Recommended Reading:
No Perfect People Allowed: Creating a Come-as-You-Are Culture in the Church, by John Burke (Zondervan 2007).
Bishop Minns says that this is the sort of book he wants his clergy and Anglican lay leaders to read: a book from outside the Anglican tradition that challenges us to reassess how we’re doing on Jesus’ call to radical inclusion.
Even while we strive for excellent, liturgical worship, are we taking the necessary steps to appropriately contextualize and translate Jesus’ Good News for the least, the last, the lost, and the left out?
Soul Revolution: How Imperfect People Become All God Intended, also by John Burke (Zondervan 2008).
Burke, founder of Gateway Church in Austin, Tex., and author of No Perfect People Allowed, asks powerful questions in his second book: “What drives us to strive so hard? What are we really after? What do we long for?” Burke believes our deepest longings are fulfilled through relationships with God and others, and he provides a way to create those relationships through a 60-day experiment in faith. He says that willingness is the key to staying connected to God at least once every 60 minutes for 60 days. His book offers a roadmap for the “60-60 Experiment” through loving God, loving people, building character and demonstrating God’s love to the world. Burke uses Bible texts and real-life examples liberally, as well as action steps with each chapter to make principles personal. He encourages accountability, yet eschews traditional groups that encourage participants to “try harder” because “we can never become all that God intends just by trying harder.” Connecting to God creates genuine change, he says. This is a thorough, well-written and challenging book. (Oct.) — Publishers Weekly
