I'll have loads more to blog about with regard to John Maxwell's sermon this weekend, but for now a few brief takes:

» If there's any chance you see this before the last service Maxwell preaches, by all means drag yourself to Lakewood and savor the opportunity. This practically qualified as a Christmas present (in June, no less!) by Pastor Joel to the entire congregation. I can't say enough good things about the entire night, but obviously, I'll give it a shot sometime tomorrow.

» No sooner do I review all my book-purchasing options over this past week than I get confronted with that foul demon, temptation. And of all places: at church. In conjunction with Maxwell's performance, there was a pretty nice offer on Maxwell's books.

So I spent what had to be the most conflicted time I've ever had in Lakewood's bookstore. After many tortured minutes of rationalizing any number of last-moment alterations, I'm proud to say I stuck to my gameplan & grabbed Eugene Peterson's "Eat This Book."

The remaining Maxwell works that lured me on this day will still be available at some point afterward. And I'm sure if I dig and scour the internet hard enough, I can get a good deal on them then, too. Nice try, Maxwell!

Now, if Greg Boyd ever preaches at Lakewood, I may as well just tell the boss to make my paycheck out to Lakewood.

» Speaking of Greg Boyd ... there's yet more book news on my favorite "MP3 Pastor."

I’m taking a (much needed) break from my work on "The Myth of the Blueprint" and my related insatiable obsession on ancient Greek philosophy. I’m going to spend the next few months working on a book for Zondervan on what I consider to be the revolutionary movement Jesus came to unleash in this world. (Hint: it doesn’t look much like the American Church). I think I’m going to entitle this book something like "Revolting Beauty: A Manifesto for Kingdom Revolutions." It’s a sequel (but really a prequel) to "The Myth of a Christian Nation." In this latter book I spelled out what the Kingdom is not (e.g. a religion or political party). In Revolting Beauty Zondervan wants me to flesh out what the Kingdom IS.

In a nutshell, I’ll argue that the Kingdom is a movement that revolts against the powers by being beautiful, refusing to participate in the ugliness of the world system. And the Kingdom is a movement that manifests a divine beauty that will, in significant respects, be revolting to those conditioned by the world’s system. In other worlds, the Kingdom always looks like Jesus, displaying the beauty of God’s love on the revoltingly ugly cross as he vanquishes the powers of evil that oppress this world.

ANYWAY, in preparation for this work I’ve been tapping into people who seem to have a similar vision of the Kingdom. The research I’ve done thus far is very encouraging. There REALLY IS a grass roots Kingdom movement sweeping our land – and the globe.

Undoubtedly the best book I’ve read so far is Shane Claiborne’s "The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical." I heartily recommend reading it.

I've run across Claiborne's book a few times. Flipped through it once. What I recall is that it certainly qualifies as radical, but also encouraging. I'll definitely have to take another look at it. Boyd's recommendations have been music to my ears since I've started paying attention to him, so I'm sure Claiborne will move up the fast track on my suddenly expanding reading list.

» Speaking of Boyd again ... he's got a new book out in two months: "The Jesus Legend: A Case for the Historical Reliability of the Synoptic Jesus Tradition." I'm only reserving judgement on it due to the fact that I'm curious how much of it will read like Greg Boyd. Having listened to the guy on a weekly basis, read him, and watched TV interviews, there's a certain style and cadence that you get used to. I tend to love what Boyd describes as "thinking in paragraphs." Listen to him enough times and that makes sense. But what to some may sound like a disjointed, rambling style is music to some ears.

As a rule, I've already brought myself pretty close to concluding that I'll read pretty much anything of Boyd's and that gives me a long backstock to find time for ... somehow. But I'm not quite in an apologetics mood and that's a rather substantial part of Boyd's specialty. Color me conflicted on that one. For now.

» I'm well aware of some of the criticisms toward Eugene Peterson's interpretation of the Bible ("The Message") and that's created a reluctance on my part to dive into any of his material in the past. I'm over that for the most part, even as I stick with my NIV preferences firmly in tow.

But there's no denying Peterson's ability to make words dance. I'm only briefly into "Eat This Book" and there's already numerous highlights. I've yet to distill any standalone paragraphs (for those of us who think in paragraph form), but here's a few brief excerpts to help reflect what it is that led me so strongly toward this book:

Re: Karl Barth on how to properly dive into a book ...

Barth insists that we do not read this book and the subsequent writings that are shaped by it in order to find out how to get God into our lives, get him to participate in our lives. No. We open this book and find that page after page it takes us off guard, surprises us, and draws us into its reality, pulls us into participation with God on his terms.

Re: personal experience over the Bible as an authority for living ...

An interest in souls divorced from an interest in Scripture leaves us without a text that shapes these souls,. In the same way, an interest in Scripture divorced from an interest in souls leaves us without any material for the text to work on.

At a level of oddity, "Eat This Book" is simply a book about reading. At a level of normalcy, I refuse to undo that simplicity.