I love the quote from George R.R. Martin in his book A Dance with Dragons. One of the characters says, “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.” Someone else once told me that reading is an act of love. While reading we are listening to one man or woman’s story, thoughts, perspectives, hopes, dreams, fears, ideas, and anecdotes for hours on end. We let them have the floor. Theirs is the only voice we hear. And we don’t talk back. (Well, some of us do talk back to our books…just be careful doing that in public.) We surrender our right to be heard in order to truly listen to the other. We give them our full mental capacity and concentration. Many of us even experience the real world grow more distant as we follow the author into the world inside their head.

It breaks my heart to hear about people who never read. We’ve probably all seen the statistics. A very large percentage of the adult population never reads a book again after college. I would gather that a large percentage never even read a full book throughout their high school or college careers. What a shame.

Anyway, I refuse to be one of those people. Several years ago I set a goal for myself to read at least 2 books a month. I have kept that goal going every year since. Some years I have read way more than that. Other years, I’m barely at my quota. 2016 was not a big reading year for me. But I did manage to read more than 2 books per month. My wife puts me to shame on this, but she is a much faster reader than I am, so….yeah.

Here is a list of the books I read last year in order of completion. Some were great. Others not so much. A few were life-changing. Others were rather forgettable. Regardless, we become the sum total of the stories we experience.

1. The Day I Met Jesus, by Frank Viola and Mary Demuth
2. Man of God, by Charles Stanley
3. How to Start a Riot, by Jonathan Storment
4. More or Less, by Jeff Shinabarger
5. God’s Pursuit of Man, by A.W. Tozer
6. Magnus Chase: The Sword of Summer, by Rick Riordan
7. Taking Theology to Youth Ministry, by Andrew Root
8. Jesus > Religion, by Jefferson Bethke
9. An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green
10. King of Thorns, by Mark Lawrence
11. Emperor of Thorns, by Mark Lawrence
12. Searching for Sunday, by Rachel Held Evans
13. All Is Grace: A Ragamuffin Memoir, by Brennan Manning
14. Love Does, by Bob Goff
15. Jesus Creed, by Scot McKnight
16. Accidental Saints, by Nadia Bolz-Weber
17. Paper Towns, by John Green
18. A Farewell to Mars, by Brian Zahnd
19. Deeply Odd, by Dean Koontz
20. The Ranger’s Apprentice: The Ruins of Golan, by John Flanagan
21. The Ranger’s Apprentice: The Burning Bridge, by John Flanagan
22. Finding God in the Waves, by Mike McHargue
23. Saint Odd, by Dean Koontz
24. The Road Back to You, by Ian Cron and Suzanne Stabile
25. Magnus Chase: Thor’s Hammer, by Rick Riodan
26. The Trials of Apollo, by Rick Riordan
27. Steal Like an Artist, by Austin Kleon
28. The Deborah Club, by D.W. Pierce
29. The Bible Tells Me So, by Peter Enns

FAVORITE BOOKS I READ IN 2016

–Fiction–

–Non-Fiction–

Some books I look forward to reading (or am currently working on) this year: 

The National Conference on Youth Ministries got underway today in Daytona Beach, FL. The theme this year is “CREATE.” Youth ministry should be inherently creative. More than some other ministries, we have creative freedom to reach as many teenagers as possible. I’m looking forward to what the week has to offer.

As we got started, Luke Norsworthy of the Westover Church of Christ presented the opening keynote. To be honest, his message was a punch to the gut. I’m one of those people who feels the need to achieve my goals, to appear successful, to impress others with my skills and knowledge. When things go wrong or when people don’t respond how I think they should, I take it very personally.

Luke challenged us to minister out of our own God-given significance. It’s not a pursuit of status. We already have status. We are children of God. God loves us and is pleased with us before we ever do anything to deserve it.

He pointed us to the baptism of Jesus. During that sacred moment, God’s voice boomed from heaven, “This is my son whom I love. With him I am well pleased.”

But do we realize that God said this before Jesus ever preached a sermon, performed a miracle, or began his ministry?

Jesus didn’t have to do anything to earn God’s love or favor. Jesus had God’s love and favor already because he was God’s son. Period.

My own boys don’t need to do anything to earn my love or my favor or my pride in them. They already have it. They’re my sons, whom I love. With them I am well pleased.

And we are God’s sons and daughters, whom God loves and is well pleased.

Yet here we are, constantly thinking we have to perform in order to earn God’s love and grace. And ministers are by no means immune to this tendency. In fact, I would argue that ministers are probably more susceptible to this than others. We may begin our ministry careers with the right motives. But then the compliments roll in, the pats on the back keep coming, the number of those in our care increases, and our ego gets fed. We begin to connect our own self-worth to our success, and it feels good.

Really good.

Until it doesn’t.

This can’t last. It’s not a sustainable source of self-worth for ministers or anyone else. Because the success will eventually turn to failure. Attendance will drop. Compliments will be replaced by criticisms. And if our self-worth is tied to success, we can take these failures as personal attacks.

Speaking from experience, this is not a fun or fulfilling way to live.

Luke challenged us, “When you learn to live out of your God-given significance, everything changes. The voice that says, ‘You are my beloved,’ will be enough.”

Then we will be free to create, innovate, and grow in ways we never through possible.