A Year Long Quest to Read: Book 3

On to book 3 of 26.

After the behemoth that was American Gods, I decided that my next book would be a tad smaller, so I went from 500+ to 170 pages. My third book could once again meet the requirements of multiple book choices, but the one I have officially chosen for it is #25 A book that is more than 10 years old, seeing as it was written about 20 years ago, depending on its month of publication. If you were paying attention to my last blog entry you already know that book 3 is It's God's Church: the Life and Legacy of Daniel Sidney Warner by Barry L. Callen.

[Once again, if you only want my barebones comment on this book, scroll down]

There's probably a few things that you should know before I get into the meat of this entry. 1) I took several classes with Dr. Callen through both college as well as seminary. 2) Dr. Callen is a very smart man. 3) Dr. Callen put out a 27 page pamphlet last year titled The Top Ten: Why Daniel S. Warner is Still Relevant for You and Your Church which I greatly enjoyed and is the main reason that I had an interest in reading It's God's Church. 4) I wish I had stopped with The Top Ten.

As I mentioned two sentences ago, I really liked The Top Ten and was very interested in reading more about D.S. Warner, after reading It's God's Church I wished I knew less about D.S. Warner. For those of you who do not belong to the Church of God (Anderson, IN) D.S. is one of the founders of our particular stream of thought. Dr. Callen goes to some length to disregard D.S. as the founder, so I will merely say he is 'a founder' as opposed to 'the founder'. One of the main reasons that I wish I had not read It's God's Church is because after The Top Ten I admired Warner and after It's God's Church I came to the conclusion that I probably wouldn't have liked him. Warner often comes across as a man so full of his own belief that there is no room for anyone who thinks differently. Over the course of the book Dr. Callen details Warner's loss of friend after friend and even a wife over theological differences. Where Jesus says his followers will be known by their love it appears that D.S. and his fellow workers were better known by their anger at all that had come after the New Testament and before them.

Besides my problems with Warner the man I also had problems with Dr. Callen's book in general. He takes the first two chapters to talk about the world that Warner stepped into and existed in but often name drops with the assumption that his readers already know who is who and what they did. While I often, but not always, did know the names and situations that Dr. Callen skips across many do not and I felt a little more explanation was necessary. In addition Dr. Callen peppers his book with the statement "It's God's Church" over and over and over again, making it not a statement of sound theology but rather turning it into some corny catchphrase. When we finally do get to Warner's actual life there are often events that are mentioned but then quickly left behind because of an incomplete record of Warner's life, while this is not Dr. Callen's fault per se it made for a, at times, disjointed story.

As I mentioned I am in a church whose stream of thought dates back to D.S. Warner and I have to say that there are things that our movement [not a denomination because those are evil, said by myself tongue in cheek, said by Warner with all seriousness] engages in that Warner would have stood opposed to. In the end I imagine that it is for the best that we hold him in regard without holding him as the ideal, Dr. Callen says that it would not be something that he would want to be anyway.

At base how I feel about this book:
If you really want to know the nitty gritty about Daniel Sidney Warner, if you want to grapple with the man, his thoughts, and his meaning I would suggest you read this book. If, on the other hand, you would prefer just a quick overview of his more positive attributes and actions I would suggest The Top Ten. If you are a pastor in the Church of God, or a lay leader, or just an interested individual I would recommend that you at least read The Top Ten, and potentially read It's God's Church as well.

Peace and Love,
Pastor K

p.s. I should probably thank my friend and partner in theological crime Ryan Carrel, pastor of the Southeast Project in Indianapolis, who kindly let me have/borrow It's God's Church. If you live on the Southeast side or really anywhere in Indianapolis at all and don't have a church, I suggest you check it out. You can have it back now if you want it back Ryan.

p.s.s. I am not sure at the moment what book 4 will be, but you should find the associated blog for it in roughly two weeks

A Year Long Quest to Read: Book 2

14 days ago I shared with you that I decided to start a year long reading challenge, today I am here to tell you about book 2 of 26.

My first book, Selling Water by the River by Shane Hipps, was a non-fiction book dealing with Jesus, religion, and the church. I liked it a lot. For awhile I was tempted to once again choose a non-fiction book, more than likely dealing with Jesus, religion, and the church, but instead I decided to do a 180 of sorts. I say of sorts because instead of non-fiction I decided to read a novel, and while it doesn't deal with Jesus, except in the after story extras, and doesn't speak to the church, at least not directly, it has a lot to do with religion and gods and how we believe and what we believe in and why it matters. 

So I chose a novel, but I did not pick a short one (it clocked in at around 500 pages) nor did I chose a light one (it is a novel with discussion questions for crying out loud). Below you will find the particulars of the challenge I have taken on and this book could have filled the requirements for 6,16,18,and 25, but I have decided to use it for #4 A book your friend loves [shout out to my former RCA buddy and current reading challenge buddy Jessy Rocco].

So, what did I read? American Gods by Neil Gaiman. 

[if you are merely interested in my basic review of the book skip down to the end,

 or continue for a little deeper look at my thoughts]

For lack of a better way of going about this particular look at American Gods I will be roughly using the discussion questions included in my copy [10th anniversary edition, bought digitally on the Amazon Kindle Fire].

1) American Gods is an epic novel dealing with many big themes, including sacrifice, loyalty, betrayal, love and faith. Which theme affected you the most strongly, and why?

As a pastor my first thought would be faith, but each one made the ride more enjoyable as well as intellectual. One of the things I liked most about the book was that I could finish reading for the day and would still ponder various aspects of the story. Shadow, the main character, goes on a journey through life and death and back again encountering gods, both of myth and of reality. Through his journey we see the way our beliefs create that which we believe in, imbue them with power or steal it away. It reminds me of the story in Mark 6 where Jesus is unable to perform miracles in his hometown because of the lack of belief. In some way, what Gaiman writes about, is Biblical, in some way our belief, or lack there of is intrinsically tied to what God can accomplish in our midst.

2) Shadow begins the novel as a convict, and ends it a different man. How does the novel exploit the idea of America as a place where immigrants and exiles, both physical and emotional, can reinvent themselves? What makes Shadow himself so compelling and complex.?

I am going to skip the part about Shadow in particular partly because I don't want to ruin anything for those of you who have not read this book. What is of greater importance to me is the idea of reinvention. I believe that in some ways America is the ideal place for reinvention because America has reinvented itself time and again. When we began we were the wayward children of England, then we were the rebellious children of England, and then we were our own people. We were fractured and came back together in relative peace. We were people of promise and then people of fear. We welcomed the stranger and then kicked him out. We were all things to all people yet often lacked any sort of real identity. Gaiman was/is somewhat of an outsider, born and raised in the UK, yet to some degree understands America's potential and pitfalls better than most of us do.

I'm skipping question 3 because it focuses on an aspect of the book that is a lot more important to the book than you realize until much later.

4) The old gods expect sacrifice, violence, and worship. How have they adapted to the modern world? How and why have Americans transferred their devotion to the new technological and material gods for the old spiritual gods? What comment is being made about modern cultural values?

I don't feel that it is giving much away to say that the book's main thrust is the struggle that the old gods of the spiritual realm have with the new gods of technology and modernity. In reality it is all a popularity contest to some degree, who do we believe in the most. This is a very real struggle for the church today, convincing the people in the pews that it makes more sense to believe in Jesus than it does to believe in Apple, or more appropriately the newest generation of the iPhone, or the internet, or money. I had a conversation the other day with a friend about the ever growing use of the internet. My friend's hope was that with the growing access to information people will become more informed and less entrenched in their ideologies. I told him how I doubt that would be the case because while it is now much easier to access information in our world it is equally easier to access and disseminate misinformation. In the end it still comes down to a matter of what you want to, or don't want to believe in.

The book contains 6 questions in total but I am going to skip 5 and 6 partly because of the length of this post and partly because they don't interest me near as much as the ones I have already answered.

At base how I feel about the book:

American Gods was a complex novel, jumping between its "modern day" setting and various other times when people of various backgrounds first came to American shores, bringing their beliefs and gods with them. Ultimately it is a book about belief, incorporating fantastical elements, a little bit of sci-fi, a little bit of horror, a little bit detective story, a little bit travelogue, and its fair share of non-kid appropriate content. I enjoyed the journey and would recommend it to those who find such aspects interesting.

Peace and Love,

Pastor K

p.s. Next Book Up: It's God's Church: the Life and Legacy of Daniel Sidney Warner by Barry L. Callen

p.s.s. the reading challenge list

1. a book you own but haven't read

2. a book that was made into a movie

3. a book you pick solely because of the cover

4. a book your friend loves

5. a book published this year

6. a book by an author you've never read

7. a book by an author you love

8. a book at the bottom of your 'to be read' pile

9. a book with a color in its title

10. a book set somewhere you've always anted to visit

11. a book you started but never finished

12. a book with a lion, a witch, or a wardrobe

13. a book with a female heroine

14. a book set in summer

15. a book of poems

16. a book you learned about because of this challenge

17. a book that will make you smarter

18. a book with a blue cover

19. a book you were supposed to read in school, but didn't

20. a book 'everyone' but you have read

21. a book with a great first line

22. a book with pictures

23. a book from the library

24. a book you loved...read it again

25. a book that is more than 10 years old

26. a book based on a true story

A Year Long Quest to Read: Book 1

Somewhere around January 1 I was on Facebook and came across a picture that a friend had shared. The picture was a list of books to be read this year. It wasn't specific titles, but instead included descriptions of books like one with a blue cover or one that takes place in summer or one that you choose only because of the cover. I was drawn to this picture again and again over the next few days, going back to my friend's page just to look at it again. Finally I decided to just print the picture so I didn't have to keep going online. I then took the step of typing out the list for myself and placing it on one of the two whiteboards that exist in my office. There it stuck for several more days until I finally decided to take the plunge and begin a new journey.

I should probably say that I used to be a voracious reader, for years you would find me with my nose stuck in a book, an adventure, a mystery, a book on faith and religion and Jesus, a random book that someone suggested, or a Harry Potter novel. For a multitude of reasons I have gotten away from that guy, partly because I engaged in TV and movies more, partly because my relationships changed, partly because my jobs changed, but mostly because I changed. If we are honest, change is usually a mixture of good and bad and one of the things I have begun to realize is that I missed the books, missed the education, and missed the journeys. So I finally decided to take the plunge and begin a new journey.

If you do the math to read 26 books over the course of a year you must read one book every 2 weeks and if you understand the calendar you will notice that I am writing this on February 2nd/3rd, so I am a bit behind already. I have finished book 1 though, which is why I am writing this in the first place I think it might be fun to share with you all the books I read, why I chose them and what, if anything, I get out of them.

As I said it was a list of 26 book suggestions and me being me I decided to start with #11 A book you started but never finished.

I originally came across Selling Water by the River by Shane Hipps several years ago while browsing the new books at the Anderson Public Library. Every so often I will peruse the new religious books to see if anything gets my attention, and on that day I saw the title, which was interesting, and saw the author. Shane Hipps has written other books that I have not read, but I know others who have read them and recommended them. The final grabbing point was the subtitle ‘a book about the life Jesus promised and the religion that gets in the way’ and I was hooked. If you know me, and if you are reading this blog you most likely do, you know that I have a love/hate relationship with Christianity as a whole. I love Jesus, I am a pastor, but there is a multitude of things that the large C Church does that makes me want to go live in a cave.

I proceeded to pick up the book and brought it home to read. I got through the first 6 chapters of a 14 chapter book before it was due back at the library. I loved those chapters and the instant I brought the book back is the instant that it showed up on my Amazon wish-list. Several months later it showed up on a Christmas list, and because I am loved by my in-laws I received it just over a year ago, and from that point it lived on my bookshelf waiting to be picked up and read.

Fast Forward one year and I did exactly that, rereading the first 6 chapters and finishing the final 8. As the subtitle suggest Shane’s main goal is to make us all realize that Jesus is offering us the river [of knowledge, heaven, eternal life, true life now, etc.] and sometimes Christianity gets in the way. Shane begins with the title of the book saying that the church is selling by the river, but that it is not the river never has been and never will be. He uses various teachings of Jesus to get his points across, mixing them with modern day illustrations/parables.

Now, I am a member of the choir that Shane is proverbially preaching to, so I obviously feel that he did a good job at accomplishing his set about task. He is an engaging writer, more than adequately combining the Bible and modern life. I particularly appreciated his dealing with Paul’s teaching in Acts 17. In the passage Paul sees a statue that the Romans have erected to an ‘Unknown god’ and proceeds to tell the people gathered about God and Jesus, explaining this God. Shane equated it to anonymous donors for a botanical garden, explaining that Jesus doesn’t have to interact with the world only in terms of people who know him and preach his name, but that Jesus moves and touches and changes people independent of our knowledge of him.

I have 25 more books to read, some novels, some poetry, some biographies, some non-fiction and I feel that this was a good place to start. I hope that it will continually remind me that the books in and of themselves are not really the point of this exercise, the point is to reconnect with a part of me that I have let go of, much like the point of Jesus’s teaching is not to get me to some faraway place after I stop breathing but rather to change the life that I am currently living, giving us all access to the river here and now.

Peace and Love,

Pastor K