The End of Memory

The End of Memory - Miroslav Volf

Just finished this on the plane to Illinois last week and this is a phenomenal read! Miroslav Volf sheds light on what it means to remember wrongs done to us and by us rightly and uses his own experience of being interrogated as a potential spy for about a year using psychological methods to break him down. How does memory of wrongs shape our identity? Should memory of wrongs shape our identity? How should one remember wrongs?

Volf uses the remembrances of the Exodus and the Passion as a framework for how to remember and interacts with the thoughts of Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and Freud as he builds a case of how we as followers of Christ are to remember and how it affects our identity and actions in the present day. Fascinating book! I highly recommend it.


Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger

I read this book on the flight home from Illinois yesterday and while I agree with the basic premise of the book that simple churches are probably more effective than complex churches and will probably grow quicker I get bothered by any book in which a church is defined as successful or not by how comparable it is in structure to companies like Google or Apple. Most of the illustrations of what it means to be successful were about corporate America. That's always an easy button to push to get me uninterested in a book right away. One thing that bothers me about this book is their definition (or lack thereof) of a "vibrant church". In the study they loosely define a "vibrant" church as one that has had 10% growth three years in a row. Believe it or not, I think it is possible to be a healthy church and actually decrease in attendance in a year and still be a success! Further, I'm not sure it is possible to "clearly define" what discipleship looks like for all people. It's almost like they are taking a Wal-Mart approach to discipleship. Try to appeal to the largest crowd and make it as easy as possible to receive their religious goods. In fact, to go a little further, (despite the quote of "My yoke is easy), I don't think discipleship is simple (and I acknowledge their differentiation from easy).

The information in this book would have been adequate for an article, but I'm not sure there is enough here for a whole book. Some interesting finds but pretty predictable. Simple church structures work better than complex church structures. When the staff are all clear on the process of the church and are unified around it, the church flows smoothly and grows. People need a clear idea of the process and what success in that process looks like, etc. Most of the book is common sense although it is a nice challenge to simplify and stick with what you have determined is your process for making disciples. I'm not sure you can clearly define this process and put people through the "stages" of discipleship like this book encourages. I think it is messier than that and a little dehumanizing when your goal is to push people through stages like cattle. I was turned off by a lot of the language of this book and was not very impressed over all. Nothing all that new here.

Death by Meeting - Patrick Lencioni

I was also able to read this book on the plane on the way to Illinois. A short and entertaining read. Who knew business books could be so fun! If you hate meetings and are wondering if there is a better way to lead meetings, this would be a beneficial read for you. I don't have a lot to say about this book but I will definitely remember some of the ideas for more effective meetings when it comes to church meetings which can be the worst!

No, I'm not talking about Bob, Chris, and I's meeting! Those are always stellar of course! I've got to get to school.

As turned off as I have been with business books in the past, I enjoy the leadership "fable" genre. Instead of a book full of principles to follow it's written in a story and I can remember it.