Catching Up

Hey friends!

I've slowly but surely been chipping away at my literary adventure, but haven't written about it in a while. Books that I've finished but haven't uncommented on:

Shane Claiborne's Irresistible Revolution
It's been a while since I finished this one, but here are a few thoughts: I realized very soon into this book that I will never be Shane Claiborne. I mean, I'm all about loving people no matter where they come from, but I just don't think I'll be going to live in India or pulling off a big demonstration on Wall Street. Granted, India is on my bucket list. On the other hand, I do love Shane Claiborne's writing style. Mainly because there are a lot of "dude"s and otherwise familiar-to-my-vocabulary words, and it kind of seems like you're just having a conversation with a friend. Not to mention that he's got some stellar stories to tell. So, all in all I liked the book. I'm not nearly confrontational enough to share my thoughts the way he does, but it was definitely a good read.

Carol Howard Merritt's Tribal Church
I first heard of this book because the Presbytery of Middle Tennessee's group on College and Young Adult Ministry (aka CoYAM) hosted a conference called YCHRCH (meant to be a combo of "Generation Y" and "why church?"). Carol Howard Merritt was the keynoter for the day long conference, so I added her first book (Tribal Church) to my list. I mean...I bought a copy and she signed it, so I probably should read it, yeah? She writes about young adults in the church--or the lack thereof--as well as young adults entering into ministry. As a young adult planning on entering some sort of ministry, I felt like a lot of it applied to me. A lot of it was intimidating to me, too. As somebody who likes having connections and bonds and ties to a place, it's rather scary to read that the average young adult moves every 2.7 years. It was fascinating, though, to read some explanations of why membership of young people in mainline Protestant churches might be as low as it is, and there was certainly a lot to think about. Too much thinking though and I might just talk my self out of seminary! Sheesh. A good book though, for sure.

Soon I'm going to update this post with a few specific things I liked about each one, but I don't have the books with me at this moment.

So that's all for now...on to the next one!
Love,
Allison