Articles from our E-Update

Gathering Board's Top Picks for Summer Reading

We asked a few of our Gathering Board members to share a little bit about themselves and what they're reading this summer. You may want to add one of their recommendations to your summer reading list! For more information on each book, click on it's title under "Related Links" above.

Board Member: Fred Smith

Age: 63

Occupation: President, The Gathering

Hometown: Tyler, Texas

Recommended book: Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power by James McGrath Morris

What it's about: This is the biography of Joseph Pulitzer, a Jewish Hungarian immigrant who virtually created mass media. In doing so, he accumulated extraordinary financial power and influence and transformed American journalism into a medium of mass consumption and immense political and cultural sway. "As the first media baron to recognize the vast social changes of the industrial revolution, he harnessed all the converging elements of entertainment, technology, business and demographics, and made the newspaper an essential feature of urban life."

Why you recommend it: We live in a world informed and influenced by mass media. More than that, to understand the personal drive (and serious pathologies) of individuals who change the world is always instructive.

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Board Member: Julie Johnson

Age: 53

Occupation: Homemaker, Trustee

Hometown: Hayden, Idaho

Recommended book: The Prodigal God by Tim Keller

What it's about: "Tim Keller uncovers the essential message of Jesus, locked inside his most familiar parable. Within that parable Jesus reveals God's prodigal grace toward both the irreligious and the moralistic." (The Prodigal God flyleaf)

"There are two kind of lostness. That's the reason Jesus put the elder brother in the parable. You can escape God as much through morality and religion as you can escape God through immorality and irreligion..." TheProdigal God p. 42

Why you recommend it:

This book is profoundly hopeful and deeply convicting. I identified with my own elder and younger brother approaches to God but learned how God is always seeking to restore me to Himself. Rarely do I get so absorbed in a book that I not only lose a sense of time and place while reading but continue to think about the concepts long after the last chapter. I now find myself more thankful for God's grace and love and more compassionate towards the people around me. It is short, well written and ideal for further study and discussion. The Prodigal God would make an excellent family or small group summer reading selection.

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Board Member: Steve Beck

Age: I'm in the 40-50 age range(!)

Occupation: Investor

Hometown: San Jose, CA/London, England

hiladelphia, PA

Recommended book: Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa by Dambisa Moyo

What it's about: In Dead Aid, Dambisa Moyo describes the state of postwar development policy in Africa today and unflinchingly confronts a great myth: that billions of dollars in aid sent from wealthy countries to developing African nations has helped to reduce poverty and increase growth. In fact, poverty levels continue to escalate and growth rates have steadily declined, while millions continue to suffer. Drawing a sharp contrast between African countries that have rejected the aid route and prospered and others that have become aid-dependent and seen poverty increase, Moyo illuminates the way in which an overreliance on aid has trapped developing nations in a vicious circle of dependency, corruption, market distortion, and further poverty. Debunking the current model of international aid promoted by both Hollywood celebrities and policy makers, she offers a bold new road map for financing the development of the world's poorest countries.

Why you recommend it: Although Moyo's primary critique is leveled at "official development assistance" (state-to-state aid), a number of the concerns she highlights apply to the informal private giving that is most familiar to all of us. The book prompts difficult questions: Does our giving feed an inflated sense of our own role ("rescuing the oppressed", "saving the lost", "empowering the poor") and foster on-going dependency? Do we recognize the inherent limitations of aid (charity) - the lack of sustainability and scalability of charity-fueled initiatives?

Additional comments: The book caused quite a stir in aid and international development circles when it came out 18 months ago, ruffling more than a few feathers. While Moyo sometimes overreaches to make her point, it's refreshing to hear from an African woman on a topic and in a field that has been (unsuccessfully) "led" by western academics, politicians and NGO leaders.

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Board Member: Michael Maples

Age: 53

Occupation: Real Estate Development

Your Hometown: Newport Beach, CA

Recommended book: Harvard Business Review on Leading Through Change (Harvard Business Review Paperback Series) by Harvard Business School Press

What it's about: Several preeminent thinkers each write a chapter about leading organizations through change.

Why you recommend it: Many of us find ourselves involved in non-profits that need to change. Their closely held paradigms of how to do ministry are not as effective as they once were and the reality is they can change and flourish or they can slowly become obsolete. This book is not a "page turner", but it is thought provoking and gives exposure to several significant authors and their key thoughts on leading through change.

Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power

The Prodigal God

Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa

Harvard Business Review on Leading Through Change

One of the nation's leading experts on helping adoptive and foster parents connect with their children, Dr. Karyn Purvis, will speak at the 2010 Gathering in San Diego this September. Dr Purvis is co-author of The Connected Child, and her website, Empowered to Connect, contains a wealth of resources for parents adopting children from hard places or backgrounds.

Watch Video of Karen Purvis: "What Is That in Your Hand?"

Visit the Empowered to Connect website

Download a free copy of Dr. Purvis' study guide, Created to Connect

Preview The Connected Child on Amazon

Article: Karyn Purvis featured on Dateline

There's a growing need among churches today for good information related to successful ministry to children with special needs. "The Inclusive Church" is a great new blog that addresses that issue. It's full of insight and best practices gleaned from individuals experienced in disability ministry as well as secular professionals in the special needs community. Check it out!

Click to visit "The Inclusive Church" website

The head of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has pledged to let science dictate funding priorities when it comes to decisions related to global health. But is science alone an adequate ethicist? What theological considerations should be taken into account when answering questions related to medical aid, and how might these same questions apply to world evangelization?

Click to read article

Related: Gates Rethinks His War on Polio

Movie producer Nicole Holofcener may not have all the answers, but her latest film, "Please Give" is asking some great questions, such as: How does one remain compassionate in a privileged and busy world? Is it possible to raise children to see beyond their own sense of entitlement? In this interview, learn how she hopes her movie will address issues of materialism, disparity, need, and selfishness. Then, go see it!

Click to read interview

Click to watch a trailer from "Please Give"

Has the American Dream lulled Christians in America into believing that Jesus doesn't mind materialism, that he would never call us to give away everything we have, and that he will bring us comfort and prosperity? Up-and-coming megachurch pastor David Platt thinks so. His new book, Radical, encourages believers to take back their faith from the American Dream.

Click to read article

Click to watch a video of David Platt talking about his book, Radical

Learn more about or purchase Radical at amazon.com

Click to read a World Magazine review of Platt's book, Radical