Your first 2 years in YM

Author: Doug Fields

I'll honestly say that I liked this book. He's honest, a little too goofy sometimes, but a great and wise guy. Lots of wisdom and experience in what he's writing about here. The chapters seemed like just what i needed to hear. I read this over my homeymoon when Becky was laying in the sun, etc.

It gets a little lengthy near the end but is still quality reading. If you wanna read this book, don't try and read it in a week like I did. Space it out over time and enjoy it.


Total pages: 300

HARRY POTTER and The half-blood Prince

Author: J.K. Rowling

i finished it. Too bad for old dumboldore. The book was what I read before my wedding. Not the day of, but the week or two before. Easy to read, cuz its for kids, and not exactly a great story. My brother read it with me and he says it seemed like the author was just trying to keep selling copies and got a little desperate. I agree with his view. The author seemed to try and tie in some adultish themes (love, death, romance) instead of banking on what sets these books apart. The author simply knows that if she can keep her audiences for this one, she'll have em wanting more for the last book. Its all about the money.

Total pages: 651

HARRY POTTER & the Order of the Phoenix

Author: J.K Rowling

great read. I plan on wriitng my view of the Potter books in my other blog shortly.
It was an interesting read that got me throuigh all 5 pages in less than 2 weeks. Pretty good I would say.

I didnn't bother staring at the beginning of the series but jumped in at this one 9the 5th book). Not much to say about it. Not overly well wriotten. She's still just bankin on an original idea that people are eating up.

Total pages: 4 hundred something

Red Moon Rising

Author: Peter Grieg & Dave roberts

Currently reading...

Total pages: 255

The Small Group handbook

Author: Dave Galloway w/ kathi Mills

Good, solid read...if you:
1. Want to be involved in your church
2. Have to be involved in your church (pastors, interns, board members)
3. Don’t understand the big fuss or importance of this small group boom that is being talked about by all the big churches and why people in your church need to implement them into your own church (everyone over 50, most church board members, small church pastors)

The author is the current pastor of the first official church to:
1. Implement small group ministry and actual
2. Call it small group ministry

You see, in case anyone has missed it, small group ministry is nothing new to the church or the world but the emphasis of it is just now being pushed to the front lines of the Christian Church. The emphasis is to purposefully allow people to live life together. It has become very easy to allow yourself to act right at church and on Wednesday night, but to allow people to have church in their homes is ‘real life.’

The book has a lot of Q & A sections. He tells the story and gives a few quotable tips but doesn’t say, “This is what you should do in your church.” He tells a story of something that worked for his church and the purpose and philosophy behind it. The Q & A sections are most encouraging because they are questions he has answered from other pastors and lay persons in regards to his ‘new’ book’s ideas.

It’s an easy read. I would recommend it to those mentioned up above who like to read. The book is very practical and deals a lot with real church and not ideal church situations.


Total pages: 157

Paul: A man of Grit and Grace

Author: Charles Swindoll

ya know, I loved the first 5 chapters. Great stuff on the apostle Paul. But then...this guy starts writing about his life and what it takes to be a minister today and I became very uninterested. If you want a book about Paul the Apostle don't read this. I wanted more historical research instead of herminutics (sp?)

Total pages: approx 600

Great Preaching

Various Authors

Currently reading...

total pages: 191

10 rules of YM and why oneighty breaks them all

Author: Blaine Bartel

The author is a current youth pastor/director in Tulsa, OK. His minister is so buig and successful that he is able to write books and hold sminars on how he does it or has done it. I would have never picked up and bought a book like this because I have a tendency to not appreciate the all start pastors, but, this was given to me and I was interested.

The book is a dabbling in YM philosophy and practicallity in the context of Pastor Bartel's own ministry experience. He has seen his ministry grow and convert the masses for years and over time has realized some significant 'traditions' in the YM community that need to be fixed or destroyed.

I like the way he communicated that he his methods are not the only methods and every Youth Ministry would not work the way his has. He acknowledges his methods and philosophies as an example of successful YM and not the grand example of what everyone should be doing. Very humbling.

He writes a good book. I am not one to fall oin love with big programs that give away free food and seem to be more about video games than about Jesus...but this book met me (and my negative spirit head on) and showed me how ministering to youth can REALLY be done.

I give it a 4 our of 5 stars. Its extremely practical but some of the ways he backs his methods biblically seem to be a bit out of context. Lots of good illustrations to use when communicating vision to a board or Senior pastor.

It took me 2 weeks to read.
Total pages: 161

The Skeptics Guide to: The Global AIDS Crisis

Author: Dale Hanson Bourke

You want a dose of reality? You looking for a reminder that America isn't the only land mass full of people who breathe oxygen, like to laugh, and eat food? This book did it for me. I am definitely more aware of my 'inherited riches' than I have ever been before.

It’s a short and easy read. Lots of pictures and quote boxes make it easy on the eyes, in fact, the book could be read in it’s entirety in less than 2 hours (if you’re the kind who enjoys that).

I love the honesty of the author in the way he tells it like he was told and shows his journey of waking up to the harsh reality of AIDS and the people who are dying from it all over the world.

The author shows why he was a skeptic and why it easy to not believe it. We look at Magic Johnson and how he is still alive and think everything in the world must be that easy…but we’re wrong.

It’s short, cheap, and easy to read. Read it. Care.

“The number of AIDS casualties is equivalent to 24 fully loaded 747 airplanes going down everyday in Sub Saharan Africa.”

Quote from the book.

Began: June 7th 2005
Finished: June 20th 2005 (reading other books at same time)

Total pages: 86

A new kind of Christian

Author: Brian Mclaren

It's not a church leadership book or self-help type of book at all. Mclaren is the leading spokesman, in my opinion, for the postmodern church as we begin to transition into catching up with the postmodern world we are living in.

I must admit that the place and time I was raised makes me very appreciative of the views and beliefs shared in this fictional story. I began reading after already having time to process much of what is introduced and reflected on.

Mclaren uses two fictional characters in a real world to share simple, yet detrimental truths about the coming age we have entered as a human race. The point of the book is to enlighten and explore post-modernity and its relationship to the Christian church.

I loved it, but many may hate it. There is no action, romance, or 'end times crap' in this book. If you've wasted hours reading Tim Lahaye’s junk literature it's time to read Brian Mclaren and catch up with something relevant and fresh. Also, I hate Tim Lahaye's book series.

I give is 5 out of 5 stars. It is well written, easily understood (in the end, not right away), and keeps one's interest without having to use any dramatic tricks.

Took me 5 days to read.
Total pages: 164

The Good Earth

Author: Pearl S. Buck

I picked it because I realized I couldn't remember the last time I read a good fiction. With college reading coming to an end it was time for some 'real' reading.

As far as the book goes, I give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars, for what it is.

It is the story of a peasant chinese farmer named Wang lung and his pursuit of life, love, and all that comes with it in Pre-revolutionary china. A real eye opener for me, a 20-something american male who grew up reading books like Tom Sawyer and A Seperate Peace but learned nothing of other culturals except that "we're america and their not" (said with extreme sarcasm).

I recommend the book if you're in the mood for it. The story is long and can lose some people with its endless talk of pride and poverty. Makes a great book study with its broad topics about the span of life and what it holds.

I admit it got me pretty emotional at many parts. Buck, the author, is a great writer and made me care about her precious characters.

I read it in a little under 11/2 weeks.
Pages: 357

Searching for God knows what

Author: Donald Miller

This is the 2nd book by Donald Miller that I have read and again it pleased me very much. This guy writes books like you were sitting on the couch watching t with him or in the car on the way to a movie. It's not a super page turned or one that you can not put down...in fact, putting it down is easy in most places. But what makes it good?

The simple story teller that he is seems to capture the heart of all he is saying in his book. it all comes together to gather around the central theme of the book: relationship with Jesus Christ. he is screaming at Christians in this one and not just stuff they've heard before.

Miller comes out and says, "Becoming a christian may be more like falling in love than baking cookies." He is tired of how much we, as believers have complicated the gospel with works and rules and believes that those are important but not central and should not exclude the importance of relationship.

It is not the raw and real compelation that his book was but it gets the job done anyway. For those who love Blue like Jazz, you won't be dissapointed. I give it 4 out of 5 stars. I will read it again one day.

Took me a half semester to read because I was reading it for a book group and we only discussed one chapter per week.
Total pages: ?