Say Something < Say it Clearly < Say it Creatively < Say it Effectively < Say it Engagingly.

Each builds off the other. The goal is to say something that is clear, creative, effective and engaging.

Then you’re really communicating something.

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So I’ve been reading a lot recently. I’ve always fallen back on reading as something I can do when I’m alone without anything to do, which is happening a lot recently.

I was talking with one of the new Future Leaders the other day about what someone enjoys reading reveals a lot about them. Whenever I see someone’s bookshelf it always intrigues me to see what they have in there. So, in the spirit of full disclosure, here’s what I’ve been reading the past few weeks, with a short description:

The Hole in Our Gospel
By Richard Stearns (President of World Vision)

This was an excellent book that touched on a lot of the issues that I was awakened to when I was in Rwanda. In a nutshell, Stearns brilliantly and biblically emphasizes Jesus’ command to “love our neighbors” and shows that a Christianity without concern for the poor is in fact no Christianity at all. I would definitely recommend this.

How the Mighty Fall
By Jim Collins

Jim Collins, the author of Good to Great and Built to Last writes about how great companies can indeed fall. Studying systems and organizational practices and strategy is very interesting to me, so I found this book fascinating. Collins lays out the 5 stages of decline: 1) Hubris born of success; 2) Undisciplined pursuit of more; 3) Denial of risk and peril; 4) Grasping for Salvation; and 5) Capitulation to irrelevance or death. My only complaint with the book was that it was too short..less than 200 pages when it could have easily been much longer.

Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes our Faith
By Shane Hipps

I bought this book almost as a challenge to myself. I wanted to read the opposing viewpoint to what I am often exposed to working for an Internet Campus. Hipps challenges our blind acceptance of technology as a neutral medium, used for good or evil depending on the message conveyed. He argues, in the tradition of Marshall McLuhan, that the medium in fact is the message, and that the different media we are exposed to and so readily accepting of are in fact shaping us and our faith, and often not for the better. I’m still processing some of the ideas he lays out, but the book is certainly a must read for anyone working with technology at all for a church.

Bonus Section!
What I’m reading listening to:
So in addition to these excellent books, I’ve been listening to two audiobooks. Both of which I received free through special promotions. I usually prefer to have the book in my hand, but I do love anything free

Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God
By Francis Chan

I actually read the dead tree (print) version of this when it first came out over a year ago, and I loved it. The book is a urgent call to reject lukewarm faith and instead embrace a radical and crazy love for God, and lifestyle that flows from that. This is easily the most challenging book I have ever read (or listened to). I really think every Christian should read this book. You can get it free at www.christianaudio.com until the end of July (don’t forget to enter the promo code). Can’t beat that price!

Free: The Future of a Radical Price
By Chris Anderson

I’m still going through this one, so I haven’t made my final conclusion, but it’s been very engaging so far. Anderson explains how in the digital age, free is often the most effective price and often the one that has the most benefit for both consumers and businesses. Fittingly, he’s giving away the audiobook for free at his blog. If you’re at all interested in digital business and technology and how open source and free are revolutionizing the world, I suggest you download this. Again, it’s not for everyone, but if you’re a closet geek like me, it’s definitely worth it.

Anyhow, I hope that gives you some insight into Ryan.

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If I had to pick a verse that has defined my brief three and a half years as a Christian, it would easily be Revelation 3:15-16. Jesus says to the church in Laodicea,

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

I heard Francis Chan preach on this passage at Passion 07 in January of 2007 and it has stuck with me ever since.

Being lukewarm is not an option. In his book “Crazy Love“, Francis Chan says the term “Lukewarm Christian” is a contradiction. God does not tolerate lukewarmness. Jesus says he will “spit [them] out of my mouth.”

I had always focused on the “hot” part of that verse. Being cold is not desirable right? Only recently I realized that being cold means in the context of this passage being refreshing or useful, like a cool glass of water on a hot day. Jesus himself says he wishes that they were either hot or cold.

But not lukewarm.

If you’ll permit me to use this passage as an illustration for something for a moment.

I am at the point where I would rather have an experience that is so painful, so lonely, so tiring, so stressful, so uncomfortable, so dark that it forces me to rely on God than go on living a life that is completely comfortable, devoid of risk, pain, or stress.

To put it more plainly, I would rather hurt and feel God than be comfortable and numb to God. I’m not saying this to sound holy. In fact, I’m saying it to show how broken I am. My flesh desires to be comfortable. Nearly every inclination within me yearns for safety. For comfort. Yet there is this desire within me for God which cannot be met in lukewarmness.

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
-Romans 5:3-5

I know I’m not conveying what I’m trying to say perfectly, but I think that to see God most clearly and to be used by him, you must experience these times of pain, of hurt, of suffering, because then you can cling to God wholly and utterly, and through the deepest possible pain you feel closest to God.

I’m not trying to make a comment on how people should react to pain, or on anyone’s hard times. I think more than anything this is just an expression of the desire to feel God more. To experience Him in ways that are not possible while being lukewarm.

Apologies for the somewhat rambling post.

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