Closing the book on 2007

December 31, 2007
by Rodney Olsen
1 Comment

Have you wrapped up your reading for 2007?

What was your favourite book for the year?

Mine would have to be Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture by Michael Frost.

We live in a time when more followers of Jesus are living outside the church than ever before. People who are still very keen to follow Christ are giving up on going to church. Frost asks why this is happening and looks at new ways of creating authentic communities of faith.

Earlier this year I had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Frost about the book and we looked at just what is meant by the term post-Christian culture. We also talked about Mike’s use of the term exiles. Are we really exiled in a foreign culture? How do we thrive in a post-Christian culture while staying faithful to Jesus? How much should we engage with the current culture? How much do we stand up against the existing culture?

My interview was broadcast on 98.5 Sonshine FM. You can listen to the interview by clicking the play button on the audio player below.

Also this year I interviewed Alan Hirsch about his current book, The Forgotten Ways. I still haven’t finished reading it and so I’m looking forward to some more good reading over the next little while. It may well be next year’s favourite read.

So I guess that 2008 will start with reading the rest of The Forgotten Ways and then getting stuck into a range of other bits and pieces.

One of the books I’m hoping to read is Shantaram a novel by Gregory David Roberts. It’s set in India and is about the size of a house. While I’m not normally one to tackle such large books, I’ve read too many good reviews to ignore it. I’ve read reports from several people who booked tickets to visit India simply due to the picture painted through the book.

I’m also looking forward to getting stuck into Messy Spirituality by Mike Yaconelli. The book was sent to me by Tony Sheng as explained in my post You’ve Got Mail.

So what have your favourite books been in 2007? What books are on the reading list for 2008? Are there any books you think I should add to my 2008 reading list?



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You've Got Mail

December 8, 2007
by Rodney Olsen
5 Comments

Messy SpiritualityI love receiving parcels.

I got home a couple of days ago to find a small parcel waiting for me. It was a book that had made its way across the seas from Tony Sheng.

Tony recently celebrated his 5th blog birthday and so he wrote a post called Blog Birthday and Books where he offered his readers the opportunity to help him clean his bookshelf.

He listed a number of books that he was willing to give to any of his readers who asked. I noticed that he had a copy of Mike Yaconelli’s Messy Spirituality up for grabs so I put my hand up for it.

The book arrived with a pack of bubble gum from the U.S. I’m looking forward to getting my teeth into the book and the gum.

Thanks Tony. As well as providing great reading through your blog you’ve now provided more great reading with the book. Happy 5th blog birthday. I hope there’ll be many more.



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