I am on a writing retreat on Lake Tahoe right now. Wrapping up and putting together the chapters for the follow-up to They Like Jesus But Not The Church book. As of now, it is called "Do You Like Jesus But Not The Church?: Exploring the Uncomfortable Questions about Christianity and the Church". If all goes as planned it will be out Fall 2010. I have 5 more books I will be writing with Zondervan, so very behind due to keeping family as priority and the normal consuming things with the early years of launching a church plant.
This is my first "trade" book. Which means it is not only a "church leaders" book like all those I have written so far. So this is the first book written for the average person who isn't necessarily in church leadership. Because of that, it is more like when I teach in our church or talking to people outside the church with what is covered in this book and how I have written it. So I am getting to tell more stories in this one which are not church leaders-related but still tie into what I am writing. So in this book there is now some stories from before I was a Christian as well as after, such as:
- when I was with elderly ladies fighting each other in a smelly basement
- when I escaped a Kibbutz in Israel and slept overnight on a strangers porch in Nazareth and used their welcome mat as a blanket and woke up having a woman yelling at me in Arabic as I scared her (understandably when she found me on her porch in the morning)
- when I thought a pastor may have poisoned me (I didn't trust Christians at this point in my life) with something he put in an Ovaltine drink he gave me
- when I was at a church meeting and the pastor made everyone stomp up and down so they could step on Satan like a cricket. Everyone was really into it and jumping yelling out "I got him!" and "There he is! Stomp on him!" I didn't see anything, so I was wondering if I was not close to God as I couldn't see what they were all stepping on.
So as I am up here compiling this book together, I have having more fun than usual including these type of stories.
Becky and the girls are at the beach and I am on the deck of a cabin overlooking Lake Tahoe as I type this. We're here for a week and then next week going to another lake in the mountains up here. And for the next 2 weeks I will not be putting anything in my hair. It is fairly flat and not pulled back or up and no gels or grease of any kind. I am outdoor nature Dan the next 2 weeks while finishing this book.
