So it’s been several weeks since my last post…sorry, things got busy. Below are several lists of books you could consider reading this summer as you pursue Christ. The first list is a recommended reading list of some of my favorite spiritual growth/leadership books. The second is my personal summer reading list. All links go to books on Half.com because Amazon was acting up and said nothing was in stock!

Spiritual Growth/Leadership Recommended Reading

1. The Life You’ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg – Probably one of the simplest and best books I’ve read on Spiritual Disciplines and how we should approach them.
2. The Next Generation Leader by Andy Stanley – A quick read on the 5 essentials college students need to be thinking about and seeking to develop since they are going to be the next leaders in our world.
3. I Became a Christian and all I got was this lousy t-shirt by Vince Antonucci – Great book on the basics of following Jesus. Much of this stuff you may already know, but it is brought to your attention in a new fresh way.
4. Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung – Great, short book on decision making and God’s will.
5. Principles of Spiritual Growth by Miles Stanford – A classic book on spiritual growth. I think this book should be read once a year. You’ll want your highlighter handy!
6. The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer – Probably Tozer’s most well-known book.
7. A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson – Great book on the Song of Ascent Psalms (Psalms 120-134)
8. Louder Than Words by Andy Stanley – A very challenging read on what it means to live with integrity while pursuing God.
9. If You Want To Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat by John Ortberg – Ortberg does a great job looking at the story of Jesus and Peter walking on water in Matthew 14.
10. Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard – Join Much Afraid on her journey to the High Places, a wonderful allegory about the Christian life.

Matt’s Personal Summer Reading List

1. The Epic of Eden by Sandra Richter
2. Faith of My Fathers by Chris Seay
3. From Eternity to Here by Frank Viola
4. Jesus Manifesto by Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola
5. The Untold Story of the New Testament Church by Frank Viola
6. Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung
7. This Beautiful Mess by Rick McKinley
8. Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson
9. Crave by Chris Tomlinson
10. He Loves Me by Wayne Jacobsen
11. Guerrilla Lovers by Vince Antonucci
12. Experiential Storytelling by Mark Miller

Happy Reading! Keep Seeking Jesus….Matt

Here’s a few pics from the last 2 summer gatherings!

May 16th – Grillin’ & Chillin’ @Lehman’s and an outdoor movie that was moved indoors on a big screen due to the rain.

Doughboys in the Lehman's garage because of the rain!

Trent is always up for Frisbee - even in the rain!

May 30 – Picnic at Pioneers & KickBall!

Waiting in Line to kick

Olivia winds up

Excited Kickball Fans!

Derek on a rare miss....

Action in the field!

Allison nails one

My, what big feet you have!

The next Summer Gathering is June 13th – the Amazing Race! Check here for more info…

In my last post I outlined what I think are the 3 main challenges we struggle growing spiritually. Below are some ideas for pushing back on these challenges and pursuing Christ during the summer.

1. Take Initiative – Create a Schedule
This is important whether you are a scheduled person or not – and especially if you do not like to be a scheduled person! For some reason the summer immediately creates in me the desire to go on vacation, be lazy and not do a lot. I could blame this on the school system, but in reality it is just my own selfishness. The best way I’ve found to fight this is to take the initiative and create a schedule for myself when it comes to spiritual growth. This “schedule” can take many different forms…
a) Set a specific time to spend with Jesus in prayer and in His Word on a regular (not necessarily daily) basis.
b) Find a Bible study that you can attend weekly.
c) Set up a weekly meeting for coffee or lunch with a friend to talk about your pursuit of Jesus
d) Set up a weekly phone call with a friend (if you are out of town & away from friends) to discuss your pursuit of Jesus (and His pursuit of you!)
e) Find a place to serve Jesus with others this summer – some of my deepest relationships have been formed while serving with others!
f) Find some books you want to read and set a time (at least weekly) where you will sit down and read. In a future post I will give you a suggested list of books as well as a list of what I am reading this summer. For now you can go to http://www.campusimpact.org/resources/growth/
g) Find a podcast that will challenge and lead you spiritually and listen to it regularly. I suggest Lincoln Berean’s Podcast or Andy Stanley’s church podcast.

If you know me well, you know I don’t like tremendous amounts of structure in my life, however, I also recognize, my life (spiritual as well as the rest of life) very quickly goes to shambles without some type of structure! The bottom line is if you want to grow in the summer, you can, the change in schedule and apparent laziness of summer is not preventing you…and a schedule can help!

2. Find encouragement & Accountability
This idea is primarily for those who are out of town and away from christian friends, but it applies to all of us. If you are struggling being back around old friends or back in a location where temptations from your past seem harder to resist, then you need to do something about it. I would say do something about it ahead of time, but we are well into the summer now….so I’ll just say do something. The temptation is not going to go away on it’s own and as I said at the last CWH, “We were never meant to follow Jesus on our own for an extended period of time. We were meant to exist as followers of Jesus in a community!”

The primary (and maybe easiest) thing I think you can do is get a hold of a christian friend and plan a time where you will have a phone call every week for the purposes of encouragement and accountability. There are other things you can do, like check out churches and groups in your area. It may not be exactly like what you are used to in terms of church or bible study, but that does not mean God can not use it to grow and challenge you!

At the end of the day, I think growing spiritually in the summer boils down to one question, “Do I want to know Christ?” Another way to ask that would be, “Am I willing to seek God?” If the answer to that question is yes, then it doesn’t matter where I am or who is around me. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that God is a rewarder of those who seek Him. If you seek God this summer, He will reward you. The reward will be a closer relationship with Him.

I pray this summer we will be like Abram in Genesis 12. When the Lord told him to go out and leave everything he knew except for his immediate family (which was unheard of in those days), Abram went. Abram’s location in Genesis 12 is a great picture of summer for many of us. He is not in a comfortable place, he is away from almost everyone he knows and I wonder if some of those who were with him weren’t completely on-board with this trip they were making to an unknown land, sent by an invisible God. In Genesis 12:9, Abram calls upon the name of the Lord. It’s a beautiful picture of what we should be doing this summer – calling upon the name of the Lord…seeking Jesus…pursuing God!

Next Post….my summer reading list….

Keep Seeking Jesus…Matt

During the many years of working with college students, I’ve heard my share of stories from students who grew a ton while being a part of the college group during the school year, but then struggled to grow (or even maintain their walk with Christ) during the summer. I’ve also struggled in my own walk with Christ during the summer. I would start the summer with great intentions to read more (in the Bible and a list of spiritual growth books) and then find myself at the end of the summer, not having spent much time in my bible or reading at all. Which also usually meant I hadn’t spent much time personally talking with God other than as I went from one activity to the next or when I needed something.

I think there are 3 main challenges to growing spiritually during the summer:

1. Schedules Change – Road Trips abound!
As a college student regardless of whether you stay in town for the summer or head somewhere else, your daily schedule changes. You go from a schedule of classes to working a job most of the day (or multiple jobs!). Even if you take summer classes, those are longer. And many people take more road trips during the summer=more changes to the schedule of your days.

If you are a structured person this can be very challenging for you until you get into the new structure of your summer schedule, which usually takes a few weeks. For those who take summer classes, your schedule changes again in a few more weeks because of different summer sessions.

If you are not much of a structured person (like me), I think summer can be challenging spiritually as well because days are longer and it seems like there is a lot more to do (at least outside!) in the summer. People stay up longer and out later and it feels like there will always be time later to fit everything in. I’m a person who doesn’t want to miss out on anything and usually if I live my life that way – trying to fit everything in – the thing that often falls out of the schedule is my own personal time with the Lord. Or I end up trying to do it late at night before I go to bed or early in the morning after going to bed late. Either way, I usually end up falling asleep during my time with the Lord.

2. Old Friends, Old Habits This can be especially challenging for those heading home for the summer. Many students have changed significantly over a school year. They have left behind old habits or struggles and been able to walk in victory. But they get home to find the temptation to their old life feels stronger. Their friends at home may not know Christ (or want to know Him) and they have not changed. Or worse yet, they had friends who knew Christ before they went to college and during the school year, they began to live in a way that is not following closely after Jesus. Some students also go home to families who do not know Christ (or want to know Him), so they end up in a place without much accountability or encouragement to pursue Jesus. It can be quite a shock if you have lived your life in a vibrant community of Christ followers for 9 months and now find yourself alone or almost alone as a follower of Jesus.

3. Spiritual Offerings Change
If you head home for the summer, you may not have a church or group you can attend or maybe it just doesn’t feed or encourage you the way college worship hour or your small group does. Even those who stay in town can struggle for this reason. College Worship Hour & Real Time stop meeting and the Summer Gathering and Summer Studies start up. Let’s face it, most of us are creatures of habit and when we find things (habits, groups of people) we like, we don’t like it when those things change or aren’t quite the same. It can feel at times like you are starting over making a new group of friends, getting to know new people.

Most likely you can find one or more of these to be true for your life and if all three of these happen to combine in your summer, it can be quite challenging. What do you think? Are you finding any of these things true for you this summer? If so, how are you seeking to overcome these challenges? In my next post, I’ll talk about some of the things that can help us Succeed Spiritually During the Summer.

Keep Seeking Jesus…Matt

I had lunch with my friend Justin the other day. He’s leaving for a year in Iraq with the Army in a few days. As I listened to him talk about what has changed in his life in the past 9 months, I was reminded again of the power of a community of faith. The first time I met with Justin was right after I had taught a message in CWH about stepping across lines to create friendships. Justin emailed me the next week. He was stepping across a line. I invited him to lunch.

9 months ago Justin probably would have told you he didn’t think much about the church. He wasn’t sure exactly what he thought about God. Yet, he was in college worship hour that morning for whatever reason. At lunch we talked about his past tour in Iraq (06-07) and adjusting to life back in the states. Relationships were challenging for him when he first got back from Iraq and he said my message about stepping across lines and initiating friendships spoke directly to him.

Over the past 9 months, I’ve seen him go from disconnected to extremely connected. From attending CWH on Sunday to joining a small group in Real Time. He was stepping across all kinds of lines that had previously been drawn in his life, by Satan, the world or his past experiences! To top it all off, 2 months ago, he decided he wanted to start a shelter for homeless teens, before he left for Iraq. The guy who was struggling with relationships was now creating a place for many others to step across lines into relationships!

He’s headed out in a few days and the shelter is not up and running, but it is well on its way. There is a team from the college group currently talking with people from the People’s City Mission about this shelter. He sat at lunch 2 days ago excitedly telling me how God seems to be taking his idea so much further than he had imagined! As we finished lunch, he told me several times, “Thank you so much for everything – you don’t even know how much you’ve done!”

As I walked to my car, I thought to myself, “Thank you Justin, you don’t even know!”

Here’s what I mean: Justin was thanking me and I realize I played a part in his journey, but many, many others (I don’t even know how many others) played huge parts. The people in the body of Christ loved him and accepted him. His small group accepted him, individuals on the worship team led him in worship, and people on the hospitality team served him every Sunday! The Real Time Planning Team and meals team created environments for him to step into. That’s the power of community! Now Justin is encouraging us to offer that to others via this teen homeless shelter. And it all started because he was willing to step across a line and when he did, the community of Christ met him!

Now he heads to Iraq and hopefully another community of the Body of Christ. We were never meant to follow Christ on our own for an extended amount of time – we were meant to walk in a community of Hope and faith and love!

Keep Seeking Jesus… Matt