Sacred Journey, by Steven Brooke

I've traveled to 48 of the United States (the contiguous ones) and 10 foreign countries, but the ultimate trip to me would be The Hold Land of Israel.  About every inch of the country has been trod by Biblical feet, and nowhere moreso than in Jerusalem.

This little book is a travelogue about the area of Jerusalem that Jesus traveled on the day of the crucifixion, the Via Dolorosa or Via Crucis.  I got the book several months ago when I signed up for Crossings Christian Book Club, and saved it till right before Easter for time-appropriate reading.

Seeing the pictures of the historic stops on the walk is awe-inspiring as well as humbling.  Nowadays many of the places where Jesus stepped on His last day on earth before He died and rose again are just normal, everyday streets, shops, schools or residences.  Imagine walking each day through the same side streets where Jesus carried His cross.  It's mind-boggling to me.

Churches have been built on some of the major sites around Jerusalem, some of which probably kind of obscure the exact locations.  Of course, many of the locations are based on speculation, since it's hard to know exactly where He walked.  The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is built over several of the last spots, including the proposed site of Calvary as well as the tomb.  It would be interesting to know what those sites actually looked like back then.  Then again, perhaps it's best to have a little mystery involved too.

I truly hope my family and I get to travel to the Holy Land someday.  I can imagine no greater earthly trip...

Comeback Churches, by Ed Stetzer & Mike Dodson

In my quest to try to shake things up and focus things at Drennon over the past four months, I've read lots and lots of books on the subject.  Still probably not enough, but it's a start.  This one, Comeback Churches, took me a while to read because it's very full of statistics, charts, data, etc., making it a little harder to "not put down."

The impact is, I hope, very high, though.  What these two men of God discuss in the book is just how a large list of churches--324 in fact, ranging from tiny like us to megachurches--transitioned from dying or plateauing to thriving and growing. 

Some of the more important findings were the importance of a focused church vision, a revived, Spirit-led pastor and effective lay ministry.  The focus wasn't on making everything modern, or big, or bright or loud, as one might stereotypically think, but instead it was about being the church needed at your location, sharing and spreading the gospel to the people of the area.  Some churches need to be more modern, some need to embrace traditions of the past.

Even though I struggled a bit with this book because of its readability, I am thrilled to have read it.  It has confirmed much of what I recently learned in the Craig Groeschel and Andy Stanley books I've recently read, and has helped further focus me with our congregation.  I'm unveiling the new Drennon Christian Church vision statement this coming Sunday, based on recommendations from young and old within our pews.  I'm investigating doing a spiritual gifts inventory this summer, which has never been done before within the memories of our parishioners.  And finally I'm probably going to try to embark upon my John Wayne Bible Study I wrote three or four years ago as a student at the Londen Institute for Evangelism.

I hope to continue to find good reading material to help me grow as a pastor of our small church in Drennon Springs, Kentucky.

Amazing Grace, by Il Divo

This week we're singing along with these four tenors who sing Amazing Grace in old Roman ruins.  Emileen Tindle alerted me to this rendition of the classic hymn...

God's Not Dead, by Newsboys

This is my new favorite song.  I've loved the Newsboys for as long as I've loved contemporary Christian music.  "God's Not Dead (Like a Lion)" is the title cut from their new worship album.

When Peter Furler left Newsboys two years ago, I was skeptical because his voice was the Newsboys sound, to me.  dcTalk's Michael Tait came in to take lead singer duties, but I was still skeptical.  I love dcTalk as one of the giants of contemporary Christian music, and was blessed to see them perform at the 2001 Billy Graham Crusade in Louisville, but never thought Newsboys would be as relevant.  "Born Again", their first post-Furler album, was a hit but not great, in my opinion.  I'm really glad to say that my son liked the title song more than any Newsboys song he'd heard, since it's so urban and modern-sounding.  To me, though, something was missing a little.  That changed with this song.

I hear the trademark Newsboys sound, except for Peter Furler's voice.  I really like Michael Tait's singing on this one, and the addition of dcTalk member Kevin Max really gives the song a Newsboys meets dcTalk feel.  That's a huge compliment from me.

More than anything, though, I love the sentiment of this song.  "God's Not Dead" is quite a blunt title, as well as lyric.  The world around us acts like God is either dead, or at the very least irrelevant.  The video they present here underscores that feeling, with individuals having to change things up and remind us that our "God's not dead, He's truly alive.  He's living on the inside, roaring like a lion."  I hope Newsboys continues on in this same vein in their future projects, and I'd love to hear more Kevin Max cameos, and maybe even a TobyMac or Peter Furler cameo as well...

If We've Ever Needed You, by Casting Crowns

Our contemporary song for this Sunday at Drennon...

Water's Edge, by Robert Whitlow

Yet another new Christian novel I saw and liked because of the cover the last time I visited Lifeway.  Downloaded onto our Kindle, I read this one in just a few days and loved it.  I'm not huge on legal thrillers, because they don't interest me much, but I'm really big on novels that chronicle the spiritual growth of a character.  This one does that for sure.

The main character is a young lawyer who comes back to his small hometown to tidy up his father's affairs after his untimely death.  There, while staying with his retired pastor great-uncle, he's drawn into the circumstances around the death and the various people it has touched and affected.  Over the course of the novel, Tom Crane has to face his spiritual status, which up to this point has been nil.

It's interesting that in this particular novel the main character's spiritual awakening or transformation isn't miraculous, sudden or 100% perfect.  Tom experiences more ups and downs after starting to sense God's presence in his life than before, and goes from joy to despair to joy again the last half of the novel.  I like the honesty of this portrayal, as opposed to some novels that make it sound like everything is perfect after conversion.

I saw at the end of the book that Robert Whitlow has written several other novels that I can try.  I'm sure I'll run into Robert Whitlow's work again in the future.

Little Serendipities

Sometimes it helps to have some little things happen to brighten your day when you're not feeling up to par.  Monday morning I was awakened by a text message.  It turns out my wife and I had overslept enough that we were going to be hard-pressed to get to our respective schools on time.  The text was from one of our parishioners, who sent me a scripture, Colossians 1:9-13:  "⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, ¹⁰ so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, ¹² and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. ¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves."  That certainly helped my day go more smoothly.

This morning, as I was looking for an extra box to use from my art room closet, I found the little clay cross in the picture above.  I haven't seen that cross for years, and I don't really know where it came from.  I think it was a Christmas ornament given to me long ago.  How it came to be in my art room closet at the bottom of a junk box, I don't know, but I'm glad to have found it.  I normally carry a small wooden cross I got on a recent REC weekend, but today I've added this larger, more substantial one.  It helps to have this constant reminder in my pocket, that Jesus is with me wherever I go and whatever I do. 

To be awakened with scripture when oversleeping one morning, then to find a beautiful little cross the next morning--that's quite a nice little serendipity.

The Deepest Waters, by Dan Walsh

Last week I finished reading a new book by a new author (to me), and I just loved it.  This one is based on a true story from 1857 concerning a shipwreck and a displaced young couple trying to get their ways back to safety, totally separate from one another out in the Atlantic Ocean.

The best part of this truly moving story is the true aspects of the story seem almost like miracles, or at least "God things".  The circumstances leading to the couple being reunited all happen in such a "coincidental" manner than you wouldn't believe the story possible if the author wasn't just writing a story around true events.  The story itself is very faith-affirming, showing that occasionally really good things happen to really good people, and also that others who are not so nice can sometimes grow and learn to be better and more godly people.

I'd recommend this novel to men and women both.  It's a seafaring adventure, which should appeal to male readers, but the love story that provides the backbone of the adventure should also appeal to women.  (Sounds like a stereotypical review, which I don't intend, but my point is that the traditional male/female tastes are covered for all readers.)

It's very much a Christian novel, and one I hope many Christians and non-believers read.  I'll have to read Walsh's other three novels at some point too.

Winter Wonderland in March

The scene from our driveway this morning before leaving for school.  We awoke to about two or three inches of snow, on March 5 of all times.  Last week we had seventy degree weather and a nearby series of tornadoes, now we have the winter wonderland/white Christmas we didn't have back in December, January or February.

What a beautiful sight.  I don't take too many pictures--not enough, really--but this morning I pulled out the camera and took several shots.  Both of the area around our property and alongside the lake.  We didn't get a blessed snow day from school, but the sight was something to behold.



Kenya Trip?

Yep, we're going.  I told Reverend Chris Barasa Lusweti last Sunday afternoon that we'll come to the Leadership Conference in October in Eldoret.  Harriet will speak to the ladies and JR will work with the orphans at the adjoining school.  I will speak to a group of new ministers being commissioned to "go out" and enter new pastorates.

We have been blessed in the past to work on other mission teams, as close as the local prisons and Louisville and as far as Chicago, Washington DC, Belize and Brazil.  This will be our farthest trip, for sure.  As Harriet said this morning at church, when God calls you, you say yes.  A trip all the way to Africa is a scary prospect, but an exciting one too.  More to come...

Yours, by Steven Curtis Chapman

A great song to sing together on a Sunday morning when we're talking about missions.