The Wheatland Mission

What I've Been Reading This Summer

I still have Paul Riley's biography of John Adams and I still plan on getting to it. I was inspired to read it two days ago with the anniversary of his death. Oh, yes. It was also our country's independence day. He had a lot to do with that too. Have no fear Paul! I'll be digging into that one real soon.

In the meantime however, I have been reading two neat little books. The first one is called the The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren. I have read almost everything McLaren has written and have appreciated almost all of it. This is by far his best book and his focus upon the Kingdom of God/missional living is really inspiring. As usual he raises more questions than he answers and I appreciate that.

I would love to gather a reading group and go through this book. While inspiring this book provokes a lot of discussion about how we, as the church, are to live in our present day. The book makes one re-think his or her commitments in this world in light of Christ and the Kingdom he is advancing.

The second book is called Praying With The Church by Scot McKnight. McKnight is a New Testament professor who writes in his daily blog called "Jesus Creed". (jesuscreed.org) This book is about the various prayer traditions within the church, throughout the centuries, and it focuses a lot on praying from various prayerbooks that have been compiled over the years. I appreciate his thoughtfulness and his encouragement to the reader to supplement their prayer life by "praying the hours" as it is called.


Islamic fundamentalists, and normal everyday Islamic adherents, stop several times a day for regular times of prayer. Regardless of what they are doing or where they are they stop, kneel facing the east and pray the specific prayers for that time of day. We should be challenged by their devotion. It should both inspire and provoke us to consider different ways to enhance our devotional life and deepen our commitment to Jesus. McKnight's book is a great help to this end.

posted by The Wheatland Mission @ 2:33 PM