The What’s in the Bible? DVDs are fast-paced and humorous “shows” about books of the Bible featuring “muppet quality” puppeteering, songs, and lots of great animations and illustrations. They are infused with the kind of wacky humor kids love, and parents have come to expect from the creator of VeggieTales. 

In What’s in the Bible #1, In the Beginning, kids are introduced to the Bible and Genesis by your host, Buck Denver, and his cast of friends puppet. Kids will learn about the key people in Genesis and the important lessons their stories teach us.

In What’s in the Bible #2, Let My People Go, kids are introduced to the book of Exodus: the oppression of the Israelites and the birth and rise of God’s chosen leader, Moses. The DVD also answers the question, who wrote the Bible? in a way kids can grasp.

In What’s In the Bible #3, Wanderin’ in the Desert, Buck Denver and his cast of friends take us through the next three books of the Bible—Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—helping kids understand how these books fit in with Genesis and Exodus to make up the Pentateuch and to set the stage for the trials and victories of God’s people.

$17.99 each. More DVDs to be released!

Ages 5 to 12.

Learn more at www.sundaysoftware.com/whatsinthebible

ORDER THEM NOW via our Sunday Software online order form

www.sundaysoftware.com/order.htm

(Look for them in the “Videos” section at the bottom of the form)

This is great stuff!  I’ve been watching the series in development for a year anticipating their release.

They’re going to be a BIG hit.

<>< Neil

For example, I’ve just posted about 7 books and website article I recommend for church staff in a post about Church Staff Meetings.  http://sundayresources.net/neil/2008/06/12/staff-meetings-and-staffs/

If you have read books/articles you heartily recommend, post them in a comment to me at the end of this page.  <>< Neil

This book has received a lot of press and definitely lives up to the hype. I’ve read it and had my older daughters read it. Youth groups and adult classes should read it. Pastors should read it. Parents should read it. This is one of those books you’ll be lending.

Randy is a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon who is dieing of terminal cancer. His “last lecture” has become a classic on You Tube, Oprah, and Google Video (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5700431505846055184). 

The book sums up all he has learned in his 47 years in one final lecture. The book includes most of his lecture insights, but also tells the story of how the “last lecture” came about. It’s compelling, honest and full of stories.

His terminal cancer has become a lense through which he is evaluating his life and priorities. He says that the reason he delivered the last lecture and wrote the book was to leave a record of his life and insights for  his 3 young children, so that when they grow up, they will know their father and be able to learn from him even after he’s gone.

“It’s not the things you DO in life that you will regret on your deathbed, it’s the things you did not do.”

“Follow your passion.”

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”

He talks a lot about BARRIERS, -how they challenge you and help you discover what’s most important to you. Those were some of my favorite parts of the book.

Randy grew up in the Presbyterian church.

The book is a quick read and spiritual in a non-theological way. It inspires you to consider your own legacy, and how you can create a good one!

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Here’s a link to Christianbooks.com where you can buy it…

The Last Lecture By Randy Pausch / Hyperion BooksWhat would you say if you knew you were going to die soon? What life-lessons and advice would you give? Randy Pausch, professor of Computer Science and Design at Carnegie Mellon University, asked himself this question when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. “The Last Lecture” is his answer to that question. Gathering from years of experience as a professor and mentor, Pausch gives advice on pursuing your dreams, making the most of your time and focusing on what matters. Let his last words inspire you to live more fully and embrace the time you have.

This is a personal book, a discussion of what it means to be a Christian in the 21st Century. It’s authored by one of the most interesting young and upcoming preachers in the country, Rob Bell, pastor of the Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids MI.

The title is certainly refreshing and intriguing, but he doesn’t stop there….

His take is FRESH. His vocabulary is FRESH. His honesty is FRESH. Even the layout of this book is FRESH. It reads like a series of devotionals, or talks, or sermons. Ripe with illustrations and observations from his personal life. 

Bells’ first chapter, “Velvet Elvis” restates the case for Christianity to people who don’t know it, have dismissed it, or have grown tired and stale with it. You might call it a “call to seekers,” but somehow that’s demeaning, because I’m not a seeker, and neither likely are you having found your way here to this blog, and I am uplifted by Bell’s fresh descriptions.

The title is inspired by the actual black velvet painting of Elvis he has tucked away in his basement. Whoever “painted” that picture was creating a work of art for a time and a place. That time and place have now passed. Christianity, Bell says, is a lot like that painting. It is not static and artists paint it afresh for each new generation. “Velvet Elvis” is the work of one man trying to paint his picture of what it means to follow God.

In his second chapter, Rob makes an inspired analogy of how the church and the Bible is like jumping on a trampoline. And unlike so many illustrations in other books, you know Rob really did jump on that trampoline.

Since reading the book myself (twice now), I’ve also read a few reviews of the book. Most reviews are complimentary. But there are some of the old guard theologians and pastors who don’t like how Rob writes. And I can hear a couple of STODGY PASTORS I know who would think the same thing. They’re dismissive and say he’s “writing for the Gen X” crowd (as if that’s not a good thing). Or he’s a “lightweight.” Or they’re going to poo-poo him because he looks young and “with it”  …or that he is a new breed of *sniff* evangelical. And that’s why I want to highly recommend this book to the rest of you. God is speaking through Bell with a FRESH VOICE, and fresh voices aren’t always welcome in the church, but need to be heard.  This book comes from the heart and speaks with an honest, inquisitive, and spiritual voice.

Velvet Elvis is a book for pastors, teachers, adult study groups, and young Christians and for Christians who are looking for some fresh words.

<>< Neil 
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Here’s a direct link to the book on Christianbooks.com at a great price…

Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith By Rob Bell / ZondervanWe know there’s something more. We sense it, we feel it, and we want it. But how do we find it—a spirituality that stands up to the questions of an honest, searching mind?”This book is for those who need a fresh take on Jesus and what it means for us to live the kind of life he teaches us to live,” writes Rob Bell. “This pursuit of Jesus is leading us backward as much as forward … I am learning that what seems brand new is often just the discovery of something that has been there all along—it just got lost somewhere and it needs to be picked up, dusted off, and reclaimed.” Velvet Elvis offers original and refreshingly personal perspectives on what Christianity is really about.

Here are the links to the Jesus Freak books at Christianbooks.com. Good prices too…

The author “de Talk” has several versions out. I’ve just read Martyrs and Revolutionaries.

Jesus Freaks: Martyrs By dc Talk & the Voice of the Martyrs / BethanyWith life-changing impact, dc Talk’s first book, Jesus Freaks, has captured the attention of Christians of all ages with its stories of Christian martyrs who took a stand for Christ against the culture of their day. Re-released as Jesus Freaks: Martyrs, you’ll be challenged to examine your own faith and dedication with compelling real-life stories of believers who refused to deny Jesus–even in the face of death.

Jesus Freaks Volume II: Stories of Revolutionaries Who Changed Their World Fearing God, Not Man By dc Talk / BethanyVolume II features testimonies of revolutionaries who took a stand for Christ against the culture of their day, along with new stories of martyrs through the centuries. dc Talk again challenges readers to pray for the persecuted church around the world and openly stand for Jesus.

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Jesus Freaks reminds me of one of my favorite books of this type: CONVERSIONS.  (Now retitled “Famous Conversions”) The book was written by John Mulder the president of my seminary and Hugh Kerr. It is a collection of stories about famous Christians and their conversion experiences, ie, “how they came to believe in Christ.”  Paul, Augustine, various saints, and many many famous contemporary Christians.  The variety of their ‘conversion’ experiences is what struck me. Great sermon fodder too!

BTW… Do you have your own “conversion” experience? I’ll bet you do.

One of the things I learned by reading about other people’s conversions is how often they are NOT dramatic, but rather, gradual.  …and SO gradual and undramatic that most people hesitate to call them conversion “experiences.”

And that’s a valuable insight to share with others…

 -that conversion is often a process, and not necessarily an “event.”  When I preach or talk about this subject in a conversation or classroom, invariably someone will come up to me and say, “thank you” for validating the quiet way in which God had been at work in their life.

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“Here’s a scary thought, Bill Easum the church guru and author of Unfreezing Moves, says that “churches can be healthy and growing BUT NOT FAITHFUL to CHRIST.” 

Of course it’s true… lots of movements grow, have capable leadership and happy giving members. Take the Al Quaida, for example. But being faithful to Jesus is another matter.

Unfortunately, many crummy churches use “at least we’re faithful“ as an excuse for not also being healthy and growing. (Can a church be “unhealthy AND faithful?” I think not.)

Easum writes: By what standard do we measure the effectiveness of a church? Too many people want to measure effectiveness around church health. I don’t think church health is the way to measure. A better way to measure is around faithfulness. So the question becomes, “How do you measure the faithfulness of a church?”

I measure individual faithfulness by how focused a person is on reaching the lost. I think the full circle of spiritual maturity is attained when the individual weeps over his or her city as Jesus did Jerusalem. When our people begin asking, “What can we do to reach the lost?”, you can bet spiritual maturity is growing among them.

Reaching out to the lost isn’t a program or the responsibility of a committee – it is the absolute measure of congregational and individual faithfulness.

According to Easum’s book Unfreezing Moves, the first unfreezing move a church can make is to develop a solid biblical community of faith.  Then he lists four things that this biblical community must have:

1. spiritual leaders
2. trust
3. absence of on-going conflict
4. and a desire to connect with the outside world

Unfreezing Moves will challenge your definitions.

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Tom Bandy’s book “Moving Off the Map:  A Field Guide to Changing your Congregation,”  has some great stuff in it. This book is Bandy’s answers to the questions pastors frequently him about change, such as, ”how do we get started with change?” 

His comparison of the church to how the carrier pigeon went extinct is funny and genius.  He actually goes over all the traits of carrier pigeon flocks that led to their demise as a species. He actually concludes that most pastors are “stool pigeons” (you have to see his definition to understand it). Sounds weird, but it’s really insightful.

I love his chapter titled The Collective They and Facing Church Addictions. This is dynamite stuff. The book has plenty of questions and checklists to measure your church’s situation.

To see a version of the Church Addiction test… go to http://www.strategicnetwork.org/index.php?loc=kb&view=v&id=7382&printerfriendly=Y&lang=

Unfreezing Moves Following Jesus into the Mission FieldBy Bill Easum / Abingdon PressAt the dawn of the third millennium two kinds of churches fill the Western landscape: stuck and unstuck. Most Protestant congregations are stuck in the muck and mire of their institutions with little or no movement toward joining Jesus on the mission field. To these “Controllers,” faithfulness means supporting their church and keeping it open. For churches to be faithful to their God-given mission, they need Dreamers who are freed from their slavery to their institutions, freed to live for others on the mission field, and emancipated to function in a constantly changing world. The same can be said for denominations. This book focuses on how to place disciple – making at the core of a church’s identity. He describes four spheres of congregational culture, and he shows how the Dreams can thaw their congregation by using Nine Unfreezing Moves that will unstick any church.

Moving Off The MapBy Thomas Bandy / Abingdon PressIn this book Thomas Bandy provides the “big picture” of the five stages of congregational renewal and transformation. There is a set of questions to be answered, questions that pastors and church leaders frequently ask: “Where do we begin?” and “Exactly how do we go about change?” The purpose of this book is to answer those questions. Here are powerful processes and tools to help congregations identify their strengths, weaknesses, and addictions. These processes can help a congregation shift attitudes, deepen spiritual awareness, receive biblical visions, and shape ministries for the future.

The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell was a blockbuster book several years ago. It was one of those books that MBA and Business Schools made required reading, even though it’s not really a book about business.

What is The Tipping Point about?

It’s a book about change. In particular, it’s a book that presents a new way of understanding why new things, products, and innovations happen quickly and unexpectedly.

Gladwell asks… why did crime drop so dramatically in New York City in the mid-1990’s? How does a novel written by an unknown author end up as national bestseller? Why do teens smoke in greater and greater numbers, when every single person in the country knows that cigarettes kill? Why is word-of-mouth so powerful? What makes TV shows like Sesame Street so good at teaching kids how to read? I think the answer to all those questions is the same. It’s that ideas and behavior and messages and products sometimes behave just like outbreaks of infectious disease. They are social epidemics. The Tipping Point is an examination of the social epidemics that surround us.

As human beings, we always expect everyday change to happen slowly and steadily, and for there to be some relationship between cause and effect. And when there isn’t — when crime drops dramatically in New York for no apparent reason, or when a movie made on a shoestring budget ends up making hundreds of millions of dollars — we’re surprised. Gladwell’s book says, don’t be surprised. This is the way social epidemics work. And then he goes on to describe HOW epidemics of change work.

The reason I’d like to recommend this book to church people is this:

The Tipping Point describes how mustard seeds turn into large bushes.

Gladwell believes his research into cultural epidemics can show people how to start “positive” epidemics of their own.

Each of the chapters in The Tipping Point is fascinating. In one chapter he’s describing how Hush Puppy shoes came back from the brink of extinction to become a huge fad, and then he’s describing how Big Bird and Sesame Street became a cultural force (fascinating insights).

In Chapter Two, Gladwell talks about the central role that three personality types–Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen– play in spreading change.

Quote: What makes someone a Connector? The first–and most obvious–criterion is that Connectors know lots of people. They are the kinds of people who know everyone. All of us know someone like this. But I don’t think that we spend a lot of time thinking about the importance of these kinds of people. I’m not even sure that most of us really believe that the kind of person who knows everyone really knows everyone. But they do. There is a simple way to show this.

This is a fascinating book with many insights for church leaders.

<>< Neil

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What if the history you had been taught was proven in part to be wrong?

1491 by Charles Mann shows us how wrong we have been about the real history of the Americas before Columbus got here. It blew my mind.

By some estimates, 90% of the native population in the Americas were killed by smallpox brought by Columbus within the first 100 years after his arrival. It swept down the hemisphere killling “Indians” in unprecedented numbers. Decimated, it made the conquest of the eastern seaboard and Midwest by European Americans that much easier. The depopulation and scattering largely created the nomadic plains indian culture “of western lore.” Smallpox went on to devaste the kingdoms of South America, making them easy pickings for the conquistadors.

The lastest research also shows that large areas of the Amazon basin were “terraformed” by native peoples in antiquity. They made it their garden. Yet diseases caused the large rainforest populations to collapse and it became an impenetrable jungle once again. The “primitive Amazon tribes” you studied in college? They didn’t exist in the pre-Colombian era. The Amazon basin was depopulated by disease and its remnants scattered into small hunting-gathering groups. Yet everywhere in the rainforest, biologists and botanists see evidence of centuries of terra-forming on a large scale by ancient peoples.

Why mention this book in “Sunday”resources.net? A book like this makes you wonder “what else of what we’ve been taught about history simply isn’t true -or has been misunderstood?” So many of our traditions and self-conceptions, not to mention our faith, are based on our understanding of history -both cultural and individual. 1491 is one great example of the truth being out there… we just have to go find it, try to understand it, and consider it’s implications.

My undergrade degree was in Anthropology, with a specialty in Native North American studies. Yet much of what I was taught in college about the Americas has been heavily revised since I graduated in ‘81. Indeed, much of the pre-history I was taught has been proven wrong.

As someone of native american descent (my great great grandmother), and as a descendant of Abraham, I think it is important to understand as much as we can about the real historical circumstances that have shaped our world, our politics, our beliefs, our family’s story, and our personal stories.

The book is THICK, but fascinating if you’re into real history. It’s written by a journalist who got curious about some things he was hearing and reading, and went to talk with the people working in the field. the book was a New York Times bestseller in 2006.

<>< Neil

This 2005 bestseller isn’t about economics. It’s about exploding assumptions and conventional wisdom using some economic principles and investigative techniques.  Frankly, it will blow your mind.

These subjects might seem strange to you, but the glory is in the way he DISSECTS what everyone “thought” was true, to discover the REAL reasons for the success or outcome of something.

I realize that someone looking at these chapter titles is thinking “why should I care about that!”  What you will CARE about is how these guys THINK, how they challenge assumptions in a quest for real understanding. AND you will care about the conclusions they draw about human beings, cultures, institutions, and values.

These are the guys who broke the story that CRIME in the USA declined due to the rise in the abortion rate. -A conclusion that’s now considered gospel among social scientists.  It’s chapter four in this book, and the authors discuss the ethical and societal ramifications of their conclusion.

What I love about this book is how it proves that our culture accepts many myths as facts. And how much like sheep we humans really are.

This is an amazing and wonderful book. Buechner humorously and poignantly goes A to Z through Bible characters -famous and infamous, well-known and unknown, and describes them in such as way as you might imagine they are part of your family, your neighborhood, your church. Or maybe they are you.

This is a wonderful book for all Christian readers. Excellent for teaching and sermon preparation. Quit literally, it transformed my way of looking at the people in the Bible, tattered robes, stained beards, garlic breath, sweaty brows and all. 

Quote: They weren’t a great nation yet by a long shot, but you’d never know it from the way Abraham sits enthroned there in his velvet yarmulke with several great-grandchildren on his lap and soup on his tie. Even through his thick lenses, you can read the look of faith in his eye… and more than all the kosher meals, the great achievements, and Einsteins and Kissingers, it was THAT look that God loved him for -and had chosen him for in the first place.

Quote: (speaking about David)  David said “would that I had died instead of you, O Absalom.” And he meant it. …If he could have paid the price for the boy’s betrayal, he would have paid it… If he could have given his own life to make the boy alive, he would have…. But even a king can’t do things like that. As later history was to prove, it takes God.

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Here’s a direct link to the book at Christianbooks.com at a great price….

Peculiar Treasures By Frederick Buechner / HarperOnePeculiar Treasures is the second book of Frederick Buechner’s lexical trilogy. He profiles more than 125 of the Bible’s most holy and profane people-and one whale. In his lively and witty prose, Buechner brings to life such moments from scripture as: Adam’s pangs of regret for a remembered Eden, Delilah’s last glimpse of Samson as they dragged him away, and Lazarus’s first impressions upon rising from the dead. To read Peculiar Treasures is to realize that many of these legendary figures are not who we thought they were. But they are-in their human dreams, ambitions, and imperfections-very much like us.

Go ahead, let this titled PROVOKE you. But it’s not what you think. It’s MUCH BETTER than that!

This is the first Buechner book I ever read and it turned me on to the rest of the man’s works. If I have a “theological God-father” Buechner is it.  I have to credit Dan Wessler, my Worship & Preaching professor at seminary for making this book required reading. And it’s not a “seminary book.”  It’s the kind of book EVERY pastor, DCE and adult student of the Gospel should read.

Buechner helps the reader understand how to tell the story to others, by helping us understand how the story connects to the human experience: beginning as a tragedy, moving into comedy, and giving hope like like a fairytale (in the literary definition, he iS NOT suggesting the Gospel is ‘made up’). It’s hard to describe how WONDERFULLY Buechner makes this movement work… afterall, he’s the genius…I’m just the blogger.

Quote: Telling the Truth is for the person who must pull the little cord that turns on the lectern light, must look out over the people and the silence, must begin to speak of a truth that is beyond telling.

Quote from a review: A sermon arises out of silence, and that silence is both an opportunity and a warning. An audience sits in the pews waiting, and each of those who sit there bring with them a long and complicated history. How will you reach them? How will you awaken them? “Tell them the truth,” Buechner says in this brief and powerful book. The Gospel begins here, out of this silence: “It is life with the sound turned off so that for a moment or two you can experience it not in terms of the words you make it bearable by but for the unutterable mystery that it is.” Out of this silence, he writes, the “real news comes, which is sad news before it is glad news and that is fairy tale last of all.”

Quote from the book:  If we are to say anthing that really matters to anyone, … we must address themselves to the fullness of who we are and to the emptiness too, the emptiness where grace and peace belong but mostly are not, because terrible as well as wonderful things have happened to us all.

The Rev Frederick Buechner is a prolific author of Christian books, a Presbyterian ”Thomas Merton with humor.”

See his other books recommended in this blog. They’re great.
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Here’s a direct link to the book on Christianbook.com at a great price…

Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale By Frederick Buechner / HarperOneTelling the Truth is for the preacher who must pull the little cord that turns on the lectern light, must look out over the people and the silence, must begin to speak of a truth beyond telling. It is for the woman who wants to understand how people believe what they cheerfully acknowledge is a tragic, comic fairy tale. It is for anyone who believes that faith, like art, can hold a special mirror to human experience.

Drool Warning: I love Buechner. When I was in seminary and interviewing for my first pastor job the pastor interviewing me asked me what I was reading in seminary, and I admitted I was reading books not recommended by the professors!  The pastor-interviewer asked me, “Who?” and I said “Frederick Buechner.”  ”That’s my favorite author!” he exclaimed. And we talked about Buechner the rest of the interview. Got the job too.

Wishful Thinking was the first of Buechner’s work I ever read, and I think it’s one of his best.  He goes through an ABC of theological words and ideas, and describes each one with between one to six paragraphs. Each one is a sermon quote waiting to be snatched, a excerpt to post in the newsletter. Buechner shakes the DUST off of our theological ideas and looks at them in a new way. He makes them understandable and personal. His style is infected with graciousness and profound insight.

This book was RETITLED a “Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC”  …and that’s ok. Some have called it a “dictionary” of theological terms… but that makes it sound boring, and its everything but. This is the kind of book you’ll find yourself quoting to your spouse as you’re reading it. It’s good devotional reading too. Some have compared this book and Buechner’s work on the level of CS Lewis. I think Fred is better -because he’s more modern and has a gentler soul.

Buechner is a Presbyterian minister, but don’t hold that against him. He’s as close as my denomination has to a “writing monk.”  He’s our Thomas Merton, but with a sense of humor as well as insight. Buechner’s style if to set you up with humor and clever word-smithing in order to deliver his knock-out insights.

See my other Buechner recommendations in this blog.

Buechner followed up “Wishful Thinking” with another similar book titled “Whistling in the Dark: An ABC Theologized.”  I could have been titled, “Wishful Thinking Part II” and is very good in its own right.
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Here are the links to the books on Christianbooks.com at a great price…

Wishful Thinking: A Theological Lexicon By Frederick Buechner / HarperOneIn Wishful Thinking the first book in his much-loved lexical trilogy, Frederick Buechner puts the language of God, the universe, and the human spirit under his wry linguistic microscope. In this often ironic and always keen-sighted reflections on such terms as agnostic, envy, love, and sin, he invites us to look at these everyday words in new and enlightening ways. Freshly revised and expanded for this edition, Wishful Thinking is a “beguiling” [Time] adventure in language for the restless believer, the doubter, and all who love words.

Whistling in the Dark: A Doubter’s Dictionary By Frederick Buechner / HarperSanFranciscoThis mini-dictionary, written with vintage Buechner wit and insight, is a guide to everyday words and everyday living. ”Faith is a kind of whistling in the dark, it seems to me, and these somewhat antic and most undefinitive definitions are in a way the same thing—an attempt to keep the spirits up while peering through the shadows for some glimmer of Meaning.” You’ll find his uncommon insights will both jar your mind and nourish your soul. 160 pages, softcover from HarperCollins.

Here is a short list of some books that came along at just the right time when I was young to move me in a new direction.  You might might to also read my posts about Frederick Buechner’s Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale, Wishingful Thinking, and Peculiar Treasures.

Yyou’ll also see links on this page to the books at Christianbooks.com. They have great prices.

Your God is Too Small

by J.B. Phillips

For some reason when I was 16 I snuck this book off my mom’s bookshelf and never gave it back.  I still have it because it literally changed my life and relationship with God.

This is a small but powerful book that challenges your conceptions and images of God.  J.B. Phillips describes who God ISN’T, as well as who God is. This book helped me mature beyond my child-like image of God (which many adult Christians still cling to, especially in the Fundamentalist tradition). It’s great for personal reading, giving to a young adult, and is the perfect length for group study.

Phillips was a “canon” in the Anglican Church and is most famous for producing one of the first vibrant English translations of the New Testament. Your God is Too Small has been around for decades and is considered a true classic. But unlike many “classics” this one still feels fresh and refreshing.

Your God is Too Small: A Guide for Believers and Skeptics Alike By J.B. Phillips / TouchstoneIn Your God Is Too Small, J. B. Phillips explains that the trouble facing many of us today is that we have not found a God big enough for our modern needs. In a world where our experience of life has grown in myriad directions, and our mental horizons have been expanded to the point of bewilderment by world events and scientific discoveries, our ideas of God have remained largely static. It is nearly impossible, Phillips argues, for an adult to worship the conception of God that exists in the mind of a child of Sunday-school age, the “God-in-a-box” notion, limiting God to such inadequate conceptions as “Resident Policeman,” “Grand Old Man,” “Meek-and-Mild,” and “Managing Director.” As a result of these insufficient ideas of God, many people live with an inner dissatisfaction, without any faith at all.

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The Message

A modern retelling & translation of the Bible by Eugene H Petersen. This vibrant “translation” or paraphrase of the Bible made scripture come alive to me at a time when I needed to hear it fresh. Petersen’s paraphrase is an attempt to get at the dynamic moving originally MOVING intent of scripture in words and phrasing that sounds natural AND inspiring to today’s listener. This is not the awful “Living Bible” paraphrase. Petersen’s translation SINGS. Petersen strips away the formality of the language and tries to capture its emotional, inspirational quality once again.

The Message is one of those you can select at http://www.bible.crosswalk.com to translate any passage. Love that website, btw.  Nice tool for quick study and selecting from various translations on the fly.

The Message is favorite Bible to just sit down and READ.

[Aside: WHY O WHY do we give stiff translations like the NRSV and NIV to our High Schoolers? We should be giving them The Message.]

The Message Bible – Hardcover By Eugene Peterson / Sas & Associates Although translated by only one man and not by committee, this “translational-paraphrase” was reviewed by theologians to validate the accuracy of Peterson’s translation from the ancient Greek and Hebrew texts of the Bible.

Chronicles of Narnia

My parents bought me the paperback set when I was a young teen and I gobbled them up. When my own daughters were young teens ENTHRALLED with Lord of the Ring movies, The Hobbit, Harry Potter and some sci-fi, I also had them read Narnia as well. And I was NOT disappointed with their reaction or the discussion which they engendered.