I frequently read books. Here are some of the books I’m actually reading or have read (reread) within the past two weeks.  Full disclosure. All of these links go to my Amazon store, and if you buy one, I get credit.

1. The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard.

Willard teaches philosophy. He writes about spiritual formation, about becoming more like Jesus. It’s dense writing. It’s changing my life. Willard assumes the Kingdom of God started.

2. Relentless Grace by Rich Dixon

Rich Dixon has written here often. Recently, Rich sent me a copy of his memoir. I read it this week and want to recommend it to you. Years ago, Rich fell off a roof. As a result, he can’t walk.  This is an honest account of his recovery process, physically and spiritually. I’d give more details, but I’d rather you read his posts or his book.

3. Searching for God knows what by Donald Miller

This is Miller’s theology book. It feels like Blue Like Jazz, only more about God than about Don.

4-5. Practice Resurrection: a conversation on growing up in Christ
The Contemplative Pastor both by Eugene Peterson

Peterson was a pastor, wrote “The Message”, and challenges me to slow down. The first book uses the book of Ephesians to talk about how we can grow up as followers of Jesus. The second is for me, to help me grow up.

6. My new Bible

I’m not sure how many Bibles I have. I just bought a new one. It’s a large print. Suddenly, reading the Bible is easier than ever.

7. StrengthsFinder 2.0

Just did this with an administration class I’m teaching and I wrote about it back in January. This book (and online test) helps identify your top 5 strengths (from 34).

That’s me. What are you reading to learn about God these days?

Every Wednesday night for a year, some guys have been getting together to study the Bible.

For lots of people, that sentence would have been more comfortable if I had said “martial arts” or “leadership” or  even “for a book club.”

Getting together for a book club, everyone knows that the book may be great or awful, but the point is the interaction around the book. In responding to the book, you learn more about how the other people think and feel. You are learning. Together.

Getting together for martial arts, everyone assumes  there are different levels of learning and that is to be celebrated not despised, that showing off always gets you in trouble, that sparring is part of the learning process, that respect for everyone matters, and that learning from those who know more is okay.

Getting together for a leadership study, everyone assumes that we all have some experience that is valuable for others to learn from. Everyone knows that how the training session is led has to reflect the principles being taught, else they will be shown to be useless.

Intriguingly, this Bible study is doing all of those things, caring and learning and listening and sparring and respecting.  We’re always saying, What does that mean, what does that look like, what is that in non-church language?

Tonight, ten of us will get together to wrestle through more of 1 John 4, clarifying the theological words and working on God and love and what that means. We’ll talk about Gideon and how to tell when God is talking.  We’ll be willing to say that we don’t understand the Bible sometimes. It will be book club and martial arts and leadership. It will be church.

Even though I lead, I don’t think they know how much I need them.

Do you need to have a building in order to be the church?

The answer is no.

Do you need ushers? Do you need to take an offering? Do you need carpet? Do you need PowerPoint or projectors or pulpit or pews? Do you need small groups or big groups or one-on-one conversations? Do you need a parking lot or a car or a hybrid car? Do you need flannelgraphs for kids or foosball tables for youth or fair trade coffee for adults? Do you need matching silverware for the dinner after or alliterative sermons for the service before? Do you need a bulletin or a program or a newsletter or a website or a DVD or a bus or a billboard? Do you need stained glass or unstained teeth? Do you need a home or a phone? Do you need two services or three hymns or four Sunday School options or five gold rings? Do you need to be there every time the doors open? Do you need doors? Do you need donors?

In order to count as church, you need God. In order to count as church you need at least one other person. In order to get the most out of church, it is most helpful if that other person is an obnoxious ingrate. Just like in the mirror.

God delights in making church out of obnoxious ingrates. When they discover that they actually get along, actually love each other, they realize that only God could have done it. So they discover God, too.

The reason for all those things at the top that we think are church?

They give us something to be obnoxiously disagreeable about. So that someone else learns how powerful and transforming God’s love is. As they struggle to learn to love us.