You are Amish

From JollyBlogger

My best translation of what he is getting at goes like this. Evangelicals really talk only to other evangelicals and not to the broader world. I don't think he said this, but I would add that we talk "at" the broader world. In talking to ourselves though, we assume that we are talking to the world around us and that they hear us and understand us the way we understand ourselves.

However, what we don't realize is this - we seem to the world around us as the Amish of Lancaster, PA seem like to us.

This is not to cast aspersion on the Amish, it is a comment on our self-perception and our perception of the way the rest of the world perceives us. We are as odd to the world outside of evangelicalism as the Amish are to us.

Books

Here are the last few books I've read and some comments on them.


Blue Like Jazz
If you're under 40 and you grew up in the church, this book will totally resonate with you.

7 Practices of Effective Ministry
I typically avoid these books, but it was assigned and it turned out to be great.

Raising a Modern Day Knight
Excellent book if you have a son.

Shame
I picked this up from the camp bookshelf in Sudan. I couldn't put it down. Rushdie does a masterful job and it's super relevant to today's issues with Islam.

Emma's War
A British Aid worker marries a Sudanese warlord. The author is a journalist who tells the history of the conflict in Sudan, plus the complexity of delivering aid to Africa in the context of Emma's story.