Top_5_Lists! (2011)

Here they are! (see also 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)

Songs

1) Father Along: Josh Garrels
I needed this song in my life this year. 2011 was hard. This song spoke life back into my soul. Simple as that...killer lyric Still I get hard pressed on every side//Between the rock and a compromise//Like the truth and pack of lies fightin' for my soul//And I've got no place left go
2) Holocene: Bon Iver
We saw Bon Iver for the first time this year. SO good. Justin Vernon has the ability to instantly transform your mood, take you somewhere, and break your heart with the first two chords of a song...killer lyric say nothing, that's enough for me//and at once I knew that I was not magnificent
3) Poison and Wine: The Civil Wars 
I remember sitting in the cafeteria at UMASS this year reading the student newspaper when I stumbled upon an article about a concert the reporter had been to doing an article on Cafe 939 (cool little spot near the hotel REUNION meets in). They had seen an "up and coming new folk duo from Nashville." I looked at the photo and said: "that sure looks like Joy Williams." Turns out it was...crazy to see this old Mount Hermon connection blow up this year: Leno, awards shows, album of the year lists, and even 2 grammy's for Joy and John Paul (and it gets bigger). This song is incredible has one of the best turns in any song you will ever here...look for it right after the first chorus...killer lyric your hands can heal, your hands can bruise//I don't have a choice, but I still choose you
4) Timestretch: Bassnectar
2011, the year of dubstep. I was introduced to the phenomenon by a Berklee student on our spring break trip and I couldn't stop listening for months. This is my favorite Bassnectar track by far...killer lyric no need for lyrics, just feel that bass!
5) One Last Thing: Angels&Airwaves
I loved this band when they started...their first album blew my mind. It's been a slow decline in quality and interest since then. They released their fourth album this year (Love, Part II) and overall it's my least favorite of the four. This song, though, sounds exactly like what it is trying to say...the world is full of stuff that kills hope and belief but hope is not impossible. And it's better. And this song sounds like hope. Can't stop listening to it...killer lyric (the whole song really) I try to rest, but it starts to hurt//Living here is a lot of work//but I found, one last thing, to believe in

Books (required reading)

1) To Change the World by James Davison Hunter
I wrote about this briefly right after I finished the book. I don't have much more to add now. One of the most thought-provoking and challenging books I have ever read. Please read it so we can chat about it!
2) One.Life by Scot McKnight
Another book I posted about upon finishing. This book has quickly elevated itself as a must read for our leaders, students, and anyone who wants a primer on the language and theology of REUNION and Sojourn. Best book on discipleship available right now.
3) The Pastor by Eugene Peterson
Any regular readers know I love Peterson. It was fun to read this memoir and see the marks of his other writings present through his life story. So many great moments, here's just one: "Story is a way of language in which everything and everyone is organically related. Story is a language that insists that persons cannot be known by reducing them to what they do, how they perform, the way they look. Story uses language in which listening has joint billing with speaking. Story is language put to the use of discovering patterns and meanings--beauty and truth and goodness: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the seemingly random and disconnected pieces of experience and dreams, tasks and songs, promises and betrayals that make up daily life, words and sentences detect and reveal and fashion stories in places of hospitality." Thank you Eugene for this, for your commitment to and advocacy of the pastorate, for your writing about story, and for so much more.
4) From Wild Man to Wise Man by Richard Rohr
I appreciate a lot of what Father Richard Rohr has to say and so as I've done much reading on maleness, gender, and spirituality I was excited to check this book out. And not disappointed. His chapter on the three men in Luke 6 is worth the price of the book.
5) College Ministry in a Post-Christian Culture by Stephen Lutz
One of my staff partners read this and said, "If I didn't know better I would have thought you and Tim wrote this book." Thanks Bob, that's high praise. A big thanks to Stephen Lutz for writing this book: it describes what we do and why we do it in one handy place. We will be reading this with our student leaders this spring. 
Honorable Mentions: Insurrection, The Meaning of Marriage, The Outrageous Idea of Academic Faithfulness, The Sacredness of Questioning Everything, The King Jesus Gospel, The Faith of Leap, The Homiletical Plot, Quitter, The Great Emergence, Love Wins

Books (non-required reading)

1) Open
As far as autobiographies go this is storytelling at its finest. Andre had some help (JR Moehringer who wrote The Tender Bar), but who cares? An incredible story of redemption, marriage, and what it means to give your life away.
2) Jesus, My Father, the CIA, and Me
If you aren't at least a little intrigued by this title than you hate books. Good writing, funny stories, and a lot of grace through difficult experiences. Ian Cron does an incredible job unpacking some sensational stuff in a beautiful and compelling way. 
3) I Am Ozzy
Quite possibly the exact opposite of Open on first glance, but extremely similar for this reason: strong second marriages saved their lives. If you don't mind f-bombs and a little craziness check out Ozzy's story. You will not forget it soon. 
4) A Band of Misfits
COME ON I HAD TO PUT THIS ONE IN HERE!!! 
5) The Millennium Trilogy
I finally took the plunge to see what all the hype was about. These books are crazy, violent, disturbing, but also the best page-turners I've read in a long time. Totally worth the week it will take to read through all three!
Honorable Mentions: Manning Up, Why Are We Bad at Picking Good Leaders, How the Mighty Fall

New Feature: Top 5 Posts of 2011

1) 64659
Even though this one is recent it makes it into the top spot. We have grown a ton as a ministry this year and I think this post reflects some of that fruit. Grown not just in numbers, but in depth, clarity, and direction. I can't wait to see what 2012 holds for Sojourn.
2) 61259/61559
These were the top 2 most read posts on the Illumination Dilemma in 2011. Only serves to highlight what a big transition my family has been through this year. Once again, well done Mom and Dad...I so admire your grace and faithfulness even when it's been hard.
3) 63259
The writing in this post is my personal favorite from the year. I am learning in all kinds of new and interesting (and hard and difficult) ways what it really means to live by a "hermeneutic of sacrifice."
4) 58659/59359
A couple of reflections on getting older. 'Layers' is another reflection post that continues to be a major life theme even months later. 
5) 62559
This post sums up a series I did on Sojourn: the what and why behind our ministry. Always good revisit this stuff.

The End...Happy New Year!!!

top_5_lists

Top 5 lists!!! (check out previous years: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006)

Songs

1) Sigh No More - Mumford & Sons 
2010 was the year of Mumford mania. only controversy here was which song to pick. "awake my soul" might actually be my favorite, but this one kicks off the record and sets the tone for everything that follows: a quiet start, a big build, and a huge payoff. killer lyric: "love that will not betray you, dismay or enslave you, it will set you free, be more like the man you were made to be."
2) City With No Children - Arcade Fire
from their incredible album, "the suburbs." they upped the ante with this effort. killer lyric: "you never trust a millionaire quoting the sermon on the mount, I used to think I was not like them but I'm beginning to have my doubts."
3) Invented - Jimmy Eat World
it might be that i love this band even more now than i did ten years ago. their stuff holds up, and they've aged well. soundtrack to over a third of my life. crazy. killer lyric: "i'm one more here, some old-time pioneer, who believes with shaken faith, i still have some cool."
4) The Ladder - Andrew Belle 
saw this humble songwriter at cafe 939 here in boston and fell for him immediately. melancholy, wise beyond his years, and gentle in his approach, The Ladder was probably the one non-mumford album i listened to the most this year. killer lyric: on a ladder from there to here i'll climb, all this clatter between my ears i find, does it matter if i can't clear my mind, there's a right and a wrong time.
5) Bloodbuzz Ohio - The National
weird song, and not one that at first listen you would imagine to be humming hours later, but it is totally catchy. and at first glance the lyrics seem surreal and bizarre but end up being quite profound on repeated listens. killer lyric: "i still owe money to the money to the money i owe, i never thought about love when i thought about home, i still owe money to the money to the money i owe, the floors are falling out from everybody i know."

Books (required reading)

1) Practice Resurrection Eugene Peterson
the fifth and final installment to his "conversations in spiritual theology" series, which is my all time favorite canon of books on theology. i absolutely, with no hesitation, recommend these books to anyone the least bit interested in theology.  
2) Almost Christian Kenda Creasy Dean
maybe the "problem" with youth ministry isn't youth pastors, or the culture, or facebook, but the church? that's the central question of this startling book. dean argues that the "problem" with youth ministry is that we (adults, the church, theology) are not giving kids a compelling story to live, rather we are simply asking them to be "nice" (the cult of "moral therapeutic deism"). challenging stuff.
3a and b) The Seven Storey Mountain Thomas Merton and God Was In This Place and I, I Did Not Know Lawrence Kushner
a little bit of mysticism here in the middle of the top five list. these authors go about this in very different ways (one is Jewish, the other Catholic; one a midrash, the other an autobiography), but both push the reader to open themselves up to presence of God in the midst of us: right here, right now.
5) The Wisdom of Stability Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
a challenge to buck the cultural trend of constant movement and upward mobility and to see stability (calling one place home) as a spiritual discipline.

Book (non-required)

1) Born to Run Christopher McDougall
one of the most well written books of any type or genre i have ever read. i actually like the next book on the list more, but McDougall gets top billing for doing an amazing job at weaving everything from bio-mechanics to anthropology to good-old-fashioned sports writing into a masterpiece. you don't have to like running at all to appreciate this work.
2) Are We Winning Will Leitch
i love books. i love books about baseball. i love books about coming of age. i love books about quirky/semi-dysfunctional young guys who finally decide to get their stuff together. this book is all of that in one. changing the setting to san francisco would be the ONLY way to make me love this book more. i look forward to reading it again soon.
3) Cardboard Gods Josh Wilker
in many ways this book is very similar to Are We Winning, only the era is different and the style a bit more literary. i loved holding and looking at this book, and reading it wasn't a chore either =)
4) Zeitoun Dave Eggers
eggers made a name, and a fortune, for himself by telling his story (some would say "exploiting" and "embellishing" but i would vehemently disagree). since then he's taken to telling other people's stories. this is the most straight-forward, simple storytelling eggers has done, but it still packs an emotional punch. i love what he is trying to do and i hope he keeps on doing it. 
5) All Souls Michael Patrick MacDonald
talk to anyone who has lived in boston for the last 20 years and they have an opinion on this book. a strong one. a customer at starbucks who grew up in southie and moved out when he went to college calls it a "pack of lies." our friend bob says it's pretty accurate. the divisiveness makes me think he hit on some sort of truth. very helpful in illuminating some recent boston history, the racial tensions and divisions that still exist, and the yearning for peace that still permeates our streets. 

Movies

Didn't watch many movies this year, again. I will point you towards Willie's excellent movie blog because he will probably have some good year end stuff up soon. Here are a few i did enjoy in no particular order: Toy Story 3, Inception, The Town, The Fighter (love the Boston area films =), and I will be watching over and over the Giants' World Series DVD!

31459 Day 122

2009 Top 5 Lists, enjoy...

Songs

1) How He Loves Us - David Crowder Band

click here for what I’ve already said about this song...I haven’t appreciated a corporate worship song this much for a long time.

2) Blood Bank - Bon Iver

three seconds in to this song and you will already be feeling numerous emotions...that’s the genius of Bon Iver: immediate, deep emotional connection.

3) Daylight - Matt&Kim

totally weird and totally catchy...features a mildly chaotic beat and piano frenzy that will keep you humming for hours. the fun side of indie-pop.

4) Eet - Regina Spektor

love regina, but I'm not sure if this is my favorite song of hers...good place to start though...and it did get a lot of listens this year.

5) Epistemology - M. Ward

great love/be yourself song with theological undertones (or is it overtones)...but the best part comes at 1:33 during the “solo” when the fuzzy guitars and mandolin/banjo get all funky...i could listen to that bit of the song over and over again.

Honorable Mention: I listened, as did the rest of America, to a lot of Kings of Leon this year, so I guess I should mention that honorably.

Books (required reading)

1) A Million Miles in a Thousand Years Donald Miller

everyone has an opinion on Donald Miller...he’s the greatest thing ever...he’s an Anne Lamott hack...he’s the voice of a generation...he doesn’t like women...and on and on it goes. but people have an opinion because he’s successful and because he’s honest. that will get you every time. i’ve already written and talked (God's story-Your story) about this book, so I don’t have much new to say except for this: you can see that Miller has been broken by life and matured since Blue Like Jazz and so have I, so I think I appreciated that as much anything. also, Amy and I LOVED reading this out loud to each other.

2) The Drama of Doctrine Kevin J. VanHoozer

the most scholarly book i've read since seminary, this served as our staff reading for the fall. vanhoozer’s masterpiece is both grounding and will also push your thinking. i found it both greatly affirming of the way we do campus ministry while also helping us to take some important steps forward, particularly as we think and dream about Sojourn campus expressions.

3) Drops Like Stars Rob Bell

this book is a little silly actually. you can read it in about an hour or two, but it is the size of a laptop computer...more of a coffee table book. don’t let the unusual packaging fool you, though, it is quite profound. we saw Rob Bell speak on this book and I think that experience is what pushes Drops Like Stars in to the top 5. i could watch him talk about the weather and I would still be riveted...a master teacher.

4) Flickering Pixels Shane Hipps

a lot to think about but not a lot of answers. certainly important and timely.

5) Introverts in the Church Adam S. McHugh

i found this book to be highly affirming...a little funny at times...i think it has also Amy and I to understand each other a little bit better.

Book (non-required)

1) Sex and the Soul Donna Freitas

I could not put this book down...as weird as it sounds...absolutely captivating. her exploration of college relationships and the hookup culture leads to some interesting conclusions, some of which could not be popular in today’s academic climate. primarily she wants to know: “where, or in what context, are college students actually able to discuss matters of faith and how faith connects to the rest of life, if it does at all?” every bit as affirming to my work with Sojourn as Drama of Doctrine.

2) Getting the Blues Stephen Nichols

thank you Dennis Benson for this suggestion. i love the idea of “theology in a minor key.” my dad always wonders why I like sad songs, and now I have some theological backing. even if if you don’t like the blues, we all have to “sing” them from time to time.

3) Plainsong Kent Haruf

one of the only novels I was able to read this year. terse prose and a bleak outlook turns out to be an apologetic for community.

4) Tribes Seth Godin

a short, practical book on leadership, it has several applications, not the least of which are its implications for fund raising. no other book I read this year has been as helpful in shaping my thinking on fund raising as this one.

5) Same Kind of Different As Me Ron Hall and Denver Moore

an inspiring true tale of an unlikely friendship that saves two men’s lives. you will cry if you read this book!

Movies

1) Up

those pixar people are really, really good at story telling. i guess ultimately, this movie is about the journey being less about where you are going and more about who you are going with, but to me, it’s really about marriage and the story you tell with your spouse. i have never been as moved by a movie as when we saw this in the theater.

Honorable Mentions: didn’t watch very many movies this year but here are a few more I enjoyed: (500) Days of Summer, Away We Go, Coraline, and I Love You Man...there are a lot of movies from this year that I would really like to see =(

the end...comment away. Happy NEW Year!