{"id":797,"date":"2017-02-16T14:25:26","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T18:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/?p=797"},"modified":"2022-07-19T12:03:11","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T16:03:11","slug":"we-build-men-who-love-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/?p=797","title":{"rendered":"We Build Men Who Love God"},"content":{"rendered":"

The title of this blog post<\/strong> is a value of Curwensville Alliance. We own it. If you want to know more about it, you can click here, where I speak of it in some detail<\/a>.<\/em><\/h3>\n

Read any good books lately?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Several years ago — maybe 2005 — I invited some men to join me in growing our faith.<\/strong> At first, we met very early in the morning. If memory serves, some men of strong commitment met at 5:30 a.m. in the nearby truck stop. We moved from there to a few more local places. Currently, we meet at The Dutch Pantry.<\/p>\n

\"\"Each week, the guys read a chapter of a pre-chosen book in advance<\/strong>, highlighting things that stand out and jotting down any thoughts or questions they might have about the content.<\/p>\n

The group has varied in size from as many as 18 to as few as 3. It probably averages 8-10.<\/p>\n

The agenda of our gatherings is simple.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Order breakfast.<\/li>\n
  2. Share stories from your past week.<\/li>\n
  3. Pray and eat breakfast.<\/li>\n
  4. Discuss what stood out in the book.<\/li>\n
  5. Hang out until you have to go.<\/li>\n
  6. Leave a good tip and pay for your meal.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    As we began, many guys were reluctant to join.<\/p>\n

    “Pastor Steve, I like breakfast,<\/em>
    \nbut I’ve not read a book<\/em>
    \nsince I finished high school.<\/em>
    \nAnd back then, I hated it.”<\/em><\/p>\n

    I encouraged them to give it a try, and to their credit they did.<\/p>\n

    So, here, well over a decade later, a list of books we’ve read include.<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Sacred Marriage<\/em>, Gary Thomas<\/li>\n
    2. Rumors of Another World: What on Earth Are We Missing?<\/em>, Philip Yancey (I’m not sure we finished this one.)<\/li>\n
    3. A Man’s Guide to the Spiritual Disciplines: 12 Habits to Strengthen Your Walk With Christ,<\/em> Patrick Morley<\/li>\n
    4. Uncommon<\/em>, Tony Dungy<\/li>\n
    5. For Men Only: A Straightforward Guide to the Inner Lives of Women<\/em>, Shaunti Feldhahn<\/li>\n
    6. Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul<\/em>, John Eldredge (We might \"\"have read this one twice.)<\/li>\n
    7. The Love Dare<\/em>, Stephen Kendrick<\/li>\n
    8. Hero: Becoming the Man She Deserves, <\/em>Fred Stoker<\/li>\n
    9. Secondhand Jesus<\/em>, Glenn Packiam<\/li>\n
    10. A Traveler’s Guide to the Kingdom: Journeying Through the Christian Life<\/em>, James Emery White<\/li>\n
    11. No More Christian Nice Guy: When Being Nice–Instead of Good–Hurts Men, Women and Children<\/em>, Paul Coughlin<\/li>\n
    12. The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of Christian Faith,<\/em> Timothy Keller<\/li>\n
    13. The Resolution for Men<\/em>,\u00a0Alex Kendrick \u00b7 Randy Alcorn \u00b7 Stephen Kendrick<\/li>\n
    14. Who Do You Think You Are: Finding Your True Identity in Christ<\/em>, Mark Driscoll<\/li>\n
    15. The Explicit Gospel<\/em>, Matt Chandler<\/li>\n
    16. The Me I Want to Be<\/em>, John Ortberg<\/li>\n
    17. Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ with Bonus Content (Designed for Influence)<\/em>, Dallas Willard<\/li>\n
    18. The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism<\/em>, Timothy Keller<\/li>\n
    19. Nudge:\u00a0Awakening Each Other to the God Who’s Already There<\/em>, Leonard Sweet<\/li>\n
    20. Shaken: Discovering Your True Identity in the Midst of Life’s Storms<\/em>, Tim Tebow<\/li>\n
    21. Seven Men and the Secret of their Greatness<\/em>, Eric Metaxes<\/li>\n
    22. Seeking Allah, \u00a0Finding Jesus<\/em>,\u00a0Nabeel Qureshi<\/li>\n
    23. The Tech-wise Family, <\/i>Andy Crouch<\/li>\n
    24. Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God<\/em> by Timothy Keller<\/li>\n
    25. The Pursuit of God<\/em> by AW Tozer<\/li>\n
    26. Stepping Up: A Call to Courageous Manhood<\/em>, Dennis Rainey<\/li>\n
    27. Shame Interrupted,<\/em> Ed Welch<\/li>\n
    28. Crazy Love,\u00a0<\/em>Francis Chan<\/li>\n
    29. Counterfeit Gods, <\/em>Tim Keller<\/li>\n
    30. Mere Christianity,\u00a0<\/em>CS Lewis<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      For a group of guys, many of whom said they don’t like reading, I think they are doing well.<\/strong><\/p>\n

      What have you<\/em> read lately?<\/strong><\/p>\n

      You’re welcome to join us. Interest has grown so much that there are now two groups meeting. One Saturdays at 7:30 a.m. and one Tuesdays at 7 p.m. See me or Tim Smay for information.<\/p>\n

      -Pastor Steve<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The title of this blog post is a value of Curwensville Alliance. We own it. If you want to know more about it, you can click here, where I speak of it in some detail. Read any good books lately? … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[64],"class_list":["post-797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-family","category-spiritual-formation","tag-men"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9XvLb-cR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=797"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2170,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions\/2170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}