At the beginning of this year, I set a goal for myself to read 3 books per month.  Really, it was a New Years resolution, but I hate New Years resolutions, so I’ve just repackaged it as a goal for myself.  4 months in and I’ve been able to keep up (even though a recent flurry of activity has challenged it).  Here’s what I’ve knocked out so far:

January

Desiring God by John Piper

When I Don’t Desire God by John Piper

Confessions of a Reformission Rev.: Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missonal Church by Mark Driscoll

February

I Am Not But I Know I AM by Louie Giglio

Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven, but Nobody Wants to Die: Or the Eschatology of Bluegrass by David Crowder and Mike Hogan

Why Men Hate Going to Church by David Murrow

March:

Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna

The Radical Reformission by Mark Driscoll

The Cross-Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney

April:

Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears

Jim and Casper Go to Church: Frank Conversation About Faith, Churches, and Well-Meaning Christians by Jim Henderson and Matt Casper

The Legacy of Sovereign Joy: God’s Triumphant Grace in the Lives of Augustine, Luther, and Calvin by John Piper

Although a few have hit me in the wrong way or didn’t captivate me to the utmost, I’ve enjoyed reading all of them.  My favorites so far would have to be the books written by Driscoll.  There’s something about his approach to Christianity and life in general that just resonates with me.  The biggest disappointment was Jim and Casper Go to Church, which is a book about and Penacostal preacher and an atheist who go around the U.S. visiting a variety of the country’s most well-known churches.  While I like the concept and the insights that these two had, the writing style killed me.  It had too much of a Leave it Beaver tone to it.  Read the book and you’ll see what I mean.  The other one that was so-so to me was Pagan Christianity.  When Viola goes into some of the histories of different church practices, I loved it.  When he started giving his opinions……not so much.

May is coming up and I’m open to suggestions on what to read next.  A few books on my Amazon cue include They Like Jesus but Not the Church by Dan Kimball, Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalists Journey with New Calvinists by Collin Hansen, and Chosen by God by R.C. Sproul.  Drop me some suggestions on what I need to read next.

I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions.  As a matter of fact, I think that for the most part, they’re stupid.  Why can’t people who want to make changes in their life just do it?  Why do we feel that a new year means an opportunity for a new start?  Does a person have to have a new year to attempt to make changes in their life?  It doesn’t make sense to me.

 With that being said, I’ve made a New Year’s resolution for myself.  My goal for this year (and every year thereafter) is to read 3 books per month.  This action was primarily inspired by the writers strike that is plaguing Hollywood and television right now.  With nothing to watch, I figured it was a good opportunity to pick up on my reading.  Here’s two of the books that I’ve knocked out for January:

For awhile, I wasn’t sure about this book but ended up really liking it by the time I had finished.  Co-written by David Crowder (yes, the same one) and David Hogan, it has a very relaxed writing style that appealed to me.  The book approaches the subject of death from a variety of different angles that keep the book from getting into a rut.  At one moment, your reading about the history of bluegrass and the next, you’re reading an IM conversation just before delving into a three-in-one story that moves all over the place……literally (just get the book; you’ll see what I mean).

 The other one that I’ve read this month (and that I absolutely adored) was Mark Driscoll’s Confessions of a Reformission Rev.: Hard Lessons From An Emerging Missional Church.  Warning: don’t read this book if you’re easily offended.  Mark Driscoll is the preaching pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle.  It is a rapidly growing church that is doing some great things in one of the least churched cities in the U.S.  Confessionstakes you through all of the stuggles and triumphs that Driscoll went through as Mars Hill grew.  Anyone who is familiar with Driscoll’s style knows that he says what he thinks and lays it out in a very raw and unapologetic fashion…….which fits my style.  Here’s an excerpt:

Scrambling for ideas, I agreed to cancel a Sunday church service to let some of our long-haired public radio types take us outside to do a joint art project they had proposed….As a truck-driving jock who watches a lot of Ultimate Fighting, I can honestly say it was the gayest thing I have ever been a part of.

A few other favorite parts of the book included an incident where a guy called him at 2:00 a.m. because he felt guilty for having just watched a porn and acted on it and another time where he gathered all of the men in the church together to give them a crash course in what it means (and what it doesn’t mean) to be a man.

I highly recommend this one, but like I said, not if you’re easily offended.

I have a Piper book on the burner ready to tackle next, but after that, I’m not sure but I’m open to suggestions (but please refrain from suggesting anything from Joel Osteen or the Left Behind series in that it could get you slapped).

JD

What is the deal with Christianity and its inane ability to jump on the bandwagon against certain things, all the while ignoring other things that are truly important? The bandwagon I’m currently referring to is the sudden rise against the movie “The Golden Compass”. I received one e-mail about it the other day and then suddenly I was bombarded with e-mail after e-mail, forwards, websites, and messages from organizations such as Focus on the Family. All sporting the same message, “don’t let your children watch The Golden Compass”. I have yet to see the film so I am currently unable to determine whether or not it is appropriate for children. The books contained several disturbing themes including explicit sexual scenes that are certainly not appropriate for children. The e-mails, however, claim its bad because it is an anti-Christian movie. The truth is the majority of movies we watch are anti-Christian in that they speak either nothing of God or blasphemy about God and they promote ungodly relationships and actions. We don’t get e-mails about these movies. No, this one is special because it is a movie that blatantly rejects religion or places Christianity in a bad light. I guess if it is obvious then we should be against it, but if it is just a quiet message that violates godliness then its ok to watch. We can expose our kids to a lot of junk on T.V. and in movies, as long as the anti-Christian ideas are blended and quiet.

Don’t get me wrong. This movie will most likely present many challenges to Christianity. It is going to take something thinking and we will need to engage the themes and challenges directly. But why is that a bad thing?

I am all for protecting our kids, but sometimes I think we become so over protective that we don’t give them an opportunity to even think for themselves. We protect them in such a way that doesn’t promote clear critical thought. (Keep in mind I’m talking about kids who are at an age in which they do have some discernment and ability to understand the themes presented. Younger kids probably shouldn’t see the movies for a lot of different reasons.  Remember this movie is PG-13.  Parents with children under 13 should use extreme caution in allowing their children to see it.) A lot of parents do get very protective when it comes to movies like “The Golden Compass” and “Harry Potter”. “If our kids watch Harry Potter then it will desensitize them to witchcraft.” “If our kids watch The Golden Compass it might warp their minds and push them into being anti-Christian”. Unfortunately these same parents will let their kids watch TV, movies, and cartoons that may not be blatantly anti-Christian but express anti-Christian actions and attitudes. Not only that, these same parents will let their teenager go to the basement or to their room with a boyfriend or girlfriend to “be alone”. Parents will promote unhealthy relationships and they will pour money into their kids, giving them everything they want and teaching them that they don’t have to earn anything. They give their kids an unprecedented amount of freedom to do what they want. This means kids can skip church for other important things like sports, band, school, and even family time. They teach their kids that religion isn’t that big of a priority. Parents give their teens the freedom to live greedy, immoral, and worldly lives and then they get bent out of shape about a movie like The Golden Compass because being against it is the Christian thing to do. Well I’m not entirely convinced.

When our kids and teenagers get to the point where they can actually start thinking about things we end up teaching them how to NOT think for themselves. Its as if we actually think that force feeding them Christianity and protecting them from anything that may “call into question” that belief will cause them to be solid, untainted Christians. The truth is it will just cause them to be unprepared when they face such challenges…and they will. Here is a news flash parents, we are teaching the younger generation how to be weak minded, poorly committed, and lazy in their thinking. Yeah, thats right! We are teaching them how to be just like us.

Sometimes we just need everything spoon-fed to us. A majority of Christians couldn’t defend their faith if their lives depended on it. They heard what the preacher says, they just never learned it, thought about it, or applied it. Christians don’t know how to think for themselves. Maybe that is why they fear books and movies such as these. The fear is it might lead us astray. The truth is our religion is so unbelievably shallow that they just might be right. If we can’t think for ourselves then we might easily be duped into believing almost anything. Do we really think that the whole of Christian religion is going to be destroyed because of a movie?

The first step in truly learning what we really believe about Christianity is by putting it to the test. We are forced to think about what we really believe when our faith is challenged. That is when you have to dig deep and figure out what you truly believe. Challenges to Christianity may even make us stronger, smarter, and even more united in Christ. It is fine time we start using our brains.

Here is a thought. Maybe we should encourage Christians to watch The Golden Compass. I know there are going to be a lot of people who will completely disagree with me on this, but frankly it is the only way your opinion about the movie will count anyway. It should challenge us to think about what we really believe. It will also show us the reality of what others think of Christianity. A reality I think we must be familiar with if we wish to speak to those who are non-Christian. Yes this movie is anti-Narnia. It is a critique of Christian dogma. Thats all the more reason to watch it! We already know what C.S. Lewis has to say about Christianity, but what does Pullman have to say about it? People around us will have seen the movies. Adults and teenagers are going to see the movie and there will be questions. How will we respond? Will we cower in fear because we are afraid of ideas that challenge Christianity or will we stand firm in our faith?

What really bothers me about all of this is that we don’t actually get worked up about little things, but we are all ablaze when it comes to the big stuff. Certainly Pullman has an agenda and millions of people will see a movie that is going to reveal Christianity and the church in a bad way. He is right in our face and out in the open and because of this we can easily reject it. If it is “BIG NEWS” then we are right there ready to fight. But what about the small stuff that slowly subvert our attention away from God? We may not want our kids to see a certain movie, but if we just happen to have tickets to the Cardinals game on Sunday we are more than happy to skip church to watch a ballgame. Our lack of commitment to God teaches our kids that the only thing that is important is a half-hearted, weak commitment to spiritual things. We want to avoid a movie that portrays Christianity in a bad light and yet we portray Christianity in a bad light with our own lives. Our commitment to money, power, and pleasure far outweighs our commitment to God and then we have the nerve to blame a movie for making religion look bad. The irony is that movies against Christianity are really movies against Christians who say one thing and do another. I suspect that you might even find some ugly truth about Christianity in this movie as well. Christians, we need to face these ugly truths instead of denying them. We need to help people recognize that Pullman’s view of the church isn’t reality.

We spend time doing a lot of things but we won’t spend the time necessary to grow in our love and knowledge of God. We will spend hours practicing sports, hours training for a job to make more money, and teens will spend hours refining their mad video game skills and yet we simply refuse to refine our spirituality. Of course we think avoiding a movie is a way of refinement, but is it? There are many people out there who are truly concerned about this movie. I’m simply not convinced that avoiding it is the right answer. Sure we can say to our kids, “you can’t watch this movie” but what do we do when their friends talk about it and they go to school and hear about it? What do we do when they are completely unable to meet or answer the challenges of the movie because we didn’t talk to them about it? Mohler says:

We must take the responsibility to use interest in this film to teach our own children to think biblically and to be discerning in their engagement with the media in all forms. We should arm our children to be able to talk about this project with their classmates without fear or rancor.

Maybe we need to see the movie just to understand what Pullman is really thinking or saying about Christianity. It will bring about questions that we should ask ourselves, do I have the answers? The only downside to that is you are supporting the movie with your money. Maybe a good way to avoid that is wait until it comes out on Redbox and rent it for $1 or only rent it as a free rental or just go check out the book at your local library and read it. Why? Because I’m of the opinion that we should constantly be questioning our faith. The world does it everyday. This movie is a prime example of that.

If nothing else, The Golden Compass should serve as a reminder that the world is quite skeptical of God and Christianity. That means they are skeptical of us. They won’t simply believe everything they hear like we do. They want answers and I think we should be well prepared to give them some. Get off the bandwagon and start thinking for yourself.

Other Articles:

The Chronicles of Atheism

A briefing for concerned Christians

***Update*** I read the book. I also tried watching the movie. About a quarter of the way through the movie I was snoozing. I just couldn’t make it through, it was too boring. *sigh* Kinda reminded me of the Divinci Code, everybody made a big deal about it but I could barely stomach it. Not because of it’s theology, but because it was just a poorly made movie. Trust me, these movies are the least of our worries.

If you can find some way to watch the new Transformers movie without all of the cheesy dialog, sexual innuendo, foul language, and all the failed attempts at decent humor then you might just be able to enjoy about five minutes of it.  The graphics, the fight scenes, and all the scenes starring the transformers is pretty good. Unfortunately, the rest is filled with so much other junk that it pretty much ruins the movie.  Too bad, it could have been great.