Author: revkevjr

Healthy churches also plateau, decline, and receive pruning from God’s hand. Read this insightful article.

I could really identify with this article and it really encouraged in my 10th year of full-time youth ministry.

“I was in my late 20s when I attended my first National Youth Workers Convention. Everyone there looked as if he or she was 20-something.

“No longer. The heads in the last few youth ministry conventions I’ve attended have been looking a lot grayer; or maybe I’m just aware of them now, having aged with them. Read the full article here.

“There is a great difference between successfulness and fruitfulness. Success comes from strength, control, and respectability. A successful person has the energy to create something, to keep control over its development, and to make it available in large quantities. Success brings many rewards and often fame. Fruits, however, come from weakness and vulnerability. And fruits are unique. A child is the fruit conceived in vulnerability, community is the fruit born through shared brokenness, and intimacy is the fruit that grows through touching one another’s wounds. Let’s remind one another that what brings us true joy is not successfulness but fruitfulness.” (Nouwen, Henri J.M. Bread for the Journey)

1. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
2. A Passion for Souls: The Life of D.L. Moody by Lyle W. Dorsett
3. Adam by Henri Nouwen
4. Amish Grace by Donald B. Kraybill, Steven M. Nolt, & David L. Weaver-Zercher
5. Angels & Demons by Dan Brown
6. Bar Barakah: A Parent’s Guide to a Christian Bar Mitzvah by Craig Hill
7. Christianity Rediscovered by Vincent Donovan
8. Contemplation in a World of Action by Thomas Merton
9. Controlled Chaos: Making Sense of Junior High Ministry by Kurt Johnston
10. Counterfeit Gods by Timothy Keller
11. Daily Seedings by Ivan Q. Spencer
12. Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross
13. Freedom Behind Bars by Charles Colson
14. God’s Politics by Jim Wallis
15. Hunger for Healing: The 12 Steps as a Classic Model for Christian Spiritual Growth by J. Keith Miller
16. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
17. John Calvin: Father of Reformed Theology
18. Just Walk Across The Room by Bill Hybles
19. Knowing God by J.I. Packer
20. Life Without Limits by Nick Vujicic
21. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
22. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive & Others Die by Chip Heath & Dan Heath
23. Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition by Christine D. Pohl
24. Making Sense of Church by Spencer Burke
25. Nancy Drew: The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene (Reading to my daughters, OK! lol!)
26. Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
27. Radical Grace: Daily Meditations by Richard Rohr
28. Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas
29. Shepherding a Child’s Heart by Tedd Tripp
30. Simplicity by Richard Rohr
31. Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef
32. Spiritual Classics by Richard Foster
33. Suffering Loss by Stacy Cline
34. Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright
35. The Art of Conversation by Catherine Blyth
36. The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus
37. The Land of Far Beyond by Enid Blyton
38. The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis
39. The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
40. The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis
41. The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
42. The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
43. The Rule of Saint Benedict by St. Benedict, Edited by Timothy Fry
44. The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
45. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
46. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
47. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
48. Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion & Truth in the Immigration Debate by Matthew Soerens & Jenny Hwang
49. Wired for Intimacy by William M. Struthers