Thinkers Holding Court in My Head

Here’s quick list of some thinkers, artists, thinking artists, and artistic thinkers that have been holding court in my head this Fall.

Kem Meyer: (http://www.kemmeyer.typepad.com/) I’ve been in ministry long enough to have accumulated ministry paradigms that are not defunct. My ideas on marketing and promotion fall in that category.  I grew up on the old Guerrilla Marketing model. The goal of the old model was to press your message in the consumers face until they took notice. Decades later, said consumer takes in 3,000 consumer advertisements a day and has gone numb. Kem presents a counter approach in her book “Less Clutter, Less Noise.” I don’t pretend to understand it yet. I’m still learning. Thank @daniellesuzanne for turning me on to her. (She’s our church communications director. My hope is to get my thinking aligned to hers ASAP. This book is a step in that direction.

N.T. Wright: The Bishop has rearranging some of my theological furniture in the past three years. His book “The Last Word” has expanded my views on Biblical authority (The Bible is authoritative because it demands we find our place in the narrative/history). I’m currently wrestling with the book Justification which presents an alternate way of understanding the doctrine of justification. I understand the controversy between he and Dr. Piper.  I haven’t landed intellectually yet, but I will say that Wright is no heretic. He might not be correct. But he’s with in Christian orthodoxy. And I would pay good money to take a class from him.

Susan E. Isaacs: (http://www.susanisaacs.net/) Susan is an actor, comedian, and now a brilliant writer. She’s a fellow contributor to the Burnside Writers Collective. Susan has been a generous mentor and pointed me in the right direction with some books on plot and structure. Her book, Angry Conversations with God recently was recognized by Publishers Weekly as one of the best religion books of 2009.

Donald Miller: (https://donmilleris.com) Don is a brilliant writer whose writing, I think, may become lasting in American culture. His book a Million Miles is influencing how I’m thinking about spiritual formation. My church is in the middle of rethinking this also. Don idea editing your life could provide the framework for spiritual mentors or directors. I’m becoming convinced that one of the biggest sins the church at large commits is not fueling the personal ambitions of is members, or when it does, the church teaches people to have “institutionalized dreams. We inspire people to help run the machinery of the church. We be better served helping people awaken their God shaped dreams.

Thom and Joani Schultz: (www.group.com)I’m re-reading the Dirt on Learning. It’s out of print but I bet you could scrounge a copy on e-bay. This is the Bible on brain-based learning about how it applies to learning in the church. I read this as a rookie pastor and it still has currency today.