Tag: book

re: How M. Scott Peck saved my life

Finished Not the Religious Type last week.

My friends are going to hate hearing the stuff that I too to heart from this book. 🙂

Stage 1,2,3,4…

Bounded sets and centered sets…

Living a life where we daily listen to God…

Great stuff!

If you’ve got time today, the author of Not the Religious Type Dave Schmelzer will be chatting online at Abunga.com about his book and views on religion both as a pastor and former atheist today, Oct. 29, from 2-3 p.m. EDT for anyone who wants to join in.

The chat will be held at Abunga.com/AuthorsAtAbunga. More details are available in our news release at: http://alrcnewskitchen.com/abunga/docs/flash/081023_dave_schmelzer.htm.

I also understand that the chat will be archived so folks like me who have to work during that time can check it out at a later point. And… I’m hoping to chat with David in the next week or so for an upcoming episode of the something beautiful podcast.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Book review :: Through the Storm

I finished reading Lynne Spears book, “Through the Storm” a couple weeks ago. I posted a review of it on Facebook, but got busy and forgot to post one here.

While “celebrity autobiographies” aren’t something I’d normally pick up and read for myself, I did find myself enjoying the book and I kept coming back to it to continue reading Lynne’s story.

As I read it, I did feel like the book and the stories it contains do tend to jump around a bit but it was a good easy read and I finished it rather quickly.

One quote in particular stood out to me in beginning of the book and stuck with me throughout. Spears tells the story of her father giving respect to a man that she didn’t exactly think deserved it – but her father responded, “He’s had a hard life.” He then continued with his point that when we take the time to understand where people have come from we’ll have a much better understanding of them and be able to extend grace and mercy a lot easier.

Thought that was a great explanation of this book.

When you understand where Lynne and her family (including her 2 celebrity girls) are coming from you naturally get a better picture of how they got to where they are.

As someone else pointed out on Facebook, Lynn’s “father was an alcoholic, she killed a little boy with her car and her mother was a straight-up Londoner.”

You don’t get these background stories in reading the tabloid headlines. You don’t see how faith has impacted Spear’s family (and or hasn’t impacted some of the family).

These background stories go beyond the tabloid headlines, beyond the paparazzi (which you can quickly tell Spears has absolutely no love for), and beyond the basic surface story we hear so many times.

Throughout the book Spears often spends time explaining her mindset while things around her occurred — especially in relation to the careers of her two celebrity daughters. Sometimes she admits the decisions were not the best and other times she still holds to the decisions. Like anyone’s story, it will be up to the reader to cast (or withhold) their own judgement.

Overall, I was glad I had the chance to read it. I’ll be passing my copy along to my mom next time I see her. And I hope that if nothing else, it helps me extend grace to others a lot quicker as well.

For added insight, take a moment to read why Thomas Nelson decided to publish this book.

For Young Men Only – a guy’s guide to the alien gender

Well I just finished reading “For Young Men Only – a guy’s guide to the alien gender.” Probably not something I would have picked up and read for myself (being 29 years of age) but a surprisingly good read none the less.

The authors, Jeff Feildhahn and Eric Rice do a great job in covering many of the boyhood (and often manhood) misconceptions of “the alien gender.”

While I enjoyed reading both For Men Only and For Women Only, I honestly expected this book (which is naturally geared more towards high schoolers — and the fourth in the “Only” series) to be either way too informative or on the cheesy side of entertaining – but the book does a great job of avoiding both extremes. Throughout the book, both Eric and Jeff share spot-on illustrations from their own lives and interjected relevant ideas and situations for high-schoolers that kept me interested and believing what they had to tell me.

However, don’t expect this book to be a “how-to” or DIY type of dating book. Like the other books in the series, it’s really about debunking the common misconceptions guys (including myself) have about that “mysterious other sex.”

Including ::

  • Girls only go for the good looking Abercrombie guys
  • Girls only like bad boys
  • Girls never make sense (still not sure this is really a misconception ;-))
  • Girls go from “love” to “get lost” in seconds flat
  • and others…

Perhaps if my friends and I had this book many moons ago, we would have had a completely different understanding of young women and written a lot less goofy stories, poems and songs about misunderstanding them — along with saving us a lot of heartache along the way.

If nothing else, the book will be a great resource to start a discussion between you and the young men in your life.

Two new books for review


Two new books for review
Originally uploaded by Jonathan D. Blundell.

Got both of these books in the mail today – I’m assuming for review.

“Not the Religious Type” by Dave Schmelzer and
“If God Disappears” by David Sanford

Usually there’s some sort of paperwork or note attached to books I get but I haven’t seen one in this package yet. Oh well – look forward to reading both of them either way.

the great emergence conference

Plans have been made for the Great Emergence Conference to take place in Memphis this coming Dec.

The book is based around Phyllis Tickle’s upcoming book by the same name.

The Great Emergence National Event is a unique and freshly designed event built on innovative adult learning techniques including interaction, participation, and inspiring content on the current state of and future possibilities for Christianity.

Around the four main sessions with Phyllis Tickle, participants will also enjoy the daily office — thrice daily times of prayer — based on Phyllis Tickle’s bestselling book, The Divine Hours, in the majestic and historic Cathedral of St. Mary in Memphis, Tennessee, which will be bedecked with Advent greenery.

Memphis and St. Mary’s Cathedral hold a pivotal place in American history. Memphis was the scene of much racial strife during the Civil Rights Movement, culminating with the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968. The next day, hoping to quell a burgeoning riot, many of the city’s pastors, priests, and rabbis gathered at the Cathedral. In an impromptu move, the dean of the Cathedral took the processional cross from the church’s altar and led a procession of the city’s clergy down Poplar Avenue to city hall, where they petitioned the mayor to end the sanitation strike that King was in town to protest. As an important location of the emergence of civil rights in 20th century America, Memphis and the Cathedral are a poignant place to discuss the emergence of the church in the 21st century.

Along with Tickle, a number of folks will be hosting workshops during the event (I think half of them have been on the Homebrewed Christianity podcast)::

Tony Jones, national coordinator of Emergent Village and author of The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier

Doug Pagitt, founder and pastor of Solomon’s Porch (Minneapolis, Minnesota) and author of A Christianity Worth Believing: Hope-Filled, Open-Armed, Alive-and-Well Faith for the Left Out, Left Behind, and Let Down in Us All

Peter Rollins, founder of ikon (Belfast, Ireland) and author of The Fidelity of Betrayal: Towards a Church Beyond Belief

J. Brent Bill, executive vice president of the Indianapolis Center for Congregations and the author of Sacred Compass: The Art of Spiritual Discernment

Lisa & Will Samson, members of Communality (Lexington, Kentucky) and co-authors of Justice in the Burbs: Being the Hands of Jesus Wherever You Live

Joseph Myers, author of Organic Community: Creating a Place Where People Naturally Connect

Tim Keel, founder and pastor of Jacob’s Well (Kansas City, Missouri) and author of Intuitive Leadership: Embracing a Paradigm of Narrative, Metaphor, and Chaos

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, co-founder of Rutba House (Durham, North Carolina) and author of New Monasticism: What It Has to Say to Today’s Church

Karen Ward, is Abbess of Church of the Apostles, Seattle, an intentional, sacramental community in the way of Jesus Christ.

Sybil MacBeth, is a mathematics instructor, a dancer, and a doodler. Her 2007 book Praying in Color: Drawing a New Path to God introduces a prayer practice that is meditative, visual, active and playful. She lives in Memphis, Tennessee with her husband, Andy, who is an Episcopal priest.

If you’re interested in going – sign up now. The cost is $145 with early registration or $195 after Nov. 5.

Register online with coupon code JBLB (won’t save you any money but if I can get 20 folks to sign-up then I’ll be able to join you there :-))

find out more at www.thegreatemergence.com