Book review: The Count of Monte Cristo

Feeling it was time to read a classic, I just read The Count of Monte Cristo by French novelist Alexandre Dumas (who also wrote the Three Musketeers). This book is one of the most popular novels ever written and makes every “classic” book list I have seen. Written in 1844, the book is set in Marseilles, Rome and Paris in the nineteenth century, and tells the story of Edmond Dantès. Dantès is a young sailor who seems to have it all before being falsely accused of treason and imprisoned in an island dungeon for fourteen years. A fellow prisoner tells him where to find treasure buried on a Mediterranean island called Monte Cristo. Upon his escape, the book’s hero acquires the treasure, gives himself the name Count of Monte Cristo, and goes about systematically taking revenge on his enemies.

Count of Monte Cristo is a great adventure novel; just a few of the chapter titles assure you of that: “The Two Prisoners,” “The Treasure,” “The Smugglers,” “The Secret Cave,” “Roman Bandits,” etc… The way Dumas unfolds Dantès intricate scheme of revenge seems part James Bond, part Sherlock Holmes, and part Alfred Hitchcock. The surprising twists and turns in the story are as current as anything Dan Brown (DaVinci Code, Angels and Demons) has conjured up recently, and yet the story is over 150 years old.

I enjoyed the book but must admit I got a bit bogged down in the middle. There were a few chapters there that, to me, could have used a good editor. That could be the problem to begin with though. The original version of the book was some 1100 pages long. Most copies today have around 500-600 pages (the Penguin Classic version I read had 500 pages). The effect of reducing the story by almost one-half makes the story confusing in some places. In the version I read the ending is very confusing and makes practically no sense. I had to go online to find an unabridged copy of the story to figure out what really happened in the closing chapter.

One of the things that intrigued me most about the book apart from the great characters and storyline were some of the locations in which the story is set. Marseilles, where the story begins, was a favorite stop on a 2005 cruise our family took. Our ship went right by the notorious prison of Chateau d’If which sits just off the coast of Marseille. We also viewed the famed harbor of Marseille from high atop the Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde. Our home PC desktop picture is still a photo we took from this scenic spot. Several locations in Rome (the Colosseum) and Paris (Champs Elysees and Pere Lachaise cemetery) brought back fond memories when I read about them in the book as well.

Dumas' characters ranged from the very, very good, to the diabolic. On some of the characters the jury is still out in my mind. For instance I was troubled and confused by the limits and extent of both the vengeance and kindness of the story's hero, Dantès. Dumas did a good job portraying the wide range of emotion this character must have felt. I still cannot decide if Dantès is a hero or not. At times he appears to want to put himself in God’s place both in a good way and in a bad way. In fairness to him, it does appear the "Count" repents of this in the end, especially as his revenge reaches its full strength and the extent of the suffering and carnage it causes becomes evident.

Generations of readers have responded to this riveting tale and doubtless future generations will return to it as well. That’s what good literature is all about. I’m glad I finally waded in and took the time to read this novel. It was definitely worth it.

Sunday's Sermon Online

Here is Sunday's sermon in the new sermon player thingie we found!!

Perceptions

We have all heard it before – "perception is everything." It does not really matter what the reality of any given situation is, people are going to form opinions about what it was really like and oftentimes those opinions are going to be more varied than you can possibly imagine.

How many times have you seen someone listen to a recording of their own voice and then insist the voice on the recording sounds nothing like them? Why is this? It is because we are the ONLY person in the world who experiences things from our point of view. The voice we are hearing does not sound like that to us when we speak, so how could it possibly sound like that when we hear it played back? It is because we all hear and see and experience things from our own unique perspective so we cannot possibly expect others to have the same experiences we do – even given completely identical stimuli.

Look at this picture. What do you see, an old woman with a big nose, or a beautiful young maiden? Look again – look long and hard; do you still see the same thing? What do you see? Beauty? Ugliness? Young? Old?

Perception is how you see the world around you. Every time you look at something, or someone, you are forming opinions. You are observing, processing, and deducing information to form an opinion. The opinions you arrive at may be accurate, or they may be far from the truth. Since we cannot be “inside” someone else’s mind and heart we can’t possibly know what the reality is in a given situation. Truth is, sometimes we do not even know or understand our own motives. And if our motives and perceptions are unknown even to us on the "inside" of life as we experience it, how can those "outside" us have a chance to understand what the reality is in a given situation? We are constantly unconsciously running everything we experience through a set of filters we were born with, or educated into, or we picked up from our generation or from a previous generation.

Why am I talking about this? I am writing about perceptions because of today’s worship service at my church. Depending upon who you ask at our church and certain factors I have yet to completely sort out, today’s service was either, “exactly what a ‘win’ looks like at NewSong,” or else it was “one of the worst services we have had in a long time.”

I know. No one ever said leadership was easy. This evening I perceive it to be very difficult. I am not even sure what step to take next. As usual it brings me back to the old leadership arts of listening, measuring, clarifying and communicating. Perhaps it is even time to retool a few things. But whose perceptions to we retool towards? What do people actually perceive? And what is the correlation between what they perceive and the underlying reality? Is what people were either deliriously happy about or totally disgusted with today even the issue on the table now?

How do we deal with perceptions and whose perceptions matter most (besides God’s, of course). What do you think?

Sermon Player -

Here is a nifty sermon player I stumbled upon from another pastor today (Dennis Papp, Field Notes). We will eventually have this player on our church website. There is also a link to it on the side bar further down and to the right of this post.

The greatest best thing about it is that the audio starts immediately, no more waiting for the file to download or questions about if you want to save the file to your computer.

NewSong also has its own channel now with sermon.net where the player comes from. Check it out at: http://www.sermon.net/NewsongSermons


Enjoy!

Book Review: Tribes by Seth Godin

I actually got this book as a “freebie” at last October’s Catalyst Conference and just got around to reading it tonight. Godin is a self-described “best-selling author, entrepreneur, and change agent.” I think of him as the Leonard Sweet of the Internet era. He specializes in marketing and communication, especially Internet marketing and connecting. He is a prolific blogger, writer, and speaker who loves to challenge the status quo, dares to question the accepted order and who specializes in debunking commonly held assumptions ("myths"). He calls doing this being a heretic.

Tribes is actually the first book of Godin’s I have read (he has written a dozen), but I read his blog faithfully. In the book he defines a tribe as "any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea." Tribes can be religious, ethnic, economic, political, or even musical (think of the Deadheads). Godin contends to be human is to long to be a part of a tribe.

With the Internet and all its social networking opportunities (Facebook, Twitter, etc…) it is easier than ever today to form or join a tribe. With the exponential expansion of modern forces of connection anyone who wants to make a difference now has the tools at his or her fingertips to form a tribe or to locate one to be a part of. The main question this opportunity presents, Godin contends, is who is going to lead all these tribes?

Tribes has some good leadership thinking in it. Much of it is very relevant to the church too. He talks a lot about the “tightening the tribe” using all the tools available to leaders in our new more connected world. He especially touts the efficiency of blogs for doing this. “A blogger has a free, nearly effortless tool to send regular (daily? hourly?) messages to the people who want to read them. And with comments and trackbacks, the members of the tribe can talk back and to each other. Discussions take place, ideas are shared, decisions are made – quickly” (pg. 53).

I loved Godin’s important distinction between "fans" and "numbers." He writes, “A true fan brings three friends with him to a John Mayer concert…a true fan connects with other true fans and amplifies the noise the artise makes…” “Too many organizations care about numbers, not fans. They care about hits or turnstile clicks or media mentions. What they’re missing is the depth of commitment and interconnection that true fans deliver…the real win is in turning a casual fan into a true one” (pg. 33)

There is a plenty of other good leadership insight in this short 147 page book. I definitely need to go back now and reread the book with a highlighter in hand. I plan to encourage our staff at NewSong to read the book and to use its principles as they form their tribes within NewSong as well.

In conclusion, I encourage anyone interested in thinking outside the box about their church or business to read this book and to apply its principles.

Book Review: Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener

This book was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1948. It is a collection of short stories that take place in the South Pacific during World War II. The stories are narrated by an unnamed naval officer and several characters reappear in some of the stories. The climax of the book is a fictional military offensive code named “Alligator.” The “war” parts of the book are sandwiched between captivating tales of love and loss as the bored naval men mostly sit around and wait (and consume lots of alcohol!).

Michener is a good storyteller and crafter of characters. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical South Pacific was based on Michener’s colorful characters in this book including nurse Nellie Forbush who falls in love with French plantation owner, Emile de Becque (remember?) There is also Lt. Cable and Bloody Mary, the island souvenir dealer and her daughter Liat. I still remember seeing the play being performed at Central High School in Jackson, MS way back in the sixties when my dad was an ROTC instructor there. I also recall my parents had the old LP album of South Pacific (the movie). I can still hear Mitzi Gaynor singing, “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair” (here it is on YouTube).

I am sorry it took me so long to read this book. It really is good. I think Michener’s characters are well-developed. I liked the pace of the book and how he wove the stories together. I thought the climax of the book, the landing at the island of Kuralei, was especially moving. As Michener’s narrator surveys the littered beaches littered with the dead and the detritus of battle the full horror of war is revealed. It is really a shame that this book has been omitted from most “best read” lists in academic circles. One can only speculate why. Perhaps because the musical followed so closely upon the book’s release. It definitely deserved better. I am glad I finally found it.

Elder/Staff Retreat Part Two

Our Elder/Staff retreat held this past weekend was about as good as it could possibly be. I could definitely sense the prayers people were praying for the weekend. When I got home Saturday night I told Donna (my wife) that I honestly could not imagine a single thing about the retreat that could have been better. Everyone came. Everyone participated. No one held anything back. We all shared our life stories, including our personal testimony. Everyone had read the Simple Church book and done their homework in advance. Our staff was prepared with exciting well-done reports on their ministries and plans for the future. There was plenty of laughter, tears, good food, great worship, and amazing fellowship (including a few odd bed-partners, but that's another post for another day).

Things we accomplished:

- We thoroughly went over Clarity - Movement - Alignment - and Focus from the Simple Church book. We know our work is cut out for us; mainly in properly communicating the "why" we need to do this to our congregation. As Vicki Eitel reminded us, Jesus never said anyone "had" to do anything. But "if" one wants certain things to happen then he or she "must" make certain changes or do certain things. We need to make our process crystal clear to everyone and in time, hopefully it will become a part of our church's DNA.

- Our staff leaders gave overviews of their respective areas including their mission, lens, target audience, and what constitutes a "win" for them.

- We raised the commitment level for leadership at NewSong by agreeing on what is expected of a "Level One Leader."

- We simplified our organizational structure so everything we do fits under the "Five Things We Do at NewSong" These five are: Weekend Worship, Small Groups, Missions, Youth, and Children. Existing ministries that do not "fit" will be phased out as an act of stewardship of our resources and faithfulness to God and His mission through us.

- We reduced our number of leaders from over 50 this year (2008-09) to less than half that number for the upcoming ministry year (2009/10). We also came up with a concensus list of leader candidates to fill those positions.

- We decided we will handle our ministry sign-ups differently this year (in August). We will still have sign-ups but we will try to have many people already recruited and signed up by ministry team leaders relationally.

- During the chapter reviews from Simple Church and the staff reports we kept a running list of significant changes we have recently made (or will make soon). These include:

1) Worship (Love) as our "Front Door" at NewSong. This is part of our new evangelistic focus, which is our number one strategic ministry priority in 2009. Our services are now being designed and targeted more towards non-believers so when our members invite their unbelieving friends, relatives and neighbors they will be able to more easily connect to God. We believe we can do this and still satisfy existing believers' needs for engaging worship and relevant, biblical teaching. What believers miss out on in "depth" in worship they will now get in their small groups.

2) Small Groups will become our main discipleship (Grow) vehicle, rather than traditional Sunday School. True life change happens best in small groups which will hopefully all eventually meet in the more intimate setting of a home rather than in sterile classrooms. Besides, we have many more homes available to us at NewSong than we do classrooms. We are planning a church-wide small group emphasis in the fall built around Saddleback's "40 Days of Love" campaign where we hope to launch 10-12 small groups.

3) In Missions (Share) our focus going forward will be "to serve Christ so others see him." We we will no longer artificially divide this area between "ministry" (inside the church) and "missions" (outside the church) but instead will focus on doing everything for Christ so that those we are serving will see Him in our service. We believe you can hand someone a worship guide, or prepare refreshments, or operate a sound board as though you are doing it for Christ Himself. Doing so would constitute a "win" for us in this area.

4) In our Children's Ministry our focus will be on developing a parent-church partnership to help our children come to know God instead of parents simply taking their children to church for the church to teach them "about" God. A win in this area would be when the families in our church are intentional about teaching biblical truths in their home on a daily basis.

5) One final noticeable difference will be an emphasis on being intentionally relational in our worship, grow groups and recruiting for our share ministries. This is a shift from our former "warm body" method where we were just looking at numbers, having multiple ministries, filling slots and always having impersonal sign-up sheets in the back. Strong churches are built on solid, godly, peer relationships. We plan to take full advantage of the strong relational ties that already exist at NewSong and to strengthen them further.

NewSong Elder/Staff Retreat

Well, tomorrow we are off for our Elder/Staff retreat for NewSong Church. So far all our staff members and Elders are attending - that is eleven of us. I am very excited at this opportunity to synchronize our efforts by clarifying, aligning, and focusing in our mission as a church. One of our four strategic ministry priorities for 2009 is what we called “Empowering Leadership” and is about expanding our leadership base. This is critical in order for us to move from being essentially a single cell church with me at the center to being a multi-celled church with multiple points of entry and several leaders as hubs for people to latch onto.

Church leadership gurus call where we are the “Shepherd-Rancher” threshold. It's an indisputable fact that the leadership style that works well with a church of 35-50 people will most likely hinder the growth of a church with 150-200. The little church pastor knows everybody, does all the praying, all the baptizing, all the teaching, and becomes a bottleneck for growth at some point because everything has to be run by him or her. He or she is the only one who knows everyone else in the church, and this person ends up with his hand in everything that happens at the church. The problem is there is a limit to how many people one person can personally shepherd. As the church grows the pastor must change roles from “Shepherd” to “Rancher.” The Rancher helps oversee the farm, mainly through under-Shepherds.

We have been at the threshold where this needs to be addressed for some time now at NewSong. The time has come for me to be more “hands off;” I must learn to delegate more, trusting the people to make what needs to happen transpire. The “sheep” for the pastor become the leaders he/she is mentoring and equipping for ministry. While shepherding only a few, they continue to serve as rancher to the entire flock.

Can we make this transition at NewSong? My experience has been that not too many pastors are able to do this. Most of the fault for this lies with the leader who is unable or unwilling to give up the responsibility and authority they presently have. But the people in the church who are not willing to be unselfish enough to let their pastor’s leadership style change share in the blame for this as well.

Theologically and practically most of us recognize it is not good for people to look exclusively to one person, a pastor, for all their spiritual guidance, answers, and leadership. The same Spirit that rested on Christ came down on all believers at Pentecost. On the flip side, it is also unhealthy for pastors to lose touch with their people and begin treating the congregation like widgets or numbers. Pastors can never let themselves become so “hands off” that they don’t know what is going on in the church. A disengaged leader can be disastrous.

Ideally, a pastor would be able to adopt a different style to match the different phase of development of the congregation. He or she should be find a way to grow along with the church. This assumes the pastor wants to stay, of course, which I want to do at NewSong. Flexibility on the part of the pastor and a willingness to continue to expand on the part of the church are the keys. A leader who feels he or she cannot adopt a different style as the church grows should recognize this and find a new church where his or her leadership style is needed. Likewise, the congregation that is plateaued or declining must decide if they want to be unselfish enough to grow, or if they want to remain comfortable where they are. A word of caution: Biblically-speaking such a congregation (one that opted for "comfortable") would be standing on shaky ground.

Book Review: In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick

This National Book Award winner recounts the tragic shipwreck of the whale ship Essex and her crew and is the true story that that inspired Herman Melville’s epic novel, Moby Dick. Just a few years after the Essex was wrecked, Melville was working aboard a whaling ship in the Pacific when he had a chance encounter with one of the Essex’s survivor's sons. After receiving a copy of the father's narration of the disastrous voyage, Melville was moved to write Moby Dick.

The Essex left Nantucket, Massachusetts in 1819 on a two-and-a-half-year voyage in the whaling grounds of the South Pacific. On the morning of November 20, 1820 the ship was attacked in a remote area of the Pacific by an 85 foot long sperm whale. The ship sank and her 20 crewmen escaped in three 25-foot poorly provisioned whale boats. The crew was adrift for three months in the Pacific and had to fight the elements, thirst and starvation.

If you like survival tales you will absolutely love this book. Philbrick did a great job researching the story (he lives in Nantucket) and, adventure-wise, it reads every bit as good as Melville’s thriller. Ironically Mellville’s story ends when the whale sinks the ship. In Philbrick’s account, the story is just beginning when the whale appears.

A word of warning, this book is not for the squeamish; the author thoroughly researched how people die of starvation and thirst and spares none of the details including the cannibalism that followed the shipwreck and such esoteric information as how much “meat” can be harvested from the average human body (65 pounds). But do not let that keep you from reading this excellent book. Philbrick brilliantly captures what it must have felt like drifting for months in one of the small lifeboats wondering if you are going to survive. The author also marries great history lessons about nineteenth century whaling with tales of man and the at sea, racism, Quakerism, navigation, seamanship, and leadership. I especially appreciated the author’s careful examination of the different leadership styles exemplified by the ship’s captain George Pollard and his first mate, Owen Chase. Writing in the Penguin Reading Guide to this book Philbrick comments on the Captain’s leadership:

“Pollard was certainly unlucky, but he also had difficulty asserting his will upon the crew. Pollard was a first-time captain and seemed hesitant to overrule his subordinates. In just about every situation, his instincts were correct, but he inevitably allowed himself to be talked out of his convictions by his two mates, Owen Chase and Matthew Joy. As leadership psychologists will tell you, a leader, particularly in a survival situation, must make decisions firmly and quickly. Pollard was too much of a Hamlet.”

If you enjoyed books like Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm or Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air you will enjoy this book as well. Of course you can also wait until the book is made into a movie. According to Variety a movie based on the book should head into production sometime this year. Just remember; a movie is never as good as the book it is based upon.

Leigh's Graduation

This short video is of our daughter Leigh receiving her diploma for her Bachelor of Arts Degree at Berry College in Rome, GA on Saturday, May 9, 2009. We are very proud parents!

Big Weekend

This is a huge weekend for the Jackson family. My daughter Leigh is graduating from Berry College in Rome, Ga. We are so proud of her. Leigh has done great in school. She already has a job too! Leigh enrolled and finished her senior year at Georgia State in Atlanta. She is getting also getting married on June 6th. We are so excited for her and for her fiancé John Harper. Way to go Leigh! We love you dear!

Wow, it is funny how time catches up to you. I remember graduating from college myself; it seems like just yesterday (University of Georgia, 1978). I had no idea what I really wanted to do when I graduated. Donna and I were already married. I worked at the Athens YMCA. I had three job offers upon graduating. My three choices were: Delta airlines as a “Junior Accountant,” Georgia Federal Savings and Loan as a bank teller, or Northside Realty in their commercial real estate division. I chose Northside Realty because I believed I could get to the top quickest with them. It did not work out that way, but God had His own plan. Donna took a job teaching at Headland High School in East Point, Georgia and we bought a 750 square foot house on Romain Way in East Point for $15,000 and we were on our way! Wow, that was a long time ago.

Back to the present day: My daughter Amy got back from Thailand and India last night. It is nice to have all our offspring on American soil again. Sounds like she had a fantastic time. She comes home to Georgia on May 31st. We can't wait to see her.

I broke down and bought a new digital camera today since we have so much coming up with the graduation and wedding. I gave our Nikon digital camera to Amy the last time she was in Georgia because her camera broke. Buying a new camera was a very difficult choice; I did a ton of research and finally settled on a Canon SD 790 IS – a “point-and-and shoot” digital camera. It is amazing how difficult the simplest thing can be today. There were a million choices.

It is also Mother’s Day weekend. I have a great mom. I also have a great wife who is the mom to my own children. I even have a pretty cool mother-in-law. I guess I am a lucky guy in that. Everyone is coming over to our house for Mother’s Day. We are privileged to honor all the moms and we’ll have at least seven moms at our house that day – what a joy!

May God bless you this weekend – He is so good!!!

P.S. I will be pretty busy this weekend, not too sure how often I will get to blog....

Defriended!

It is a cruel world out there. A few days ago I got “defriended” on Facebook. I didn't know you could even do that. Turns out you are not actually notified when someone defriends you. You simply notice you are no longer seeing any updates from that person in your newsfeed (especially if they were a heavy Facebook user). That’s what happened with me. I realized I hadn’t seen anything from ___________ in a while so I tried to go to their Facebook page and it said, “Add as friend.” I had been defriended!

I did a little research on the topic and discovered the concept is so new the jury is still out on whether the word “defriend” should be hyphenated or not. Here is the entry for "defriend" in the Urban Dictionary.

Ending friendships face-to-face is difficult and awkward enough. So far no one is quite sure of the etiquette of how to do it properly. Most of the time out in the “real world” we simply ignore certain individuals we want to defriend and, over time, the friendship fades away. We rarely make public pronouncements (e.g. “I’m no longer your friend”), and so unlike online defriending there is seldom a single action that indicates it is over. Online, of course, we can do it swiftly and easily, by selecting the option, “Remove from Friends.” There’s no need for an explanation. It’s all over in a single click.

Of course sometimes defriendings are not about actually ending friendships. A defriending may not have anything to do with anger or lack of interest in the person being defriended, or passive-aggressive behavior. Instead it may be about lives that are changing where the person being defriended is no longer a part of your social circle. For instance, people move away, get divorced, change jobs, sue one another, change political views, and other tastes change. In short, people change and life situations change so our relationships change. There are plenty of reasons for defriending. I read where one woman had an uncomfortable defriending episode where she felt the need to defriend someone she barely knew that insisted on continually sharing far too much private information about their personal lives publicly.

Bottom line, for now there does not seem to be a way to defriend without the implied insult that goes with it. I am sure over time this will change. But for now – to the party that defriended me – no hard feelings!

Bible Translations

Someone recently asked me what translation of the Bible I like the best. Of course I would like to have replied that I only read the Bible in the original languages, but that, of course, is not true. Actually, one of the greatest things about Christianity in the last 30 years or so is all the different translations now available for people to read. When I was a child you basically had two choices, the King James Bible or the Revised Standard Version. I realize other versions were available back then, but not widely. As time went on other versions came out and became available including the Good News Bible, the Living Bible, the New International Version, the New American Standard, the Amplified Bible, and more. Nowadays there are hundreds of versions available – something that occurred basically in one generation (from me to my kids) which is pretty incredible and absolutely wonderful.

But back to the question I was asked (above); wow that is a tough one. Rather than answer it outright let me just make a few unrelated statements about Bible versions.

The Bible I read most often is the New International Version (NIV). The NIV is considered an “open” style translation and is a good, easy to read version. It is the version of preference for some 65% of evangelical leaders according to the Zondervan website (Zondervan publishes the NIV). It is also the best-selling Bible today.

I read the Bible through at least once every year and have since the early nineties. I generally alternate versions each year as I read. Sometimes I read straight through, other years I follow a reading plan. My current reading plan includes an OT reading, a NT reading, a Psalm and a Proverb each day. I am reading the NIV this year, I read the English Standard Version (ESV) last year. The ESV, published by Crossway Bibles, is an “essentially literal” translation (word-for-word versus thought-for-thought”) that I really enjoyed and currently read probably third in line behind the NIV and the NRSV (below).

The Bible I use for Bible study and sermon preparation most often is the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). The NRSV is generally recognized in academic circles (seminaries) as the most accurate in terms of unbiased scholarly renderings. All my Bible professors in seminary used the NRSV and most of my higher-level commentaries and other Bible tools are based on this translation.

While studying and preparing to preach or teach I also refer frequently to terms in the passage I am covering in the original language. This is easy to do now that there are tools available online to do so. This allows you to see the various meanings of certain terms the translators chose from when selecting an English word to use in a certain instance. Often a key to when to do this is when the versions I am reading a text in all vary on one particular word.

The first Bible I read cover to cover was the Living Bible. The Living Bible is a paraphrased rendition of the King James Version done by Kenneth Taylor in 1971. It is not a genuine translation, but is a type of phrase-by-phrase commentary that was originally intended to help Taylor's own children understand the scriptures. It is easy and enjoyable to read, but for serious Bible study it should only be used in conjunction with a legitimate translation.

A popular equivalent of the old Living Bible today would be The Message by Eugene Peterson. I find The Message often expresses things in "street language" that people can relate to but when I use it I usually read the passage in a legitimate translation first, then use The Message to help people relate to the passage.

Study Bibles are fine, but I get concerned when I see people study and highlight the study notes more than the actual text of the Bible. People should only refer to study notes after studying the text themselves to see what God has to say to them in the passage.

I mark up my Bibles freely. I also put notes in the margins, dates when I preached or taught a text, and more. I do not have an official system for this, or certain colored markers or anything (as some people do). I just jot things down as the Spirit moves me.

I also find myself referring to “large print” Bibles a little more frequently than I used to, I wonder what that is all about?

There are many excellent online Bible sites where you can view, study, print out, and compare hundreds of versions. Some of the websites I use most frequently are:

The Bible Gateway: http://www.biblegateway.com/

The Online Greek Interlinear: http://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/Greek_Index.htm

The Online Parallel Bible: http://bible.cc/

The Net Bible: http://net.bible.org/home.php

The Crosswalk Bible: http://bible.crosswalk.com/

Which Bible should you choose? I generally suggest that after reading parts of several versions, people would do well to zero in on a primary version to use to study and commit passages to memory from. The issue of translations should not become a distraction. Factors in your decision might include what your personal reading level is and what kind of reading you are intending to mostly do (devotional, pure Bible study, lesson preparation, inspiration, what?). You also might want to consider whether you are seeking a literal translation or one that provides a thought-for-thought presentation. Do you prefer the beautiful cadences of the King James Version, the widely accepted and respected New International Version, the very readable and contemporary New Living Translation, or the scholarly New Revised Standard Version? Each translation has the power to transform your life. Though the actual words may differ, the voice of God can speak to you through each one. The real question is: how will you respond to God's voice as He speaks to you from the pages of this life-changing book?

Book Review: The Pearl

Tonight I read a classic, The Pearl, by John Steinbeck. As I got into the tale I realized I had read it before, probably in high school, but nevertheless it is a great book by an outstanding writer, especially in his attention to detail and symbolism.

In the story, a young couple named Kino and Juana live in a poor Mexican fishing village with their only child, a baby named Coyotito. The baby is stung by a scorpion and the family becomes desperate for the town doctor to help them. But the doctor refuses to help the poor villagers because they cannot pay. The couple goes out collecting pearls from the bottom of the sea as they do every day and as luck would have it (or as “something” would have it) they find a great pearl, the “pearl of the world.”

Word of the couple’s find spreads like wildfire in the small village, even reaching the doctor, who is now more than glad to help and who tricks them into thinking they still need his remedy even though the baby was recovering fine.

Suddenly this young couple has the world open up before them as never before possible. For a brief moment there seems to be a chance to break out of centuries of poverty and predictability in their family and village, but also just as suddenly, the world becomes a dark and ominous place for the couple as they deal with unscrupulous pearl buyers and multiple unknown parties trying to steal the pearl buried in the dirt floor of the couple’s grass hut.

The plot thickens and fills to overflowing with adventure, fear, murder, and revenge. Steinbeck packs a lot of story into a this short "novella sized" book. And there is so much symbolism: the European doctor and all that he stands for, the gulf, the “songs” Kino and Juana hear (of ‘family’ and ‘evil),’ and of course, there is the symbolism of the pearl itself. One thing I enjoyed most was watching how the images Kino and others see when they gaze into the pearl change over time. It goes from being the most beautiful pearl in the world where Kino sees a bright future for himself and his family, “things Kino’s mind had considered in the past and had given up as impossible” (pg. 24) to being “ugly…gray, like a malignant growth” (pg. 89).

In keeping with his other works, the ending of The Pearl is unpredictable. Without giving too much away, suffice it to say the story certainly would not be categorized as a “feel-good” tale. The book does leave you with lots to think about however; and that, after all, is the mark of a great book. Read it, you'll enjoy it.

Days of Small Beginnings

Some days I wake up and everything about planting a church seems overwhelming. We have been at it for nine years now at NewSong and we’re still averaging less than 200 people in worship on any given weekend. Each week it seems like we have to reinvent the wheel about some facet of our service as though it has never been done or thought of before. Even the simplest things, which should have been worked out years ago, still cause us to stumble around as though we are caught unawares or unprepared.

I recognize church-planters don’t have a monopoly on discouragement. Anyone can get discouraged. The hill looks too high to climb. The ditch seems too broad to jump. The odds seem too overwhelming. The finish line seems too far off to even matter.

The book of Zechariah tells us that this is exactly how some of God’s people felt as they went about a task that seemed too big and too difficult for them to accomplish. Zechariah, a prophet of God, was with his fellow Israelites back in Jerusalem after the temple Solomon had built was destroyed.

The Israelites had already rebuilt the walls around the city, but the rebuilding of the temple was still incomplete even after many years of fits and starts. Zechariah struggled to encourage the people to get the temple rebuilt, but progress was slow. The work was inconsistent, and the people’s motivation seemed to come and go. Inner discouragement hindered their ability to consistently follow through with a slow-and-steady building plan. They wanted their efforts to produce more immediate, noticeable, "bigger" results. Boy does that sound familiar!

In the midst of these events, God asks, “Does anyone dare despise this day of small beginnings?” (Zech. 4:10). The question reveals the cause of the Israelites’ discouragement: impatience and short-sightedness. The truth of the matter is, as we have known since the days of Aesop, “slow and steady wins the race.” Building a church involves far more slow, “tortoise” days than fast, “hare” ones. The perception that all you need to do is to get a good praise band together and some cool media and you’ll be the next Northpoint in six months time is simply not true. In fact, the statistics that are regularly quoted indicate that 80 percent of church plants don’t even survive their first year. Church-planting is a day-in, day-out, “grind it out” undertaking. Church-planting is a “two steps forward and one step back” proposition. Church-planting is not for the faint of heart or the weary of step.

And so today I choose to refuse to despise these our days of small beginnings. Today I commit to stay at the wheel, believing our small beginnings will someday produce a great ending. I will choose to hold on to God’s Word even when it seems as though what we’re doing is not making

Book Review: Same Kind of Different as Me

Same Kind of Different as Me, by Ron Hall and Denver Moore, was recommended to me by my friend Doug Davis. I mentioned the book to Donna and she said we were already on the waiting list to get it from the public library. I couldn’t wait to read it so I went out and bought it.

The book is the true story (the best kind!) of an angry, black homeless man, Denver Moore, and his unlikely friendship with a wealthy international art dealer, Ron Hall, who came together when Hall’s wife insisted she and her husband volunteer to serve food once a week at a homeless shelter in Forth Worth, Texas. What begins as a grudging trip to please his wife turns into a deep and fruitful relationship between two disparate characters. The story is told from the perspective of the two main characters, Moore and Hall, as they alternate chapters giving their perspective on a series of events.

I do not want to give away too much of the story here so I will not. My only criticism of the book is that Hall comes across a bit self-indulgent and “holier-than-thou” in a few places. But he seems to recognize that, and it actually turns out to be part of the storyline.

This is a story of deep pain, but also one of incredible redemption. The story is awe-inspiring and hopeful. I highly recommend the book though I must admit I cried a few times while reading it. In the end the book demonstrates – as the title implies – that while we are all different, we all have something in common as well; the “same kind of different as me.”