Top 20 Quotes from Catalyst West 2019
This is part of a series of posts on 20 quotes. Click here to see others.
I had the opportunity to attend the Catalyst West conference this week with some of the team from Abundant Life Church.
This is part of a series of posts on 20 quotes. Click here to see others.
I had the opportunity to attend the Catalyst West conference this week with some of the team from Abundant Life Church.
We are a quarter of the way through 2019 by now and you have probably forgotten about those New Year’s resolutions. If not, now’s a good time to gauge your progress so far and make sure you are doing what you wanted to do this year. One of my goals was to read at least 60 books this year and so far I’ve read 16 of them. That puts me slightly ahead of pace.
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As Christians, what are we supposed to do with the apparent contradictions in the Bible?
Panic. Run. Scream. Abandon all hope.
Okay, that might be a bit of a drastic response to this question. Yet most Christians feel noticeably uncomfortable asking this question, let alone acknowledging this is a real issue in which many people wrestle to find a solution. Even the fact I’m addressing this question will frustrate some people (and you haven’t even read my answer yet!).
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This was a great year of reading! Some of my new favorites were Deep Work, Strength to Love, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, and Her Gates Will Never be Shut. I’ve been rereading books I love more this year as well. I think that’s something I’ll continue to do more of as I realize some books have so much more to offer upon additional readthroughs.
Below is the list of 61 books I read with my rating for them (5 being the best) along with a brief review. Any book without a number rating has been given to me by the author or publisher. You can check out my running list throughout the year by clicking on the “reading list” link on the top right of my blog.
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I’m continually amazed by how many people ask me about my views of hell. In much of Christianity today we discuss hell as if it is the single greatest reason for believing in Jesus. The challenge of this is that most of our views of hell are shaped more by fictional literature and movies and less by what the Scriptures actually say about it. This ends up creating a religion based on acquiring fire insurance rather than in experiencing Jesus.
I’ve read numerous books on hell that have challenged my thinking over the years but none as good as Brad Jersak’s book: Her Gates Will Never be Shut (see: Amazon link). Most Christians only know one view of hell, often referred to either as Eternal Conscious Torment or infernalism. Jersak does an incredible job showing the dominant three views that we find throughout the Bible and then offers a way to make sense of them. It should give Christians a renewed sense of humility when we realize there is no easy way to argue any one of them. Perhaps the best line of the book is when he says, “I am more hopeful of Jesus than I am sure of hell.”
Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book to give you a taste of it:
I’m in the late stages of my Master’s program at Fuller Theological Seminary and I saved my elective courses for the end. This means I’ve fulfilled all of the required courses and can now take optional classes that are of particular interest to me. This semester has been the enjoyment of an entire class on the life and theology of C.S. Lewis. Lewis wrote numerous acclaimed books such as the Chronicles of Narnia series and his popular Mere Christianity book exploring theology.
I’ve had the chance to write a couple of papers that others may actually be interested in reading. I say “may” because these are academically styled and therefore not the way I normally would ever write. If seeing footnotes is a trigger for you of painful school memories then move along. However, if you are a fan of C.S. Lewis, you may be curious to know what I found as I explored the way he was shaped in his theology and thinking from the books he read. It was both encouraging and motivating for me in my own pursuit of learning through books today.
Click on the link below to read the paper. (And if you’re wondering, I got an A on it).
