The Jesus Joint

These are in no certain order, and I'm sure I can't get 15...

1) Blue Like Jazz- Donald Miller
2) Searching for God Knows What - Miller
3) Angels and Demons- Dan Brown
4) This old book of poetry...
5)Twilight saga ^_^ aha
6) The Evil That Men Do - Roy Hazelwood
7) Psychology text..
Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austin
9) Wuthering Heights - Emily bronte
10) To Kill A Mockingbird- Harper Lee
11) Anne of Green Gables ...?? dunno who the author is
12) Little Women - Alcott
13) Twelfth Night - Shakespeare
Yeah...Thats all I got off the top of my head...

Thought I'd post my list here since you can learn a lot about a person from the books they read.


1. Bible
(no particular order from here on out)
2. Desiring God - John Piper (and pretty much anything else he's written)
3. The Reason for God - Tim Keller
4. The Prodigal God - Tim Keller
5. Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis (as well as a bunch of others)
6. Knowing God - J.I. Packer
7. Radical Reformission - Mark Driscoll
8. Crazy Love - Francis Chan
9. Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller
10. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years - Donald Miller
11. The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit/The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkien
12. The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky (and others by him)
13. The Dark Tower series - Stephen King

That's what I'm coming up with from the top of my head. Can look at my bookshelf to see if I've forgotten anything.

Your post just totally reminded me that I have a copy of The Silmarillion... I think I'll blow the layers of dust off of it and give it a read

So I hope you don't take this the wrong way, thurin, but when I read your age, I had you (at least temporarily) pegged as a certain kind of Christian, but your book list completely changed what I thought of you. You're right, you can tell a lot about a person based on the books they read. So I feel like I owe you an apology for pre-judging

What did you think about A Million Miles? I actually have mixed feelings toward the book as opposed to Miller's other books, for which I'm 100% gung ho about (though I only skimmed <i>Dragon</i>). Also, have you read <i>Searching</i>? I'm not sure if it's not on your list because you haven't read it or because you don't like it as much as the others.

Also, what is Radical Reformission about? I've listened to Driscoll's sermons but haven't actually read any of his books.

I love Crazy Love. It didn't make it on my list, but I do enjoy it a lot (though I can't find my copy ) It's actually a book I recommend a lot to people.

I would have thought the same thing about myself. Apology accepted but not needed.

I really liked A Million Miles. It caused me to think a lot about my "story" and what I'm doing with my life. I haven't read Searching - it's on my (long) list.

I really like Driscoll. He's pretty right on with his theology (imo) and trying to reach into the culture of Seattle for Christ. Which is basically what Radical Reformission is about. How to contextualize the message without compromising it. To quote: The goal of Reformission is "to continually unleash the gospel to do its work of reforming dominant cultures and church subcultures".

Crazy Love is really good. Another of those "Ok, so you're saved, now what" books that's very convicting. Forgotten God is sitting on the top of my stack of books to read.

See, I'm totally on board with the life-as-story thing but the thing about <i>Million Miles</i> is that I feel that Miller was focused a lot on results (ie biking across the country or hiking a crazy mountain), but the thing is, life doesn't always give us results. But just because stories don't have results doesn't mean that they're good. For example, it would be an awesome story if a woman's submissiveness to her unbelieving husband brought him to Christ. However, even if he doesn't turn to Christ and you don't get that great ending, what she is doing is still good and still makes for a great story.

Another thing I feel he neglected was the story of God. Yeah, he touched a bit on how God works in our stories, but I would have liked to see a little more theological slant in the book, more similar to what he has in <i>Blue</i> and <i>Searching</i>. (PS I highly recommend Searching. When I re-read it, I always read it together with Blue because I think they compliment each other super well.) Then again, I'm asking a non-theologian to write theologically, and I realize this. Overall, I liked the book, but it wasn't my favorite.

Yeah, Driscoll is amazing. He's passionate and loves the Lord - a bit iimpulsive at times, but he's repentant and teachable, too.

The best sermon I heard in high school was when Francis Chan spoke at our chapel. He just has this way of words that convicts you and gets to the heart of things. I'm not really planning to read <i>Forgotten God</i> though, because it seems like it'll be a reiteration of his sermon series on the Holy Spirit.

I just finished reading "Redemption: Accomplished & Applied" by John Murray. It was an amazing book that totally shows God's sovereignty in salvation.

Point taken on Million Miles. One of the dangers of books like it and even Crazy Love is that if they're read from a non-believer's viewpoint, they look like a social or works based Gospel. Live a good life. Have a good story. Take part in social causes. That's all it takes. These are meant for believers. To help us understand what our lives will look like if we're doing the work of our Father here on earth. Chan is much more up front in letting us know that this is his main point. Here's the Gospel. Here's what you do as a result. Miller is much more subtle. It's not always obvious who he's "preaching" to (although I don't think he'd call it preaching). I read Million Miles from a viewpoint of "I've been a Christian for 35 some years now, what's my story?" I've worked for the church, been a Deacon, taught Bible Studies. But most, if not everything I've done has been focused on the "inside" of the church. I've worked hard at building up the believers, which is a worthy goal. But I've often done it in my own power, doing it out of obligation instead of love, all the while neglecting the "true religion" that James (and Paul and Jesus) talk about. Now you're getting more background on my Great Commission question

Probably getting beyond the scope of "15 books" and worthy of a new topic.

I'll have to read Searching and see how he approaches it in there.



Looked it up on Amazon. Looks interesting.

btw, now that I'm home, I thought of another one that doesn't quite belong on the list, but is pretty close: Ragamuffin Gospel - Brennan Manning.

As I sit back and look at my list, I realize there aren't a lot of "theological" works listed. While my bookshelves are full of good ones, I'm not sure why they haven't made the list. I'll have to process that.

Travis, I hear that book quoted a lot. Maybe I should read it at some point.

Thurin, Your story seems interesting; I'm looking forward to hearing about it more in the great commission thread (and others).

<i>Searching</i> is a lot more theological, which is one of the reasons why I like it more. He goes through the story of the Gospel starting with Adam and Eve. He also us in our fallen states "children of Chernobyl," which is really striking but true. Maybe one reason why he didn't interface with the Gospel as much in <i>Million Miles</i> was because he already did it in <i>Searching</i>.

Do you mean "theological" as in "about theology" or as in "about God"? Either way, I feel like you have a good number of Christian books up there. Actually, you have more than I do. My reasoning is that I actually assimilate Christian literature fairly easily (given that it's in line with the Bible), but it's often not earth-shattering. It might change me, but it won't make a super huge impression. I obviously don't know what's the reason in your case, but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing that you don't have 15 John MacArthur books up there, you know? (Sorry, Travis ^_^)

I meant "theological" as in "about theology". Most of those books are about God. Even The Brothers Karamazov and Tolkien's stuff could be thought of that way I guess. The Dark Tower not so much. Some on my list get pretty deep like Knowing God. Maybe I should throw some on there like Grudem's Systematic Theology or Piper's The Future of Justification to really geek out

Realized I forgot to add the link to one of them:

13) "Redemption: Accomplished and Applied" by John Murray

I also have to add one more to the list that nearly drained my hi-lighter.

14) "Why I Am Not An Arminian" by Robert A. Peterson & Michael D. Williams

That would drain your highlighter XD

I'll be reading "Why I Am Not A Calvinist" soon. It is the other half of the series but written by different co-authors. My wife bought me both books. Right now, I'm reading "Seven Reasons Why You Can Trust the Bible" by Erwin Lutzer. It probably won't make this list but it is actually pretty good.