about books

Hi! Yo, yo, and hello! How's it going everybody? I pray all is well.
There are a few things I wanted to say in this blog today. Let me put in a plug for The Way Of The Wild Heart by John Eldridge. This book is a map of sorts for the masculine journey. Eldridge says there are six stages to the journey. The first stage is boyhood. Here, a boy needs to know that he is the beloved son, that he is loved, and treasured. The second stage is the cowboy stage. In this stage he needs to be brought along in what he wants to do. He needs to be taught how to fish, drive, explore, and so forth. Next is the warrior stage. In the warrior stage the boy is becoming a man. He is now getting out in the work force. He is a fighter and conquerer (spelling error?). Then comes the lover stage. The man meets a girl, falls in love, and gets married. The next one after this is the king stage. He has faught and conquered. And now he is the ruler of his domain. And the last stage is the sage. This is the man who has a wealth of experience to share with his family, friends, and associates about the work force, church, and life in general. After he talks about most of these he also talks about how to raise your son in that aspect of the masculine journey. Great book!
The other book I'm reading right now is called Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger.
These men say that to become a simple church we need to form a strategy of evangelism and spiritual formation that is simple and concrete. To do this we need the following four things:
clarity (clearly stating the process), movement (a sequence that takes you through each step), alignment (each one matches with and is in unity with everything else), and focus (keeping your eyes on the prize of what your aiming for). They talk about each one of these in greater detail in the book. Both of these are great reads!
On a different note, this is Wednesday, so please be praying for the AIM students, those on the mission field and those who haven't left yet. Please be praying for my friends Elijah and Kristan and their team heading to Auckland, New Zealand later on this year. Please be praying for my friends Rob and Denyce and their team as they prepare to go to Moscow, Russia. I believe they are in Advanced Missions right now or starting in the Fall. And lastly, please pray for Jeremy and Craig and their families as they raise funds and get ready to go to Sydney, Australia to work with the Preaching School there.
Sorry the e-book here. I pray God blesses each of you in Jesus' name!
Be blessed!
Zack