New Wilmington Mission Conference

I don't know if this book changed my life, but it made me think about a lot of things, and made me think about what the church looks like to those outside of it and how we inside the church should reach out into the world. 

 Has anyone else read it? 

Are there other books that make you think like this one?

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'Jesus died to take away your sins, not your mind'

Chip, I've read this book and it had an impact on my thinking, especially helping me view Christians and the Church as those outside of it might. It also challenged me not to turn God into a math formula, which can be easy to fall into at times.

Another book you may want to check out would be The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren. It is challenging me about how I see Jesus and what the entirety of His message was and how often Christians choose only a slice of the message they prefer. It's a good read.

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Mike Rohde | mike@rohdesign.com
Rohdesign Weblog: http://www.rohdesign.com/weblog/

I did not like Blue Like Jazz at all. I read it because ut was te cool thing to do and everyone else was reading it. I was also extremely excited about the book and I thought it would have a great commentary on teh church of today and our society. I felt the book was extremely shallow and misleading. The majority of the book Donald Miller pretends to be something he is not. he got me all excited when talking about his college days and how revolutionary he was, but the key to that is was. He is no longer that person and that bothers me. I believe he is a closet conservative, evangelical, right-winged Christian and he never really came clean with that. It just snuck out a few times here and there.

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Rob Bradford

"Emancipate yourself from mental slavery"

I thought Blue Like Jazz was okay, but liked Searching for God Knows What better. sorry you are not a Donald Miller fan, Rob-- but I think his lifeboat theory is right on. I also loved Flashbang by Mark Steele, What's So Amazing About Grace by Phillip Yancey and so many others....A New Kind of Christian, The Shaping of Things to Come, Captivating...

I thought the book was good, not my favorite, but good.  I would lean more toward the Barbarian Way, by Erwin McManus, Velvet Elvis, by Rob Bell, and Misquoting Jesus, by Bart Erhman.   I do have to say though I have heard Donald Miller speak and he is very good then.  He goes on some tangents, but very good and quite funny.  (When he talks he also tends to explains that whole evangelical Christian who is liberal thing, Rob)  Check out those other book (Tobyn warning:  I have an obsession with the Jewishness of Jesus and where we as Christians stand in all of that) and in the meantime (Shameless plug for PCUSA) in January 4-7, 2007 at Montreat, NC is the Collegiate Conference with Donald Miller, Steve Hayner (don't know him), and Jonathan Kingham (musician).  Donald Miller is so much cooler when you hear him speak so grab whatever College students you can find and bring them to the Montreat to check it out.

More info:  http://www.montreat.org/thecollegeconference.htm