Resources
My favorite books, podcasts, and sermons.
Books I Recommend
Bob Goff - Love Does
This book captures the command of Jesus to love others through amazing real life examples from the author's life. Funny, inspiring, and thought provoking.
Rob Bell - What is the Bible?: How an Ancient Library of Poems, Letters, and Stories Can Transform the Way You Think and Feel About Everything
This BIG book is filled with whimsical and poetic ideas about how the Bible can inspire great change in my life and in our world when we allow it to speak for itself.
Pete Enns - The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable To Read It
In this book Enns explains how the doctrine of inerrancy simply doesn't fit with the actual words of the Bible, and encouraged me to pursue a more helpful way of interacting with the words of scripture.
Pete Enns - How the Bible Actually Works: In Which I Explain How An Ancient, Ambiguous, and Diverse Book Leads Us to Wisdom Rather Than Answers—and Why That's Great News
Further developing the ideas of "The Bible Tells Me So", this book showed me how to use the Bible as a source of wisdom rather than a rulebook.
Pete Enns - The Sin of Certainty: Why God Desires Our Trust More Than Our "Correct" Beliefs
I loved how this book shed light on the problem of trying to chase perfect doctrines and beliefs instead of relying on God with humility.
Brian McLaren - A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey (The New Kind of Christian Trilogy Book 1)
When I was a pastor struggling with how to balance my inner beliefs with my public role as a teacher, this book encouraged me to keep moving forward.
Brian McLaren - A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith
A follow up to "A New Kind of Christian", this book explores how Christianity is and needs to evolve for life in the 21st century.
Thom Stark - The Human Faces of God: What Scripture Reveals When It Gets God Wrong (And Why Inerrancy Tries to Hide It)
This book introduced me to the idea that the Bible argues with itself and keeps progressing in it's revelation of truth.
Andy Stanley - Irresistible: Reclaiming the New that Jesus Unleashed for the World
This book convinced me to stop mixing Old Testament and New Testament ideas about God and live fully in the New Covenant.
Podcasts
The Bible For Normal People - Pete Enns and Jared Byas
Pete Enns has been a constant companion for me over the past few years. This podcast discusses thorny issues related to understanding and applying the Bible in ways that make intellectual sense.
My Favorite Episodes
Episode 1 - Rob Bell: What is the Bible?
Episode 34 - Jen Hatmaker: Changing your mind about the Bible - A Survivor's Guide
Episode 41 - William Paul Young: Reimagining the God of the Bible
Episode 112 - How the Bible actually works
Episode 138 - How love changes the meaning of the Bible
Episode 160 - The risk of an "errant" Bible
The Robcast - Rob Bell
Rob Bell has big ideas and an expansive view of God and God's love. It's difficult for me to choose favorite episodes as his podcast wanders over many topics but these are my favorites.
My Favorite Episodes
Episode 14 - You are always with me and everything I have is yours
Episode 215 Maybe Jesus doesn't want you to follow him
YouTube Videos
Rob Bell: Everything Is Spiritual
This 2 hour presentation fuses the best of science and the best of Christianity and left me amazed and filled with hope when I first watched it.
My story of following Jesus toward a more beautiful story since the 1980s, with evolving and expanding views of the love of God in and out of pastoral ministry.
Thoughts and ideas on theology and life. Can it be that God is leading us all toward a more beautiful story that is bigger than we dreamed?