Recent Read

One of my favorite pastimes is reading. Just ask my husband. I've got stacks of books by my bed at all times and bookshelves full of favorites that I happily reread more than twice. Our friend Dan Hawkins once said I have good taste in books, and coming from him, who work in a library and reads more than anyone I know, that was a serious compliment. I nearly wept.

Currently I am reading two books--Lonely Planet's Guide to the Ukraine and Confessions of a Reformission Rev by Mark Driscoll, for the second time.

Now, Lonely Planet is pretty straightforward and not particularly life changing except for the fact that the more I read about the Ukraine the more intrigued I become with this country--but that is a whole nother blog post.

Confessions of a Reformission Rev, on the other hand, is worth a few lines of commentary, mostly because I think anyone who cares about the church and God's reputation worldwide should read this book. Its pretty great.

Confesssions traces the life of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, which Driscoll founded, from its beginnings as a small bible study with 20 people to a mega-church of over 4000 people in the past 13 years. Through humor and humble honesty, the author paints a history of failures, trials and errors, spiritual warfare, diligent prayer, physical suffering under the strain of being a pastor, and casting a vision for mission to people of a city with no idea of what mission meant. Driscoll comments on the dangers of liberalism in the Emergent Church/Emergent Village, even calling out several well known leaders of this movement by name. He talks about the struggles his own family faced, like when his daughter told him she couldn't sleep because dark angels were pulling her hair and telling her Jesus wasn't real. He says he was a cessasionist until he planted Mars Hill, as God began demonstrating His power through words of knowledge and prophetic dreams. Enemies rose up from within his congregation, people mooned their outdoor bible study, and a guy died of a herion overdose on the stairs of their church office.

With stories like those and chapters titled, "Jesus Could You Please Rapture the Charismaniac Lady Who Brings Her Tambourine to Church?" and "Jesus Why am I Getting Fatter and Meaner?", how can you resist?

Actually, aside from the fun stories and crazy experiences, the real draw of this book lies in Driscoll's relentless pursuit of God's glory through the redemption of souls and his unbending will to keep his church focused on this mission no matter the cost. Driscoll calls his church to go and make disciples, not to stay and just be cool and spiritual. He wants other pastors and missionaries, those reading his book, to be students of culture, to be creative, to love and honor scripture and to believe it, to love and honor God and believe Him and fear Him, and to be people of the Cross with eyes and lives on the mission.

That's something worth reading. And if you are interested in the Ukraine, Lonely Planet's pretty good too.