Keller’s Generous Justice is a brief volume (189 pages) that serves as a clarion call to followers of Jesus to extend grace and justice to those in our communities who are impoverished and oppressed. In this book Keller presents a thorough and balanced study of scripture to support that call. “Like Isaiah, Jesus taught that a lack of concern for the poor is not a minor lapse, but reveals that something is seriously wrong with one’s spiritual compass, the heart.” (p. 51).  In other words, if you don’t care about the poor your spiritual health is in serious trouble!

Especially helpful are two chapters (5 & 6) that provide a strong argument for why we should do justice (Chpt 5) and how we should do justice (Chpt 6). Ministry leaders will find these two chapters to be immensely helpful in shaping and clarifying their own journey of doing justice. Second chair leaders will be able to tap into a good resource to use when coaching and mentoring. There is also good material here for small groups to wrestle with.

I personally found the final chapter – Peace, Beauty, and Justice – to be the most helpful and motivating. As one who has used the simple word “Shalom” to sign off on most of my correspondence for the past 30 years, Keller’s description of four forms of shalom breathed new life into my use of the term. He identifies physical, emotional, social, and spiritual shalom. (p. 174).

Why should you read Generous Justice? Consider Keller’s final sentence: “A life poured out in doing justice for the poor is the inevitable sign of any real, true gospel faith.” (p 189). The rest of the book serves as his basis for making that claim. Read it to find out if you agree or disagree with his. conclusion.

For a more extensive review of Generous Justice be sure to check out joelws.com

1. Becoming a Coaching Leader, Daniel Harkavay
2. The Litigator, John Grisham
3. I Am A Follower, Len Sweet
4. Search & Rescue, Neil Cole
5. Coaching 101, Logan & Carlton
6. Bloodlines, John Piper
7. Tipping Point, Malcom Gladwell
8. Switch, Heath & Heath
9. blink, Malcom Gladwell
10. Leaders Who Last, Kraft
11. Real Marriage, Driscoll
12. not a fan, Idleman
13. Made to Stick, Heath & Heath
14. Reimagining Church, Viola
15. Foregiveness Formula, Hitz & Hitz
16. War Room, Dawson
17. Gracenomics, Foster
18. Spiritual Conversations, Rohrmayer
19. The Way of the Wild Heart, Eldridge
20. Dug Down Deep, Harris
21. Generous Justice, Keller
22. The Reason for God, Keller
23. Assured of Heaven, Ricker
24. Connect, Perry

There are a few others that I am looking at but haven’t put in the stack just yet. Any suggestions?

“The message Paul had for Timothy is the same message God has for you. You need to rediscover the truth. They key to joy, to growth, to passion isn’t hiding from you. It’s right before your eyes.

It’s the gospel.” (p. 30)

Through the rest of this little book Mahaney does his best to help us come face-to-face with the purity of the Gospel and to fall in love with the reality of the grace of the Gospel.

“For when you’re deeply aware of your sin, and of what an affront it is to God’s holiness, and of how impossible it is for him to respond to this sin with anything other that furious wrath – you can only be overwhelmed with how amazing grace is.

Only those who are truly aware of their sin can truly cherish grace.” (p. 88).

In those two sentences Mahaney seems to identify the great challenge of our age: the absence of sin. As a concept, sin has been identified as a leftover from the dark ages that no longer applies to contemporary life. Perhaps a few quaint religious types still believe in sin but not the more intelligent masses. Mahaney is correct then that one will not love the gospel (or “cherish grace”) apart from an awareness of their sin.

The intellectually honest seeker of God will consider the entire gospel narrative that begins with creation, then the fall, followed by God’s relentless pursuit of mankind to reconcile and restore them to himself in that relationship that existed in creation!  In that context the harsh reality of the cross where “Jesus does’t just feel forsaken; he is forsaken” (p. 94) challenges the assertion that sin is just a quaint, outdated concept.  Jesus didn’t go to the cross because of a concept.

I appreciate Mahaney’s challenge on p. 109: “Let the cross always be the treasure of your heart, your best and highest thought…and your passionate preoccupation.”

Living the Cross Centered Life is a volume that should be part of your library and should be re-read annually.

Langston Hughes wrote this “Gospel Song Story” fifty years ago and it has been produced on American stages every year since. This is the 14th year in Seattle and will hopefully be produced for many, many years to come. Through dance, song, brilliant colors, dramatic narration, and pageantry the story of Jesus birth unfolded before us with a beauty and intensity that I’ve never seen or heard before. Such talent! Such joy! Such energy! I worshiped Jesus that night!!

The second half of the program was a review of the immense talent of this cast as we were transported to a Gospel Church worship service. The host/narration here by both Pastor Pat Wright and Pastor Alphonso Meadows was outstanding. This portion of the program was filled with singing, dancing, and laughter – lots of laughter! A stand-out among a series of wonderful performances was the duet of ‘Ava Maria’ by Camella Recchi and Leonard Piggee. It was simply amazing.

I’m so glad that we had front row seats for this experience! I can’t wait to see it again and again year after year. In fact, I wouldn’t mind seeing again THIS year!

The Black Nativity appears at Seattle’s Moore Theater nighty through December 24.

Average Joe is a book that all men (and especially second chair leaders) should read. If they do, they will read stories about men who work with power tools for a living, men who can navigate s small vessel through storms, men who defend liberty on the battlefield, and men who sit high in the saddle. All of these men define what it means to be a friend and brother. These are not the stories of the successful leaders of high corporations or enormous churches. These are the men you see every day in your neighborhood, riding the bus, or sitting in from to you at church. Many of them have pretty remarkable stories of what it means to lead successfully – often two or three steps behind the man or woman with the title and the corner office. Men who are living lives of “normalcy and ‘never enough’.”

I was pleased to see a brief study guide included in the book that will help small groups of men discuss these ideas and encourage one another in their pursuit of honesty, integrity, and loyalty. These are values that seem to be universally appreciated by men and so often appear in our literary heroes. However, they also seem to be universally absent in our pop-culture heroes (i.e., celebrities). That may be the main reason that this book will resonate with men. It would be a good book to use in a men’s small group or with some friends. It’s only 148 pages long so it is a pretty accessible book – even for most men.

Meeder does a good job relating these stories to the character of God and how he values (based on the biblical narrative) the ‘average Joe’s’ of this world. If you struggle with feeling ‘good enough’ for God, this book may help give you some insights to challenge that concept. If you are a second chair leader who struggles with being the guy two steps outside of the spotlight this book may help to correct your thinking and empower you to serve with a renewed sense of worth and passion.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers as part of their Blogging for Books program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

We are not major coupon clippers – just a few here and there.

At this store seniors get an extra 10% off certain items every Tuesday in November and December. Altogether we discounted our purchases by over $60 when combined with a rewards card, store coupons, manufacturers coupons, the turkey coupon, and the senior discount. When I tallied up the individual discounts I discovered that the senior discount saved us $4.99. Hey – it’s five bucks! Nothing to sneeze at, right?

Well, maybe. But now I’ve gone public about the fact that I am 55. I voluntarily steeped into a demographic that I don’t feel at all ready for. What’s next? Senior housing? Safe driving classes? Eating off the senior’s menu? Am I going to arrange my shopping around senior discount day? Maybe I could take my parents with me! They’ve been collecting the senior discount for years.

And maybe that’s the real issue for me. Maybe that’s why I feel like I sold my soul for $4.99. I’ve become my parents. As hard as I might push back against the clock, time continues to move along. Days become decades. Children get married. Grandchildren are born. Refusing to take the senior discount won’t change that. So I will embrace my new economic windfall and ask for the senior coffee the next time I’m at McDonalds! I’ll save a seat for you.

I’ve lost 20 lbs.

I’ve been overweight for a while but I just kept eating. And eating. And eating. I’ve heard that people tend to gain about 10lbs per decade. That’s just one pound per year. I like to tell people that one pound amounts to four quarter-pound meals at McDonalds in  year. Just four more than usual! Or just a few second or third baskets of chips at Azteca. One pound pound per year! You wouldn’t even notice your clothes fitting tighter until year 7 or 8!

So in the past two months I have rolled back the clock two decades worth! It feels great. My blood pressure is lower, my wife says I don’t snore as much, and I’m fitting into clothing sizes that were a distant memory.

But I’m still a bit leery of celebrating too much because I think I’m only half way. According to my medical provider I’m at a BMI of 27.53 (down from 30.41) when I should be 24. So I still have some work to do. I’ve lost 10% of my weight and I have another 10% to go to be where I should. That would put me close to my weight in college and when I got married. It’s hard to imagine being that weight again but I’m going to give it a try during the most difficult dietary season in America: The Holidays!

These days “The Holiday’s” run from Halloween to Super Bowl. That’s more than 3 months of super-sized meals, desserts, candy dishes, and snacks. But with two months of practice I think I’m ready to face this challenge. I’ve been using the Smarter for Life diet plan where you eat six 100-calorie cookies throughout the day (about 1 every 2 hours) and then eat a lighter supper with some protein. I know that if I’d followed the diet to the letter I would have lost more but I’m pleased with my progress. I’ve also been walking about 7 times per week along a 2.5 mile route in our neighborhood with some steep hills. I’m pretty sure that in order to continue making progress the number and distance of the walks will need to increase.

So I won’t post every week about this journey – perhaps monthly over the next three months just to record my progress. I’d appreciate hearing your suggestions for pushing through the plateaus.

I serve on a denominational board (Converge Worldwide) where we have worked hard to address the lack of diversity among our ranks. The makeup of our current board may be its most diverse ever. But with only one notable exception all of our upper level leaders are white males. The same holds true for regional directors. I’m also on a sub-committee that is planning our next national event. We are deeply committed to highlighting the diversity that exists in our churches throughout the event. But while this will celebrate diversity on one level it will not directly increase the diversity in our member churches. That is where Church Diversity comes in  -  or could.

Scott Williams very intentionally and methodically pokes a stick in the eye of the church on this topic. And he doesn’t just call out churches that are predominately white in their make-up. In chapter 3 Williams writes: “This is a wake-up call for the traditional ethnic churches, such as black, Indian, Asian, and Hispanic. The arguments that “we must remain separate because it’s about the community” or “it’s the only piece of culture that we have left” are not valid arguments. They are incongruent with who Jesus is and what the gospel is all about. Is your church preserving culture of some people or presenting the gospel to all people?”

Later Williams asks why churches use the Great Commission to justify international missions but so often fail to pursue the Great Commission (especially the ‘all nations’ part) in their own churches. He refers to this as the Great Omission.

Throughout his book Williams quotes heavily from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and for good reason. Dr. King addressed the racial disparity in the church decades ago. And while we would like to believe that the ethnic diversity within our churches has changed dramatically over the past 60 years, Williams argues that it has not. To make his point he re-prints a letter written in 1954 by Dr. King and provides commentary along the way. It is a letter worth reading and re-reading.

One of the primary strengths of Williams’ book are the challenges that he presents at the end of each chapter. They  are a kind of gut-check for personal diversity that takes the information in each chapter and asks, “So what are you going to do about this?” Another strength are the video links with each chapter that would enable the book to be used for a group study.

This book is not going to be for everyone. There will be some who see diversity as a non-issue, or a cultural issue, or even as a liberal issue that doesn’t apply to the church. There are those who may still cling to a “separate but equal” approach to church. “They have their church and we have our church. What’s the problem?” To that comment I would have to reply that if that’s your position then you are the problem. When it comes to diversity in the church we can do better. We must do better.

Second chair leaders can advance diversity within the church by advocating for and championing this cause with the rest of the staff and church. When you are looking for additional paid or volunteer staff be intentional about contacting people who are not members of the majority ethnic group in your church. Some key, high visibility positions like usher, greeter, or choir member are a good place to start. But your church leadership (pastors, staff, elders, deacons) should also reflect diversity. This may be harder to achieve but be persistent. Nominate those who will bring diversity to your leadership team. Make sure your website and publications include photos that reflect the diversity in your church – or the diversity that you want to see.

What specific, intentional steps are you taking to bring diversity to your church?

Julie ordered the Eggplant Parmesean and I ordered Spaghetti with Meatballs. As soon as the plates arrived at our table we knew we were in for a great meal experience. We ordered house salads with their signature blue cheese dressing. The extra flavors in this salad were evidence that Pomodoro does not serve out-of-the-package meals. And the main courses continued to please and surprise the palate. A very tasty and unique marinara sauce was generously applied over our meals. The meatballs were so much more than Ikea meatballs covered with sauce. These were huge meatballs formed by someone’s hands – not pressed out of some machine! The portions were very generous and we each took leftovers home!  I might even be inspired to try making some home made marinara sauce of my own!

Pomodoro’s is a one-of-a-kind Italian restaurant serving up well-prepared meals that vastly out-distance the national chains and even most other local places. This is not fast food so don’t expect fast food prices or portions. Our entrees were around $15 each. Well worth the price of two meals this good! We’ll go back often.

I’ve owned an iPad2 for a few months so I’ve become reacqauinted with many of the fine features that Apple has to offer but sitting at this MacBook Pro is simply an amazing experience! The touch pad is technological marvel – swiping pages in Safari is pretty cool. The multi-finger open and close motions, etc. And it’s all pretty intuitive, too. Once I partition the drive, install Windows and Publisher (the ONLY reason I need Windows) so I can continue to collaborate on Publisher-based projects I will be all set.  Perhaps the best thing about the entire Apple experience are the Apple store employees. I would love to get my hands on their customer service training manual (it’s probably available only in a digital version!). Every individual was very helpful. The purchase experience is unique. No schlepping your purchases to the check-out line – they just complete your order on their ubiquitous iPad’s, email you the receipt while the computer is being personally delivered to you by another associate – who just seems to appear from nowhere – and off you go. Even the bag they place your items in is unique.

I’ve signed up for the One-To-One service and will attend my first class soon. I’m anxious to have them help me create my first iMovie! Plus I just want to learn how to take full advantage of the features that are packed into this amazing device.

Perhaps the one thing that surprised me the most was the competitive pricing. WHile there are dozens of PC’s out there selling for under $1,000 it quickly became apparent that those machines would barely replace what I had. They were stripped down basic models. By the time I upgraded to an i5 processor and got the features my job demands the MacBook Pro was comparable. The service, warranty, and reliability of the MacBook made it an easy choice. Will it mean I’ll be posting to SecondChair more frequently? We’ll just have to wait and see!