Open Forum: Sabbatical Reading

By
As I've mentioned a few times on this blog, I'll be taking a sabbatical near the end of April. It'll be for five weeks, and will last until the end of May. I have planned some activities for that time, which I'll lay out fully later. Those are not what this post is about.

Aside from those specific activities and trips, I have a few larger goals for this sabbatical.

On one hand, I want to spend time reflecting on Bigger Professional Things. I'd like to take stock of what passions I've discovered since beginning full-time ministry, as well as passions I've let fall by the wayside. I want to think about possibilities for further education or training. I want to think about who I want to be and what I want to be about as a pastor in general.

On the other hand, I very much want to think about me and my church. 5+ years is a long time to be together, and I want to avoid getting stuck in a rut. I want to continue developing healthy ministries, and I want us to keep challenging ourselves. And I want to keep approaching things with a creative eye, recognizing when something has played out and being ready to consider alternatives.

And that, Super Readers, is why I am writing this post.

I'm still developing a reading list for this time, and I'm not coming up with much. I'm looking for books that encourage a pastor's creative spirit, or that speak to issues related to long-term ministry. And I call on ministerial colleagues out there in CoffeeNation to help me out.

Have you come across a book that touches on these themes? I'm not looking for specifics such as "How to Be a Better Preacher" or "How to Give More Effective Pastoral Care" so much as "How to Sustain a Long Pastorate" or "How to Keep Nurturing Your Creativity." Stuff more like that. It may not even be a ministry-specific book.

At any rate, if there are books like that that you know of, please share. The comments are yours.








Popular posts from this blog

Book Review: The Awakening of Hope by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

By
Image
As a pastor, I read a lot of theology. I read it in preparation for my sermon each week. I read it while planning Bible study. I read it while preparing for my next spiritual direction class. I read it to stay caught up on new trends developing in response to society and culture. And occasionally, I read it for fun.

There come points, however, when I get sick of theology, especially in its abstract form. How many different ways can I read basically the same things about God's love, grace, forgiveness, presence, and on and on and on? It all blends together and, quite frankly, gets boring. There's only so much of it that I can take, especially if it doesn't seem very tied down to something tangible; some way it's being lived out in real time. I'll admit that reviewing the last book by Doug Reed was difficult for that reason: I'd hit one of those points where I was tired of bodiless ideas about God.

The irony of such bodiless ideas might be obvious to some: we cl…
Read more

Book Review: The Silent Years by Alan W.C. Green

By
Image
It's not a terribly new or original thing to attempt to envision what Jesus' life was like before he began his public ministry. Before describing this 1- to 3-year period where he begins teaching, healing, and scandalizing the establishment leading to his death, the Gospels only provide a few fantastic infancy accounts and one episode as a 12-year-old during a visit to Jerusalem. The rest is left up to imaginative questioning: How did he discover his identity or his sense of call? What was life like for him growing up?

As mentioned, trying to answer questions like these is not a new idea. Dating back to the first few centuries of the church, there are non-canonical accounts of Jesus as a boy such as the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, which feature Jesus discovering and using his powers in selfish and reckless ways like an X-Men Origins story. In more modern times, popular authors such as Anne Rice have made their own attempts at such storytelling, and Mel Gibson added a few imagin…
Read more