can·on (noun): a sanctioned or accepted group or body of related works. [the canon of great literature]
, an "online Christian resource for dialogue, interaction and opinion about... the postmodern era; as well as the subsequent rise of the emergent church," is publishing a list of books to include in a 'postmodern canon' (one page says it will be 50 books, another says 40). They just published of the series, which contains books 16-20.
I've read at least one book in each of the four sections so far. Those books are Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren, The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller, and God's Politics by Jim Wallis.
I really want to read a few of the books on that list, like Stanley Grenz's A Primer on Postmodernism (I added it to my a few days ago), but I've got a lot more first.
It's one of my favorite times of year: March Madness. Before writing this post, I thought I'd look back and see what looked like, and it's pretty much the same.
More or less, I need to make three points:
I love college basketball .
Last year I got 2nd place out of 19 in my school pool. This year there are 24 entrants. I also joined a pool with people from Valley Church.
When I was younger, my mom bought a shirt at the Mall of America that says "So many books... so little time." For her, it has always been true. In her room is a constantly rotating stack of books waiting to be read. I didn't really start reading books until I got to college - thanks to Harry Potter - and now I have fallen victim to the same clever phrase.
See the original, full-sized photo .
A couple of the books are ones that I am required to read for class but I would read on my own anyway, and the others are ones that I want to read soon. for a bigger picture and details on all of the books listed. I am in the middle of reading "To Own a Dragon," the third one from the top.
It took me a while, but I finally fixed one of the big visual problems plaguing my site. The comment section. I wasn't pleased with the way it looked in the new layout, so last night I totally redesigned it. In addition, I created a new header image, which is a picture taken while drving to Luther on Interstate-35 North. Looks like spring is not so far away.
Another thing: I was going to post this a few days ago, but I forgot. I was mentioned in an article in Luther's weekly newspaper, Chips. You can read it (don't mind the huge, atrocious picture of me in the middle).
Being home, attending Valley Church and its new(ish) college ministry, and conversing with/ listening to Tony Jones was amazing.
Sunday night, he to the church's high school group about humanizing versus objectifying people.
Monday, however, was where it was at. Tony spoke to and fielded questions from a small group of area youth pastors and volunteers for nearly three hours on Monday morning. Topics ranged from Tony's life story to postmodernity to theology of the cross to the emerging church to methodology (how to "do" youth ministry).
There's really no way I could sum up everything here, but I did take notes (unfortunately, the conversation was not recorded). If you're up to trying to decipher my notes, you can download them here (in Rich Text Format). Some of it probably won't make sense out of context, and if I had more time on my hands, I would annotate the notes but that's just not an option at the moment.
Thanks to Brandon Barker for having the courage to invite Tony into your house and church, and thanks to Tony Jones for having the courage to rethink important Christian issues and talk openly about them.
I am in Des Moines today and tomorrow. I came home to attend a mini-conference (edit: at Valley Church... no, I'm not embarassed) led by , the newly appointed National Coordinator for . Tony has penned five books to date, including Postmodern Youth Ministry and The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life.
Tonight he is speaking to my youth group, and tomorrow morning he is leading a forum for youth pastors and workers. I plan on taking notes and (maybe) posting them here when I get back.
JakeBouma.com is a weblog maintained since 2005 by Jake Bouma, an ecclesial junkie and (imprudently) aspiring polymath who was recently diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma.
