Author Archives: bobwriedt

“That Hideous Strength” by C.S. Lewis

The Good: Lewis dubbed this a fairy tale for grown-ups.  He delivered.  It’s fantasy, certainly, but a brilliant portrayal of the effect of ideas.  The narrative moves briskly (after a slow start), and many chapters leaving me saying, “Wow” at the end of them.  Easy to find in paperback, and cheap, too.
The Bad: The aforementioned slow start.  His generous use of biblical and literature allusions will leave some more confused than riveted.  Some parts of the text are seen to be mildly chauvinistic.

The Grade:  A- (Sure to read again at some point, docked points only for the slow start)

Religion

Being a pastor, the easiest part of Facebook to fill out should be the “Religion” field.  I simply put “Christian.”  Little did I know that there would be such diversity among my friends and family among how to accurately represent themselves in this important area of life.  Among those who all go to the same church I found the suggestions, “Protestant,” “Presbyterian,” (though we’re not actually at a Presbyterian church) “Christ follower,” “God lover,” and many others.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?  Does it reflect a yearning to convey our strong conviction, something that the generic “Christian” might not?  Or is this simply our generation’s discomfort with titles showing itself again?  Christians have been called such for 2000 years.  Does holding the title show solidarity with the past, or simply a lack of creativity on our part?

25 going on 75

Becca and I have begun a new Wednesday morning tradition, one which suggests we can skip straight from apartments to Leisure World.  We go out for breakfast to the same corner diner, followed by an ambling walk through the neighborhood.  As a further sign of our burgeoning seniority, this morning we spent twenty minutes searching for a coupon for the breakfast that would have saved us about a dollar.  Good times.

Working with your hands

I love assembling furniture (if we can use the term “furniture” loosely) from Ikea. I go in knowing that I’ll have to figure out how to disassemble it in three years in order to trash it, but that’s fine; I get to assemble something new. This weekend it was a wardrobe. For a guy in ministry, there’s an enjoyable novelty to actually getting to build something that has a starting and ending point, with a tangible result.

The process reminded me of Paul’s role as a tentmaker in Corinth. I wonder if Paul enjoyed the work itself, or if it was merely a means to an end (namely, food and shelter). Work (whether it is carpentry or tentmaking or… whatever assembling Ikea furniture is) bears a stamp of man’s productive capacity for which God has created him. Let us not corrupt what is good through an idolatry of work.

The Connecting Church, by Randy Frazee

I have enjoyed this book immensely. Maybe because I’m a nuts and bolts guy. Frazee (when he wrote the book) was the teaching pastor at Pantego Bible Church in Texas (he’s now at Willow Creek).  The book is the ministry philosophy they implemented there.

His broad concept is that Christians should have a common purpose, a common place, and common possessions. The common purpose is standard stuff, with acronyms and the whole thing. Definately necessary, but nothing groundbreaking.

What I really enjoyed was his section on the “Common Place.” He suggests that it is more important for the Christian life to be engaged in a community home group with people who live within a block or two than to be in a home with those in your age group who live all over the place. Interesting idea…

Anyway, great book, highly recommended.