After You Believe

I recently finished N.T. Wright's new book, After You Believe, which I received from The Ooze Viral Bloggers program. This book is a sequel to two of his earlier writings, Simply Christian and Surprised By Hope, and while you do not need to read the earlier books to make sense of this one, I would recommend it because they are good books. On that note I will have to proclaim that I loved this book. I thought that it was really well written and could be easily understood by persons from varying academic levels. There is a tad bit of redundancy, but that did not bother since he is constantly pointing to the theme of his book. I also loved the book for the content of what he had to say. I am currently ministering in a holiness denomination that is very concerned about the transformation that takes place after we come to a belief in Christ. But I feel that Wright's insights in this book can speak to much of the discussion that is currently being held over how holiness is manifested in our lives. I appreciated how he equated the possession of virtue to a habit and how one needs to make conscious decisions based around a virtue until they take hold in our life and become second nature. There is a much larger discussion in the book that I will not get into here.

Another key theme that I loved is how Wright talked about the point of Christian virtue being to show what the Kingdom of God looks like. The end is not in displaying said virtues, but the end is about becoming who we will be for all of eternity. It is about looking forward and not being content with the present and thinking that we have fully arrived. I especially like this since this kind of thinking should prevent us becoming apathetic, which many in my denomination internally struggle.

Lastly, as I usually feel reading one of Wright's book, I'm reminded how little I look at Paul's writing holistically. This is more my own personal issue, but I love how Wright is able to take the full scope of Paul's writing and make it palatable for his readers. I love this approach to scripture, instead of seeing it only through the broken parts (chapters, verses or passages) that I have used in the past. Slowly I am getting there and am thankful for the way that Wright presents this approach through his writing.

Get this book!

Weekly Update

The week that was:

I was at the Youth Specialties convention in Nashville, my hometown.  I had a great time there with my wife and our other youth pastor couple from our church, Doug and Mear.  We actually drove down which took about 14 hours with a pregnant Holly in tow.  Overall the convention was great and I will be posting a few thoughts from it over the next few days.

We also had a baby shower at my in-laws house that was great.  It was good to get some baby stuff, but even better to see some old friends that came.  Plus the strawberry cake my mother-in-law had made was amazing!

The week that will be:

I'm currently at my sisters house in Chattanooga, TN as my wife started a rotation at a local hospital for the next 4 weeks.  I will be in the area until next Wednesday which should be fun.  We are going to my grandma's house for Thanksgiving and then will be with Holly's family for the weekend.  All in all I'm looking forward to eating a lot of great food and seeing family that I don't get to see very often.

Music I couldn't stop listening to:

I didn't listen to much this week so I'll talk about the groups that we at the convention.  David Crowder Band led worship for two session and did an amazing job.  Mercy Me performed for one session and did a great job as well.  Shane and Shane performed an amazing set with just the two of them singing, one guitar and a very unique drum set.  I really like hearing those guys.  Lincoln Brewster led worship at two sessions and seeing him live is pretty amazing.  I wish I could play guitar like him.  Finally, Starfield led for 3 sessions.  I had heard them on a couple of other occasions and still like them.  I'd recommend any of these artist's albums.

What I'm reading right now:

These books are for a class that I'm teaching starting in Jan.

The Holy Spirit by LeRon Shults and Andrea Hollingsworth.  This book takes a look at how the doctrine of the Holy Spirit came to be and what it's implications are for us.

Simply Christian by N.T. Wright

What I'm keeping my eye on:

The blogalogue that Tony Jones is doing on Same Sex Marriage is unfolding over on beliefnet.com.  There is a link to Tony's blog on the right.

Lastly, Saturday is Phil Fulmer's last game to coach at UT.  I hope the boys send him out as a winner over KY.  Go Vols!!!!