On Christian Book Club we are now reading Mark Buchanan’s “The Holy Wild”. We have read and discussed one of Mark’s book last year, “Your God is Too Safe”, and most of you found Mark to have a writing style that caused you to stop and reflect on who God is. As I have started reading “The Holy Wild” I think you will have draw the same conclusions. It is a very good book so far. The book is broken into three parts and so this month we will take about 10 days to read and discuss each of the parts. Part 1 is called “Drink From This Stream”, Part 2 is called “Stand in This Place, and Part 3 is called “Search These Woods”.

I look forward to reading your comments as Buchanan talks about God’s faithfulness and what that means to us. I am going to include a video that I found on You Tube where Mark is talking about one of his other books. I like to be able to watch and listen to the authors whenever possible. Sometimes it helps me connect to the writing in ways I might not have otherwise. I will also include a link to the book in case you don’t have it yet.

The Holy Wild: Trusting in the Character of God By Mark Buchanan / Multnomah It’s the direst question in human existence: Can God be trusted? With refreshing honesty, Buchanan poignantly explains what’s riding on our answer. Whether we’re peaceful or suspicious, happy or discontented, everything hangs on our perception of divine character—and matters mightily at the day of our death. Discover meaning for your life—and joy for living! 292 pages, hardcover from Multnomah.

I will be praying for all of you to have a truly blessed 2009!

I recently had someone mail me a copy of “The Shack” by William P Young.  I have been hearing a lot about the book and it is one of those books that people seem to either really like or really dislike.  It appears to me that the book will make for some excellent discussion and so I am adding it to the Christian Book Club as our February 2009 selection.  Our Christian Book Club Online site has been getting a lot of searches for The Shack so in order to provide those of you who are looking for information about the book I found the actual website and copied one of the articles from the site by William Young the author of The Shack.  I am reprinting it here with permission.

Okay, now you have to try and understand how weird this is.  I am sitting in Eagle Creek, in a rented house, writing a story for my kids.  I am not writing a story that I intend or expect will be published.  Actually the thought never even entered my mind.  I was going to write this thing as a gift, then go down to Office Depot or Kinkos or somewhere and photoshop a cool cover, put it in a spiral bound book sort of thing, and that would be that.

So is the story true?  The pain, the loss, the grief, the process, the conversations, the questions, the anger, the longing, the secrets, the lies, the forgiveness…all real, all true.  The story in particular… fiction… but….  Then there is God who emerges so very real and true, unexpected and yet not unexpected, but surprising and… 

If you want more information on The Shack you can find it at www.theshackbook.com.  We hope you will consider joining our Christian Book Club (it’s free) as we read a good book every month and then discuss it together.

We are doing everything we can to keep another day from going by without you joining the Christian Book Club. All you need to do is decide when you want to start. To join in just begin commenting on the Current Christian Book Club book we are reading. That’s it! No gimmicks. If you don’t have the book, figure out if you have time to get it and read it before the month runs out, or just get ready for the Next Christian Book Club. We start a new book at the beginning of every month. If you don’t have the book or can’t get it from the library, go to the Christian Book Club Books page and order it there. You can also see what book we will be reading in the months ahead. Then just read the book and leave your comments. We look forward to reading them!

We also suggest signing for either the free RSS feed or the free E-mail subscription. That way when a new discussion article is put on the site, you will get a copy in your inbox and you wont miss anything. Come to the site as often as you can to read and leave comments. We have people from all over the country who are joining up, we hope that one of them will be you.

You may notice the Gravatar symbols on the comments. Gravatars are recognized symbols used on sites all over the world. They are free to use and you can get yours at www.gravatar.com. You can upload a picture of yourself or use your favorite graphic. You don’t have to have a Gravatar to leave a comment, but it is a fun way for people to recognize you.

We aren’t sure how much longer we can stretch this day, so join up now! Start reading, start commenting, and enjoy!