Outlook Book Editor Randy Harris has asked several Presbyterians to select books for challenging and enjoyable reading during summer work and vacation times. They include:
Lewis Galloway, pastor, Second Church in Indianapolis, Ind.:
Resurrecting Leadership: Shaping Faithful Christian Ministry, by L. Gregory Jones and Kevin R. Armstrong. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006. 182 pp.
This very helpful study of the practice of ministry draws together the experiences and discoveries of a wide range of pastors. The authors think of excellence in ministry in terms of aesthetics. Is our practice of ministry something beautiful in the eyes of God?
Jonathan Edwards: A Life, by George M. Marsden. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003. 640 pp.
Marsden’s magnificent biography is a must read. Marsden not only gives us a vivid portrait of the life of Edwards, but an equally powerful analysis of the intellectual, religious, political, and social transformation of colonial society that ultimately led to the creation of the unique culture of the United States.
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West, by Stephen E. Ambrose. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. 528 pp.
Join Lewis and Clark on an expedition of courage, optimism, determination, endurance and sheer pluck. Ambrose makes the preparation for the journey as interesting as the journey west itself.
Eugenia Gamble, long time pastor of First Church in Birmingham and now working in a validated call to writing, leading retreats and spiritual direction (now living in Shell Beach, Calif.):
Miss Garnet’s Angel, by Salley Vickers. New York: Plume Press, 2002. 352 pp.
Vickers tells the story of retired British school teacher Julia Garnet who, after the death of her long time suitemate, takes off for six months in Venice where she meets a charming young Italian boy, English twins who are restoring a chapel and falls in love for the first time in her life with an art dealer named Carlo. What sets this book apart from other tales of self-discovery is its juxtaposition of Julia’s story and the apocryphal Book of Tobit. It is an unorthodox yet gleamingly beautiful story of epiphany and redemption. Miss Garnet made me want to celebrate life and love’s gifts more fully … and, maybe, sell my house and move to Venice.
A Tree Full of Angels: Seeing the Holy in the Ordinary, by Macrina Weiderkehr, OSB. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1990. 176 pp.
I cannot even remember how many times I have read this book! In one dark time in my life when I was too depressed to read at all, I remember taking it from my shelf and just sleeping with my hand on it and my Bible somehow longing for its wisdom and peace to leak into my life through that small act of hope. Weiderkehr is a Benedictine sister who through personal journal, poetry, and simple teaching from a deep source in her heart invites us to stop, look and listen for God. She calls us to deep hope and reminds us that nothing in our lives is ever wasted. In reflecting on Scripture and her own life she recalls us to the truth that as we gather up the crumbs of life we will find in them an incomparable feast. This is a great book to use with women’s groups and will equally enrich male readers.
The Art of Forgiving: When You Need to Forgive and Don’t Know How, by Lewis B. Smedes. New York: Ballantine Books, 1997. 192 pp.
I was recently asked to lead a seminar on forgiveness for a group of Baby Boomerish singles. In preparation I immediately went back to this classic work. This wonderful book, written in Smedes’ quirky, straight shooting style, is as wise a treatment of the subject as I have ever found. Each page left me thinking, “Of course! How could I not have known this?!?” Using many dramatic examples from his life and work, Dr. Smedes (professor of theology and ethics at Fuller Seminary for years) provides a practical, insightful and inspiring invitation into the process of forgiving others and ourselves.
Jack Haberer, editor, The Presbyterian Outlook:
The Sky is Falling!?! by Alex Roxburgh. Eagle, ID: ACI Publishing, 2005. 188 pp.
Along with Brian McLaren, Roxburgh is one of the apostles of the Emergent Church movement. This book casts a vision for the new, out-of-the-box, missional, world-changing church. Central to his thinking is the notion that it’s not the church itself that matters but the mission it accomplishes beyond itself. He provides models for leadership in order to help foster revival and renewal in a traditional church within a rapidly changing culture.
The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs, by Madeleine Albright. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. 352 pp.
A tour de force by the former secretary of state. Ms. Albright breaks with past practices by advocating for governmental leaders to recognize the pivotal role religious convictions play in foreign relations. As a Roman Catholic with Jewish-Holocaust victim roots, she has helped shape the thinking of today’s Democratic Party. However, she respectfully outlines contrary viewpoints as well. A great read.
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, by Malcolm Gladwell. New York: Back Bay Press, 2002. 304 pp.
At a time of rapid change in our culture, what is it that makes some churches surge in growth and impact, while others feel stalemated? How does one publication expand exponentially while others go out of business? Gladwell introduces the notion of “social epidemic” to explain how these phenomena occur. His insights help us to consider how we as leaders can foster ministry that affects those around us.
Jan Ross, retired English teacher and avid reader, Raleigh, North Carolina:
Deafening, by Frances Itani. New York: Grove Press, 2003. 378 pp.
Itani tells the intriguing and powerful story of Grania, a Canadian child who goes deaf in 1902 at the age of five. Grania attends a school for the deaf, learns to function in the hearing world, falls in love with a hearing man, and then watches and waits as he departs for Europe to serve as a stretcher bearer during World War I. In exceptional writing, the author explores a number of themes (deafness, hearing, language, communication, war, family, love, the power of storytelling, suffering).
The Master, by Colm TóibÃn. New York: Scribner, 2004. 338 pp.
Irish author TóibÃn takes on the persona of the writer Henry James and leads readers into the mind of James and the world he inhabits from 1895-1899.
44 Scotland Street, by Alexander McCall-Smith. New York: Anchor Books, 2005. 325 pp.
Written by the creator of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (and Botswana detective Mma. Ramotswe), this amusing yet serious novel was originally serialized daily in a Scottish newspaper. Set in Edinburgh, the story introduces colorful characters living at 44 Scotland Street and then follows their lives in short, episodic chapters.
Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005. 382 pp.
Now 91 years old, Franklin is a distinguished writer, scholar, public servant, and speaker. As he tells his life story, Franklin enables readers to see and understand the life of a gifted and exceptional man who has faced enormous challenges in a society marked by issues of race.
