Here is a wrap-up of this past year and a few random thoughts of my own.

Favorites
Books Read: (no particular order)

One of the things I have been tackling this year is the ever amorphous idea of “missional” Christianity, and in particular the idea of urban ministry. I spoke a little on the paradigm shift I was facing in my post Rethinking Urban Ministry; a paradigm shift in which some of the following books played a large part.

• Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community (Re:Lit) by Tim Chester and Steve Timis
• Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church by Bishop N.T. Wright
• Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch
• Sidewalks in the Kingdom: New Urbanism and the Christian Faith (The Christian Practice of Everyday Life) by Eric Jacobsen
• Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament by Christopher J. Wright
• NLT Study Bible

Albums: (no particular order, nor necessarily released this year)

You might notice that this list has two advent albums, neither of which were released this year. I include them here for several reasons, including: they are theologically excellent, and they gave me back a passion for the Christmas season, which I typically hate.

• The Rhumb Line by Ra Ra Riot
• Behold the Lamb of God by Andrew Peterson
• Advent Songs by Sojourn Music
• Ten Stones by Woven Hand

Movie:

• The Dark Knight
• Prince Caspian (yes even despite its so-called flaws)

Things I am Thankful for in 2008

Engagment – Need I explain further?

Sojourn Community Church – You can see my post entitled, “Thank You, Sojourn,” for some various specific thanks. One I want to highlight here, which is not in that post, is the fact that through Christ-centered liturgy, and the celebration of dates from the ecclesiastical calendar, I have grown in my appreciation for standing in the current of Christian history- a current flowing from Adam to Abraham, David to Isaiah, Paul to Augustine, and so forth up until the present day. From Ash Wednesday to Advent, to (in a little while) the celebration of Epiphany. I love my Sojourn family!

Social Media – Yeah. No kidding. See my article on Redeeming Twitter for the Kingdom, and then apply it to such sites as Facebook and others. Did you know that “blogs” fall under this banner? Social media tools are excellent resources to accentuate already existing community or launching community- but never as a substitute for community.

Looking forward to in 2009

Marriage – This is a direct result of issue of thankfulness, 2008, number 1 above.

Sojourn Community Church – I’ve been gathering with this church for a little over a year now, and I absolutely love the community I’ve found myself in. Sinful people, living messy lives together, leaning wholly on God’s grace and mercy first and their brothers and sisters second. I’m excited to see how I can better serve Sojourn through the gifts God has given me next year, and to sit at the feet of elders, deacons, and fellow members and just learn about life and God.

Greek and Hebrew – I’m really looking forward to improving my proficiency in the original languages next year- and I’m doing so by jumping into 1 Peter and Hebrew Syntax in the upcoming semester. I’ve only been studying Greek for a year, and Hebrew for a semester, but I can already see improvements in my reading and understanding of Greek¹. I’m excited to continue learning and learning. I’ve got a few books coming in soon on linguistics and other issues that are sure to help as well.

Well, that’s all I can think of at the moment. If I think of anything else I’ll be sure to edit this post and add them. I pray that God will bless you and keep you in this new year!