review."

Jack vs. the Tornado by Amanda Cleary Eastep is the first in the Tree Street Kids series. It's a simple story, quick to read and quite enjoyable. I read it in a couple hours one evening and found it good enough to keep my interest despite being intended for the preteen years. It's not overly predictable in the details (and that's saying a lot given that I've been reading for years and can often tell you how preteen fiction -- especially newer fiction -- will turn out after the first chapter).

The main character is well-written and easy to empathize with. Jack just turned 10 and has to move from the farm to the suburbs. He's homesick and just wants to go back to the best fort in the world: his hayloft. He has a plan, and of course his plan doesn't work out the way he had intended (or there would be no story). Instead, he gets pulled into the lives of his neighbours and ends up happier than he had thought he could be in the suburbs. I like that while everything doesn't go smoothly for Jack, all his issues are normal 10 year old problems and complications: homesickness, a younger sister who can be annoying, a disagreement with a friend, dealing with storms. Aside from it being tornado season (a normal thing for where he lives), there are no excessively dramatic incidents. The story reads like something that could happen in any suburb.

The supporting characters are a bit 1-dimensional just yet and gather to form the Tree Street Kids group with all the necessary characters: the bookworm, the one with the backpack full of everything, and the one who takes photos of everything. I am hoping that their backgrounds and characters get fleshed out in future books (this one was focused on Jack, of course). 

The book is published by Moody Publishers and has a distinct Christian feel: the family prays together and attends church; there are some Scripture verses; Jack prays when he is afraid; and Jack tries to figure out God's plan in having him move. At no time do the Christian elements feel forced or like they've been inserted to make the book a Christian book; they are simply a reflection of who the characters are. 

Overall, it was a good read and one that I will happily pass on to friends with preteen aged children.

On Researching Sunday School Curriculum

 I have been doing a lot of research into Sunday School curriculums lately, mostly to ensure that we are using the best I can find for my students. I have plan for their time in Sunday School and want to cover things in an orderly manner. 

There were some curriculums that I didn't bother with, not because they were bad, but just because they weren't what we needed. I have a curriculum for the first 4 years that covers the narrative parts of the Old and New Testaments, giving them a broad overview of the Bible and how God has worked. For the older students, I wanted something that would allow them to dig deeper into Scripture and that would focus in on specific areas. For that reason, I skipped over anything that was basically just Bible stories.

At the same time, I came up with a short list of things that will make me completely reject a Sunday School curriculum:

1. Bad theology (that should be a given)
2. "The Netflix of Sunday School"
3. Bad names, including “Harvest Kids Now” and “Kids Kount” (problematic for different reasons)
4. No easy option to see a sample of the curriculum (either no option at all or the need to give them too much information so they can put me on a mailing list). Also, no outline, scope/sequence chart, or anything that lets me check out the curriculum. If I can't see what I would be teaching, I won't even consider it.
5. Focusing too much on "fun" rather than learning (News Flash: Children can learn from simple, straight forward lessons taught by teachers who love what they are teaching and who love the children; while extras are fun, they should be an add-on once in a while, not a key part of the teaching.)
1. Too much superfluous “extra” that has to be waded through (5 pages of fun activities with puppets, drama, object lessons, and video clips and only 2 pages of exploring Scripture)
2. The idea that we have to gain their interest in the lesson through slightly related activities before we can start to teach them
3. “Creative gizmos help your volunteers teach like Jesus"
4. The option to have them watch the Bible story on DVD
6. No worksheets/activity pages/anything children can do to reinforce the lesson and take home so their parents can see what they are learning.

Obviously not all of these are equally bad; some are just opinions (especially point 4 and 6). Part of my problem with the other points (aside from bad theology; that's just plain wrong) is that it makes Sunday School less serious and less important than the studies that adults do. Our focus in Sunday School, just as in all the ministries of the church, is Scripture. And yes, we have fun while we do it, but if my focus is on making the lessons fun and easy with creative gizmos and puppets, then the children will find the rest of church boring. If our focus is on Scripture and worshiping God together, then they will find that the rest of church is not that different and they'll grow more naturally into the adult studies.

One of My Elders

 Allow me to introduce you to Adam, one of the newest full elders at GraceLife. I've been friends with is family for several years now (I'm not sure how long exactly, but long enough that we're family now). One of my greatest blessings this year was getting to spend more time with them; I was there fairly often this summer (perks to being unemployed). If I ever disappear, it's because I went spend a couple nights there and I was kidnapped by either Adam's wife or one of the children who would like someone who has nothing better to do than read to him all day. They're my people.

Seriously: I changed cell phone providers in part because my old provider didn't get service at their house and the new provider does. Now I can spend more at their house there without worrying about missing calls about potential jobs.

This has caused a bit of a dilemma though. As you can see from the video below, Adam is a really, really good preacher (also he reads narratives extremely well). I also think that he's a good shepherd who cares for his people. I am in completely in favour of him becoming a pastor, but I am equally opposed to him taking his family elsewhere, even for training. You see the problem? If he becomes a pastor, he needs to train in Edmonton (we really need a seminary) and then join the GraceLife staff.

Now: Listen to his sermon, and enjoy it, and be convicted by it (I was; I need to keep looking at whether I'm obeying God completely or just mostly sometimes; "mostly obeying" is still disobeying). 

What I Realized Today

 Dealing with stuff has helped me know how to pray for people who are dealing with the same or similar stuff.

One day I'll make a list of how any and all troubles in my life have helped me, besides the general making me more sympathetic, patient with people (especially the wee ones), and giving me strategies to deal with even more stuff.