Thursday, May 05, 2005

The Nashville Cohort "On-Ramp Reading List"

These are our community's recommendations to those beginning this conversation with us here in Nashville. Our "on-ramp reading list" should represent what our community sees as most helpful given our context.

Post here to suggest a book or email dixon (dkinser@stbs.net).

For a more comprehensive list visit www.emergentvillage.com

7 comments:

gavin richardson said...

if someone is just getting into this conversation i'd say that "emerging church" then "emerging worship" by dan kimball, are a decent start. they have a number of dan's illustrations so folks might feel that that is what emergent is, so i caution on that part.

jay & jonathon say that "the practicing congregation" by diane butler-bass is a good primer for mainline churches.

Jonathon said...

Indeed, I definitely recommend "The Practcing Congregation" by Dorothy Butler Bass for mainliners.

Two others for those interested in postmodern ecclessiology (which is my strong area of interest):

1. A Peculiar People- Rodney Clapp
2. A Community of Character- Stanley Hauerwas

These two books changed the way I see Church and how we DO CHURCH.

cheers all

Divorced Dad said...

Some easy reads for newcomers:
**on postmodernity - A Primer on Postmodernism by Stanley Grenz

**postmodernity related to youth ministry - Postmodern Youth Ministry by Tony Jones

**recovering missional, messianic church - The Shaping of Things to Come by Hirsch and Frost

**emergent metamorphisis - A New Kind of Christian trilogy by Brian McLaren

**trying to figure it out - Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller

**must read - The Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann

Dixon said...

I have personally found myself recommending "A New Kind of Christian" more than any other book in regard to this conversation.

I like it because it's gently radical and an easy read. It also steers clear of an methodological inference (trying to answer the "how do you do this?" question too soon.) which I greatly appreciate. Dan Kimball's stuff I find goes to method more than I care for. It gets confusing.

I recommended "A New Kind of Christian" to my mom. I guess that puts it on my short list.

DDK

Jonathon said...

ahhh mannnnn, i thought of another good book- highly acclaimed-

Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon

a good read indeed

Unknown said...

Are any of us "new to this." Serious question. I'm not interested in reading a starting text.

Of course, I wasn't there, so who am I?

Dixon said...

The "On Ramp" List would be our groups recommendation to some one who is "new to this". It doesn't presuppose, however, that anyone is or isn't. These are just books that might be helpful in our particular context.

We did indeed have folks looking for "on ramp" materials at the last gatherng so we thought we'd put our own list together.

DDK