Ben Sternke

Field notes on life and mission with God in post-Christendom

Books

Resonate Commentary: Matthew 13

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A few weeks ago a blog tour of Matt Woodley’s commentary on Matthew started. Each day a few bloggers post a thought or review of a section of the commentary. I read the section from Matthew 13. A few thoughts…

The commentary is part of IVP’s Resonate series, which seeks to combine the “the biblical sense” of the text with its “cultural significance.” The series seems aimed primarily at practitioners, not scholars or academics. It would be a great resource for those who lead Missional Communities, Bible studies, or small groups. Woodley writes with an pastoral, conversational tone that’s easy to read.

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Read Until Your Heart is on Fire with Love

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One of the more important spiritual disciplines in my life is good old-fashioned devotional reading. I’m definitely not talking about the “devotional” section at your average Christian bookstore. Most of that stuff isn’t worth reading. I’m talking about the discipline of allowing myself to be caught up in the spiritual reflections and ecstasies of those who have known God better than me.

Of course this kind of reading ought always to be coupled with the more fundamental discipline of meditating on Scripture, but many great saints have walked with God before us, and through their writings blazed a trail for us to walk on as we imitate their devotion. In this post I simply want to briefly highlight several devotional resources that have been important for me in the past few years. I hope it is helpful for you in your own pursuit of greater love for Christ and his kingdom.

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Launching Missional Communities: A Review

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A few weeks ago I read through Launching Missional Communities, a new book by Mike Breen and Alex Absalom. The super short review: it is the single best resource available on Missional Communities (MCs). I absolutely loved it.

The main reason this book is so good is that Breen and Absalom are practioners, not just theorists. Now, as an INTP, I can certainly get excited about a robust and elegant theory! But I shared the frustration of the church planter who wrote the introduction to the book. As he was searching books and podcasts for help on cultivating and implementing MCs, he found

There were a lot of people writing about the social theory and theology of movements and mission, but no clear practices for doing it… It seemed like there were a lot of thinkers who didn’t practice and a lot of practitioners who didn’t think.

The authors of LMC step into this void as practioners who think. Breen practically invented MCs 15 years ago when he was leading St. Thomas’ Church in Sheffield, England. Absalom was there with Breen, and has since planted hundreds of MCs and worked with several established churches at a more strategic level, helping them transition to a MC model. Because of this, this book is dripping with wisdom that comes from the blood and guts experience of actually doing this stuff for many years.

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A Path to Publishing

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If you’ve ever thought about writing a non-fiction book, but your mind boggles at the thought of navigating the mesmerizing world of publishing, Ed Cyzewski wrote a book for you. Wasn’t that nice of him?

The book is A Path to Publishing and it is ridiculously thorough, richly detailed, and relentlessly practical. It’s not just about “getting published,” but how to set yourself up to succeed as a writer long-term: building meaningful relationships with your readers and those in the industry, cultivating a compelling online presence, etc.

Ed draws on his own experience of publishing a book (Coffeehouse Theology: Reflecting on God in Everyday Life, which I reviewed back in 2008), and obviously did some extensive research in putting this book together.

Reading this book felt like a clandestine activity sometimes, because it appears Ed has giving away all of the industry secrets! He could have just saved them for his own use, but instead he shared them by writing this book. Again, wasn’t that nice of him?

In all seriousness, though – this is a fantastic resource for anyone contemplating publishing a book. Here are some links for more info: