When my wife and I were attending seminary in Louisville, KY (great city!) a lot of “cheap dates” were spent wandering the aisles of the local book stores.  Coffee in one hand, fingers intertwined while skimming titles and  reading aspirations.  Titles, covers, subjects that we didn’t know we were interested in until we stumbled across the book.  Meandering through aisles dreaming of places we’d travel, subjects we master and art that we could create. 

I now have a Kindle.  I really like my Kindle.  Recently I was on trip overseas and I was able to take several books with me and not worry about the weight of the luggage.  As much as I like the e-reader there is just something about meandering and accidentally discovering something that you didn’t know you wanted to know about.  When I shop for Kindle books the purchasing is on target.  Log in, get the book, start reading. No wandering, no accidental discovery.

The other day I took one of my kids to the Library and that moment of discovery met me there.  I meandered across a book that I wasn’t certain what to expect of but I am really enjoying.   Those accidental discoveries are worth slowing down for. 

The scriptures remind me that nothing is accidental or coincidental.  God has a plan for all.  Sometimes I have to be reminded to slow down to see it.

Thanks to the folks over at waterbrook for sending me a copy of The next Christians by Gabe Lyons.  Here are some thought I have about the book.

 When I asked a group of my pastor friends recently if they had read The Next Christians by Gaby Lyons they said “no, but I heard it’s a great book”.  They heard correctly.

 Lyons presents a great case for the end of Christian America.  His premise is not earth shattering but his argument is clear and distinct.  His articulation of the rationale for its demise places this culturally historic shift not only context but in a framework for a conversation on the end of Christian America.  A conversation that beyond the realm of church leadership and academic ideologues is very difficult to engage in.

 Two outstanding areas Lyon addresses are first how Christians historic of the last century and current have engaged, disengaged and in many cases ignored culture.  His categorization of Christian Culture alone is worth the price of the book. 

 Secondly optimism oozes from the pages.  Optimism of the restores who are moving beyond the pure philanthropy that can be applied devoid of the gospel.  An optimism of a group of restores who are dedicated to the often dirty of work of gospel driven counter-cultural living.

 A strong critique of Lyons work is that from page one he shows his cards.  You can easily see his view point, his criticism of church, the wounds that the church of his upbringing and personal context has inflicted upon him and the direction that he is going to take you over the next several pages.  He is well researched in formulating his analysis the pages take you on a journey of getting to his conclusions.

 Lyon is able to take what is a difficult issue to address could be discouraging and transforms it into an optimistic battle cry.  Not a battle cry to retake the culture but a battle cry for the church to be the church.  Living, vibrant, spirit filled and actually engaged in counter-cultural living.

 The next Christians is definitely worth the price of admission.

I saw snow this morning.  Faint, but there.  I missed the first snow this year so it was nice to see some faint flakes. 

Over Thanksgiving I started reading Decision Points by George H.W. Bush.  I’m hooked.  It’s an honest read that flows well.  Historians will interpret every President for ages.   Volumes are still being written about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and others.  I’m certain that generations from now this President, our current President and Presidents yet to come will be interpreted and written about.  The writing style allows you to see what was  happening during those eight years.  I am convinced that the end of the 20th century and the turn of the 21st will be considered one of the most significant time frames of modern history.

What are you reading?

I love Christmas.  My family and I took a quick trip to Branson, MO  to enjoy the lights.  Thanks to the generous folks at Bass Pro (and the screaming babies who wanted nothing to do with Santa) we’ve got a great Christmas picture.

Alright.  It’s time to get organized.   I’ve have been running at an operation level that has outpaced my organization system.  That is if you can call stacks a system.  So earlier this summer after moving a stack from one side of my desk to another to work on a project only to move it back to the other side later in the day I came to an epiphany.  “This is stupid.  I have better things to to in life, more important things to do in life than to move papers.”  So I’m getting organized.  This is what I’ve done so far
1.  I recognized my work style.  I am a visual learner and a visual worker.  So the window in my office (which I’m thrilled to have) hase become my dry erase board.  Out a joke my father in law gave me a set of window markers.  I never knew I needed these, they work so much better than dry erase markers. 

2.  I like outlook for email but I need a calendar to write in.  This vertical moleskine planning caledar is genious.  Because I not only like to see my whole week at at time but like to plan by looking at the month as well I created a month at a glance calander in coordinating paper to put in the back pocket.  I carry this with me all the time. 

I know I could use a smart phone and all my cool friend have i-phone’s but I like paper.  I think better and clearer with pen and paper.  I don’t have a smart phone because I don’t want to have the monthly fee and I know my addictive behavior when it comes to email, twitter and facebook.  I just dont need any more electric crack to deal with. 

3.  Now to get organized I am working with two tools.  First is David Allen’s Getting Things Done.  I am finally processing through this material.  I’ll be posting on my process of getting organized.  Lets see what happens.

Here’s a link to my Amazon store to see the stuff that’s helping me get organized.

This has been one of the best and busiest summers. My family and I really connected and created some great memories. I’m really disappointed that they are going back to school. Of course, I’m not the one home with them all day everyday. So I will join in chorus with my wife singing  ”it’s the most wonderful time of the year” and ship them off to school.

What made our summer so good was that we had a priority driven summer.  We thought about it months before it arrived.  My wife and I sat down individually and then together with two questions in mind; What do we want our kids to get out of summer and how can we do that with spending very little (if any) money. 

Creating this end picture in mind we were able to schedule simple things around our calendared commitments.  Once we blocked off thsoe days we were then able to shop for deals.  By doing a little research we were able to find free events and coupons that helped stretch our pennies.

Now we didn’t hit all of the things we wanted to do.  That’s alright.  At least were not (like last August) looking at each other and wondering “where did the summer go?”

Now, what Thanksgiving and Christmas memoire do I want to create.

Next post:  5 ways to make any season extraordinary.

I should have let you know that the last 3 weeks of June were going to be insane.

In the past 3 weeks my family and I took vacation all around St. Louis including a jaunt to Springfield, Illinois to see everything Abraham Lincoln we possibly could in a day.  Take the opportunity to go to the Lincoln museum.  It was one of the most fascinating museums I have ever been too.  Truly bringing history alive. 

Our trip to Springfield happened to the day of our 15th Wedding Anniversary.  Nothing says happy anniversary like a full day of taking five children through museums and dining at the Cozy Dog the birthplace of the corn dog. 

The following week my wife and I took a quick trip to Chicago where we did some shopping, had some great meals and created some strategic actions plans to become better parents.  I’ll do some posting in the next couple of weeks about what we did and what is working.  We also drove through downtown where we saw Vince Vaughn (more a big deal for him than us).

We arrived home back from Chicago to turnaround on Sunday to head to Branson for a Pastors & Pastor’s Wife workshop/retreat.  Good combination of encouragement, challenge and thinking about how to do ministry more effectively.  All to say June has been fuller than either of us realized.  And I don’t mean the calendar.

During all of this busyness God has been revealing (and refining) into two areas of my life.  The first is dependency, the second is intentionality.

God has called me, and everyone who believes in Him through His Son, not to greatness that inflates our own egos but to greatness the glorifies in His name.  Our work and lives to usher greatness too him is dependent upon our dependency.  The Lord will use any method He chooses to glorify Himself.  He is not limited by time, space, government or churches.  But when God uses people in great ways it is when they are completely dependent upon Him.

Secondly, life can move at a  thousand miles an hour on accident or on purpose.  Live is to be lived intentionally.  It is no accident that some are able to do more with their lives than others.  True some by heritage, environment and network will have more doors opening to them at a faster pace.  But that is not necessarily life.  Life and godliness is living intentionally.  Introspectively examining who God has created you to be and pushing that to the limits.  Life is looking at the markers in your family, graduation, launching, getting a driver’s license and preparing for them now 6, 8, 10 years ahead of time.  Life well lived is intentional.

Let me encourage you, as I’m figuring this out, to Love God, Work Hard and Rest Well.

A long way around to share why there have been no posts (beyond tweets) from me the past three weeks.

It’s Alive . . . alive!

You’ll have to forgive my Frankenstein reference.  I took this pic of my garden yesterday (June 4, 2010).  This is the first year I have planted something and it has lived.  Now . . . how much produce will it produce?

My oldest kids will finish the school year on Friday.  The summer will officially begin.  We have filled our summer calendar to the brim!  I always like to read a couple of books during the summer.  This is what my reading list is looking like for the summer

1. Bonhoeffer; Pastor, Martyr, Prophet Spy by Eric Metaxas. 
2. Rooms by James L. Rubart.  I met him a few weeks ago and I am looking forward to reading this novel.
3. Bringing up girls by Dr. James Dobson.  I have three girls, I need to know how to bring them up
4. Bishop by Steven James.  I met Steven James a few weeks ago as well.  I was so impressed with his story telling an approach to the craft of writing that I have to read this novel.
5. The Mountain Between us by Charles Martin.  I started reading Martin’s novels a few  years ago and became captivated by his writing style.

These are 5 books I defiantly want to cover.  I’ll let you know how they go.  I know myself well enough to know that this list will not be all that I attempt to read in the summer of 2010.  What’s on your list? 

Good reading!

I’m changing the name of my blog from “percolating” to robhurtgen (I know, very original and creative)

I’m doing this for one reason.  Over the past year or more God has been working in the various streams of my life in on one key area.  Focus.

I’m seeing much more clearly today the focus that God has for me than I 3, 5, or 10 years ago.  But because of that I want my blog to reflect more  of a focus rather than whatever come my way.  Hopefully over the course of the next several months I’ll be able to share with you what I have discovered.  Not that I am an expert, jut a fellow traveler down the narrow path.

Love God, Work Hard, Rest Well.