life changing reads

Have you ever read a book and knew you have to share it with the world because it was that good? This past week, I read two books which fit that scenario.




The first book was recommended to me by a couple of friends who basically told me that if I read one book this year, it should be "Three Cups of Tea". Check out the website. It is the true story of one man who decided to build a school for a small Pakistani village as a thank you to their hospitality in his time of need. That one school began a journey of building schools in the remote northern regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. He works with the villages and finds their needs for schools but also mandates that girls must be allowed to attend as educating women will create long term prosperity for the village. It is a must read. If you buy the book from the web site, funds go into building more schools. It is inspiring that one man can truly make change in our world...and it poses the question of "how can I as one person change my world?"



The second book came from a chance encounter between me and the book while I was at the library last weekend. As some of you know, I have been struggling for a while about the way church is done and have been wrestling with what it means to be a Christian in my world. The book I read is called "A New Kind of Christian" by Brian MacLaren. For the past few years, the term post-modern has been part of my vocabulary but I didn't realize that my struggle with how to live my faith came from a conflict between my post-modern thinking and the very modern way I had been taught Christianity. While reading this book, I felt like I found a voice which articulated my questions. Although some of it made me slightly uncomfortable and I didn't agree with everything, I realized that it is important to question the whys of how I live out my faith in Jesus. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to share Jesus in a very real way to those in their life. It is not about the 4 steps to salvation but about dialogue, respect and allowing truth to bubble up to the surface through all the crap we put in its way.



I do want to emphasize that the title of this book is not "A NEW KIND OF CHRISTIANITY". I work with a guy who attends a legalistic church (although he wouldn't describe it as that). I mentioned this book to him and suggested he read it. He replied that he doesn't want to read anything about altering Christianity. I called him on that...it is not a new faith but a new way to live out our faith as a follower of Jesus in the post-modern society we live in. Sometimes I think people are scared to look at new ideas about faith because the way they have done things for their whole life is safe, secure and not subject to questions without answers.