Time for my monthly report on what I have been reading lately. Unfortunately, February has been a very busy month for me and so I have not had the time to read as much as I would like. However, I have had time to squeeze in three new books:
1. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler. One of the key aspects of working with people is how you engage in meaningful discussions and decisions. The key is to create an environment where people feel safe enough to share what they know so that wise decisions can be made. This is the focus of this book. I am going to have to reread this book, I confess, because I read it over a very busy weekend in San Diego. I am planning on reading its sequel, Crucial Confrontations as well, which is built off of the same model.
2. The Faith by Charles Colson. In the foreword, Colson writes: "Would you give your life for a cause you didn't fully understand? Would you try to convince someone else to join you? No, neither would I. Which is why I decided to write this book..." The purpose of this book is to answer the questions, "What do you believe?" "Why do you believe it?" "Why does it matter?" In short, to discover the faith that Christians throughout history and today contend for... and die for. VOMC will be making this book available for sale online as soon as our order comes in and in our April newsletter.
3. Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back by Frank Schaeffer. This is the most disturbing book I have read in a long time. As a long time student of the author's parents, Francis and Edith Schaeffer, I was both intrigued and saddened by this alleged expose of the "real" story of what it was like to grow up in this famous family. I will not go into all of the accusations and revelations he makes, but I wonder why Frank felt so compelled to try to ruin his parent's reputation. His disdain for the religious right (which he claims to have helped start) drips from the pages of this "confession" and his faith seems nebulous at best and nonexistent at worst. One wonders if this man ever truly knew the God of his parents. I am also left wondering why, if the Schaeffer family was as dysfunctional as Frank claims, why there were no reports of such over the many years that people lived in community with them at L'Abri?
Well, that's it for this month. I have a stack of books that I hope to put a dent in next month. Let me know what you are reading. I am always on the hunt for a good book.
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1 comment:
I will look forward to getting Charles Colson's book on faith. I find what he writes encouraging and challenging. I enjoy his freshness and his upholding of truth. I am not surprised at Frank Shaeffer's book but it also saddens me. To write that when they are no longer here to defend themselves is a cheap shot. It is part of a very sad trend over the past twenty years of claiming victimhood. Thank you for your helpful comments. Eunice
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