Get your free copy of Andy Root’s “Relationships Unfiltered”
July 26th, 2010 | 
A quick message from Andrew Root:
Hello Youth Ministry friends, I’m sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled blog reading, but I have broken transmission to offer you an opportunity.
I wanted to get before you the chance to get a free copy of my book Relationships Unfiltered. As the new school year approaches and you think about volunteer leader meetings and trainings I would like to suggest you take a look at Relationships Unfiltered. It’s written just for this setting with discussion questions and chapters filled with illustrations and stories–but also promises to get you and your team thinking theologically about your core practice this coming school year: forming relationships with young people.
Here’s what I can do: If you’ll email me I’ll send you a free copy of the book so you can look it over and decide if it would be of help to you and your volunteers. If you’re interested in using it you can then go to Zondervan.com or Zondervan.com/ministry and type in the code 980752 in the “source code” box. Starting August 1 this will give you a 40% discount on as many books as you’d like.
And I’ll also offer this, if you do use the book with your team, I’m willing to do a select number of Skype or iChat conversations with you and your team after getting through the book.
If you’re in youth ministry and don’t already own Relationships Unfiltered, you’d be a fool not to accept this offer.
I’ve written previously about the book here (which includes a nice little video) and had the opportunity to interview Dr. Root, which you can listen to here.
Books I read in 2009
My library grows faster than my stack of completed books, a “problem” that I attempted to remedy once with the 30 pages per day project. I doubt I averaged 30 pages per day, but I knocked plenty of books off the list in 2009. Here they are:
I’m currently reading Frederich Buechner’s Godric, which I hope to finish before the year is out. I should also mention that I’m 130 pages into Ched Myers’ momentous Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus for a weekly personal study with @bmick. At ten pages/week, we should finish it before the end of 2010.1
- Pronounced “twenty ten”, FYI. ↩
- James K.A. Smith’s advice on establishing a practice of reading: “Keep books in every room of the house. Pile them up on the end table or nightstand or back of the toilet. Have the books there, staring at you, inviting you, wooing you, calling to you, shaming you. Keep bumping into them. Pick them up and look at them. And even if you have a first job, resist signing up for cable and spend the end of each day reading. Then find a friend who loves to read (and, if possible, a spouse) and talk about books.” 09/01/2009
Andrew Root’s new book, “Relationships Unfiltered”
| Relationships Unfiltered: Help for Youth Workers, Volunteers, and Parents on Creating Authentic Relationships |  |
Last week I shared a quote from Andrew Root’s book “Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry” (RRYM) and added, “for my money [it] is the absolute best youth ministry book out there right now.”
Good news: He’s got a new book coming out on September 1 titled Relationships Unfiltered: Help for Youth Workers, Volunteers, and Parents on Creating Authentic Relationships. It looks to me like Relationships Unfiltered will be two things: 1) a more accessible version of RRYM, which leaned heavily on the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer; and 2) an answer to the question that all youth ministry leaders want: “How!?” (Root does answer the “how” question in RRYM, but Relationships Unfiltered seems aimed solely at that point).
If you’ve never read any of Root’s material, here’s a quick YouTube video of him explaining the “third way” (and if you’re hungry for more after that, the full interview is available here):
Dr. Root has graciously agreed to an interview on this blog, which I’ll post as soon as I finish the book and write some questions. If YOU have any questions for him, leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do!
David Foster Wallace on self-centeredness
Poignant words from the late David Foster Wallace:1
A huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong and deluded. Here’s one example of the utter wrongness of something I tend to be automatically sure of: Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence. We rarely talk about this sort of natural, basic self-centeredness, because it’s so socially repulsive, but it’s pretty much the same for all of us, deep down. It is our default-setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth. Think about it: There is no experience you’ve had that you were not at the absolute center of. The world as you experience it is right there in front of you, or behind you, to the left or right of you, on your TV, or your monitor, or whatever. Other people’s thoughts and feelings have to be communicated to you somehow, but your own are so immediate, urgent, real — you get the idea. But please don’t worry that I’m getting ready to preach to you about compassion or other-directedness or the so-called “virtues.” This is not a matter of virtue — it’s a matter of my choosing to do the work of somehow altering or getting free of my natural, hard-wired default-setting, which is to be deeply and literally self-centered, and to see and interpret everything through this lens of self.
People who can adjust their natural default-setting this way are often described as being “well adjusted,” which I suggest to you is not an accidental term.
May we all learn to be “well-adjusted”.
HT: Andrew Sullivan, via Frank Wilson.
- Image pictured is David Foster Wallace, courtesy of Steve Rhodes. ↩
- The World is Flat author Thomas Friedman’s new book is titled Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution — and How It Can Renew America. The Huffington Post has the roundup and some videos. “The book’s main argument is that the convergence of global warming, global flattening (the rise of middle classes all over the world), and global crowding (the population boom) is driving five key trends that will define the 21st century. Friedman argues that those five trends — energy and resource supply and demand, petro-dictatorship, biodiversity loss, climate change, and energy poverty — have all been driven past a tipping point such that they have created a new era of history: the energy climate era.” BONUS: From now until August 4, you can download The World is Flat audiobook in it’s entirety for free at Friedman’s website (it’s a hefty $39 on iTunes)! 07/26/2008
Interview with Michael Kelly, author of “The Tough Sayings of Jesus II”
I was recently given the opportunity to read and review a new curriculum put out by LifeWay called The Tough Sayings of Jesus II. The ‘Leader Kit’ that I received comes with a CD containing music that accompanies the curriculum, and a DVD with a bunch of great videos as well. I can personally vouch for the quality of the curriculum; not just because I received it as a gift, but because I think highly enough of it to use it next school year with my youth group.
Below you’ll find an unedited interview with the author of the curriculum, Michael Kelly. My questions will appear in italics. Thanks to both Michael and Bill Seaver for the opportunity.
JAKE BOUMA: Thanks for the interview opportunity, Michael. I loved this book, and plan on using it next school year with my own students. Anywho, could you give the readers a bit of background about yourself?
MICHAEL KELLY: Glad to hear it, Jake. Me – I grew up in Texas where my parents still live and I met and married my wife. We moved from Canyon, TX to Birmingham, AL where I went to Beeson Divinity School. After that we moved to Nashville where I am now as a writer and editor. In the meantime, we had 2 kiddos – Joshua, 4, and Andi, 1.
JAKE BOUMA: What was the impetus for this particular curriculum?
MICHAEL KELLY: It’s interesting to me how many times in my church experience that I’ve heard sermon series that skip or gloss over some of the difficult passages of Scripture. Like how many times have I heard that we’re doing a sketch of Romans, and we hear a talk about the victory of Romans 8 and then I turn around and we’re offering our bodies as living sacrifices in Romans 12? What? It’s like Paul didn’t intend to write those 3 chapters in between. Same thing with the gospels I think. We like a picture of Jesus where among other things, He’s “nice.” So we gravitate towards those passages. But that leaves us with an incomplete and mishapen view of Jesus and doesn’t allow us to examine the fullness of what He taught and lived. So I wanted to write something that engaged people at alot of levels – emotionally, intellectually, as well as spiritually.
JAKE BOUMA: I’m currently reading Dallas Willard’s “The Divine Conspiracy”, and in it he says, “Strangely, we seem prepared to learn how to live from almost anyone but him [Jesus]. We are ready to believe that the ‘latest studies’ have more to teach us about love and sex than he does, and that Louis Rukeyser knows more about finances.” What I appreciate about this curriculum is that it doesn’t fall into this trap. What lead you to believe that the sayings of Jesus DO teach us how to live?
MICHAEL KELLY: Kudos to you for reading Dallas – one of my favorites. I appreciate you saying TS doesn’t fall into that category. I think for Jesus, every moment was spiritual. It seems to me that one of the things He continually tried to emphasize was that every moment is truly a “God” moment when you are walking with the Lord. So I think the distinction we draw between “theology” and “application” is laughable to Jesus in some ways – what is theology if it’s not applied? And what can truly be applied that is not theological? So Jesus has much to say about recognizing the “God-ness” of ordinary moments in time.
JAKE BOUMA: Do you think that youth are in some ways more receptive to hearing the message of this book? Why or why not?
MICHAEL KELLY: I think as a whole emerging generations want the unbiased and unapologetic truth, so Jesus is a natural fit, when we indeed embrace everything He has to say. People everywhere, students especially, want a faith that engages their whole person. I believe people will rise to that challenge.
JAKE BOUMA: Did students play any role in the process of writing/editing the curriculum?
MICHAEL KELLY: I do speak at a number of retreats and conferences throughout the year, and one of my favorite and most challenging parts is engaging in discussion with the folks who are there. Listening to people talk you get the sense that they aren’t just looking for behaviorism; they’re really searching for a deeper walk with Christ. That encouraged me a great deal to try and write for that kind of reader.
JAKE BOUMA: I enjoyed your movie metaphor, where you talked about how many leads in contemporary movies are morally ambiguous. Can you unpack this for the readers and its implications in ministry?
MICHAEL KELLY: Sure – I think I mention Superman in the book, and superheroes are a good example of this. The first Superman movies showed a hero without flaws. He always did the right thing; always knew what that was. But since some superhero movies have been relaunched, like Batman or Ironman for example, you see the good and the bad of the hero. They’re still the hero, the protagonist, but you watch them struggle with their actions. You see the humanness to them. Another good example of this is the biopic genre of movies, in which the protagonist is revealed to have flaws just like everyone else. It’s an interesting comment on culture and its leanings I think in both a good and bad way. The good is its more authentic. And in some ways, more biblical. The Bible doesn’t hold up people as perfect; we bear witness to their sin as well as their faith. But it might be bad because it’s reflective of the idea that there really are no good guys any more, because there really is no good or bad any more; it’s all relative.
JAKE BOUMA: Finally, what’s next on your plate? Any forthcoming books or projects you’re working on? Feel free to shamelessly plug anything! Thanks again for taking the time to answer some questions for the readers.
MICHAEL KELLY: Just a few things – Still travel to do speaking gigs, and am working on a deal to take Tough Sayings I and Tough Sayings II and put them together into a tradebook for more wide distribution. Hopefully that’s going to happen soon.
The Divine Conspiracy
I’ve been meaning to read Dallas Willard’s The Divine Conspiracy for a while, and I finally started reading it about a week ago. The book has been amazing so far, but chapter two, entitled Gospels of Sin Management, has absolutely blown my mind. Rather than blabbing on about it, I’m just going to post a few extended quotes that rocked my world. Enjoy.
“We get a totally different picture of salvation, faith, and forgiveness if we regard having life from kingdom of the heavens now — the eternal kind of life — as the target. The words and acts of Jesus naturally suggest that this is indeed salvation, with discipleship, forgiveness, and heaven to come as natural parts. And in this he only continues the teachings of the Old Testament. The entire biblical tradition from beginning to end is one of the intimate involvement of God in human life — or else alienation from it. That is the biblical alternative for life now.”1
“The sensed irrelevance of what God is doing to what makes up our lives is the foundational flaw in the existence of multitudes of professing Christians today. They have been led to believe that God, for some unfathomable reason, just thinks it appropriate to transfer credit from Christ’s merit account to ours, and to wipe out our sin debt, upon inspecting our mind and finding what we believe to be a particular theory of the atonement to be true — even if we trust everything but God in all other manners that concern us.”2
“Strangely, we seem prepared to learn how to live from almost anyone but him [Jesus]. We are ready to believe that the ‘latest studies’ have more to teach us about love and sex than he does, and that Louis Rukeyser knows more about finances… Where we spontaneously look for ‘information’ on how to live shows how we truly feel and who we really have confidence in. And nothing more forcibly demonstrates the extent to which we automatically assume the irrelevance of Jesus as teacher for our ‘real’ lives… We do not seriously consider Jesus as our teacher on how to live, hence we cannot think of ourselves, in our moment-to-moment existence, as his students or disciples. So we turn to popular speakers and writers, some Christians and some not — whoever happens to be writing books and running talk shows and seminars on matters that concern us.”3
“We who profess Christianity will believe what is constantly presented to us as gospel… And those in the wider world who reject those gospels will believe that what they have rejected is the gospel of Jesus Christ himself — when, in fact, they haven’t yet heard it.”4
There you have it. Chew on those quotes for a while… I have been for the past several days. What are your initial thoughts? Drop a comment and let me know. Also, has anybody else read the book? Is the rest of the book as amazing as the first two chapters?
- Willard, Dallas. The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1998. 47. ↩
- Ibid., 49. ↩
- Ibid., 55-57. ↩
- Ibid., 58. ↩
- I have been a fan of the ESV bible translation for a long time, which is why I’m pumped for the release of the ESV Study Bible later this year. Download the Introduction to the Gospel of Luke (PDF, 1.1mb) and see for yourself. More samples. (ht: ESV Bible Blog) 05/15/2008
Toilet theology
When I was growing up, a few things were consistent: Velveeta® Shells and Cheese, quiet tables, and Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.
The Bathroom Reader series is designed specifically with reading while sitting on the toilet in mind. According to the Wikipedia article, “Their volumes contain information on subjects such as quotes, dumb criminals, palindromes, anagrams, urban legends and hoaxes, failed inventions, the history of everyday things, and accidental discoveries, as well as articles on pop culture and ‘celebrities’… Throughout the books, there are what the BRI calls ‘running feet’ — short fun facts on the bottom of each page.”
All of this is to say that I was conditioned from a young age to read in the restroom. I don’t remember too much religion or theology in the Bathroom Readers, but that’s where A Theological Miscellany: 176 Pages of Odd, Merry, Essentially Inessential Facts, Figures, and Tidbits about Christianity comes in.
A Theological Miscellany is the perfect theological commode companion. Among the “176 Pages of odd, merry, essentially inessential facts, figures, and tidbits about Christianity”, you’ll find Famous Physically Disabled or Handicapped Christians, Church Announcement “Bloopers”, and Reformers Before the Reformation, among many others. I picked up my copy at Half Price Books for a scant $4.
If you can’t go number two without reading about the Holy One, this is the book for you. Plus, it’ll surely start some conversations when you have guests over.
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