Dear St. Paul’s Family,
With Annual Conferences in Iowa and Florida now behind me, along with a business trip to Nashville and a family vacation down to Florida, the girls and I can finally settle into the warm, pleasant rhythms of summertime in Iowa. Along with fishing in Spring Lake Park and splashing around (on a nearly daily basis) at the Bacon Aquatic Center, we often try to tackle an ambitious reading list. Grace and Madelyn, for example, are working on reading all three books in the popular Hunger Games series. As for me, I thought I’d share with you what’s in my stack for the summer, a mixture of light and heavy titles that will hopefully entertain, spark imagination, and strengthen my work as your pastor:
What Shall We Say? Evil, Suffering, and the Crisis of Faith by Tom Long. (pictured above) I started this one on the plane, and I can already say this: it is the best book on the problem of suffering and evil from a Christian perspective that I have ever read (and believe me, I have read a lot on the matter.) Long, a professor of preaching at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, offers more than just a preaching resource for pastors and their congregations. It is a comprehensive analysis of the theodicy problem (how a all-powerful, all-loving God could allow suffering and evil in the world. Long calls this “the impossible chess match.”) and a thorough overview of the history of attempts by Christian thinkers to resolve the problem. His work on the book of Job is tremendous, and his writing style is as clear and engaging as his points are thoughtful. I am a huge fan of Tom Long, and his latest work easily makes the top of my summer list.
Walt Disney: An American Original by Bob Thomas. Our recent trip to Florida included the requisite stop at the shrine to the Big Mouse, prompting many questions from the girls about the life, work, and legacy of Walt Disney. Thomas’ comprehensive work features unprecedented cooperation by the Disney family, and access to Walt’s private letters and photographs.
The Mindful Writer: Noble Truths of the Writing Life by Dinty Moore. I am always looking for resources to sharpen my writing skills, and this short work by Dinty Moore (yes, that’s the author’s real name) goes beyond the basic “how-to” approach to writing. Instead, Moore focuses on the principle of “mindfulness,” encouraging readers to cultivate a mindset of attentiveness, creativity, and rhythm in their daily life.
The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World by Edward Dolnick. In case you didn’t know (and how could you not, given how I often I say it), I was a biology major and chemistry minor in college. As such, I frequently look for ways to further the conversation between religion and science. Dolnick’s book is more than a sweeping, biographical anthology of some of the greatest scientific minds in history - Newton, Galileo, Darwin, and Leibniz, to name a few – it is also a unique look into how these people dealt with the intrinsic internal conflict between their discoveries and their private religious views. I’ve read the first few chapters already and am thoroughly entranced.
BZRK by Michael Grant. Given my family’s current obsession with the Hunger Games, I wanted to find another futuristic teenage dystopia story. Grant’s science fiction novel centers on brain science and nanotechnology, with a deeper examination of free will versus cultural enforcement. Looks like a suitable supplement to our hunger for Hunger.
I know, I know. Most of these books are non-fiction, which makes for some atypical summertime leisure reading. But these titles will hopefully do more for me than simply provide escapist entertainment. They will broaden my perspectives and enhance my creativity, all to be a more effective pastor and preacher as we reenter life together in the fall.
So, how about you? I would love to hear what is on your reading stack this summer!
Grace and Peace,
Magrey
The Rev. Magrey R. deVega
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
531 W. Main St.
Cherokee, IA 51012
Ph: 712-225-3955
Email: mdevega@sp-umc.org
VBS THIS WEEK
Wow! What an amazing few days we have had so far during this year’s Vacation Bible School! Despite our fire, we have been able to host the full complement of activities for the nearly seventy children who have come to Sky! VBS. Every day, they are learning different ways and reasons to trust God, based on our theme this week: “Everything is possible with God!” Please continue to pray for a successful rest of the week, and give thanks for an amazing team of volunteers led by our coordinator Karen Long.
To view past editions of the Mid-Week Message, visit http://mdevega.blogspot.com
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