My father recently went on an Honor Flight out of Columbus to Washington, D.C., to see the World War II Memorial.  The group took very good care of my father and other veterans on the flight.  He also got a t-shirt which said Honor Flight on the front.  The back had two sentences,  If you can read this thank a teacher.  If you can read this in English thank a veteran.  I am so glad I don't have to do my summer reading in German.

Reading is a gift from God.  I have fewer meetings and a slightly slower schedule that allows me to read in the summer.  I read for my work in ministry (journals, preaching preparation, etc.), I read for news to keep informed, and I read for pleasure.  I thought I'd share with you some of my summer reading that might spark some interest.  On days it's too hot and humid to do anything else outside safely, enjoy a book and share in the gift of reading God has given you.

I first finished a book I had started in the spring, a book recommended to clergy and church leaders by Ohio Conference Minister Bob Molsberry.  The book was Recreating the Church: Leadership for the Postmodern Age, by Richard Hamm.  This is an excellent book recognizing, while we may not always be sure where we are going, this is not the church of our fathers and mother.  Hamm was the former head of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), our partner denomination.

My favorite preacher in America is Barbara Brown Taylor.  She is an Episcopal priest who first served a church in downtown Atlanta and then in Clarksville, GA.  Her book Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith is the spiritual journey she took leaving the people she loved and her local parish ministry to teach at a college.  In her journey she discovers through her "sabbath" that she is now finding the God she was missing in  ministry.  She continues to teach at Piedmont College and Columbia Theological  Seminary.

I've enjoyed for pleasure reading the books of Jimmy Buffett.  Yes, this is one and the same as the musician (and fisherman) of "Margarettaville" and "Parrot Head" concert fame.  Buffett's Swine Not is a fictional tale of a pig that moves with her family from Tennessee to New York City.  The family must hide the adventurous pig that is not    permitted in the hotel.  While I liked Jimmy's other books, this one was just silly but fun to read from a young person's perspective.

My children gave me two sports books.  As I write this Pastor's Corner, I'm halfway through Kenny Mayne's An Incomplete & Inaccurate History of Sport.  Mayne's quirky humor seen on ESPN is central to the book.  I also got an autographed copy of Tim Kurkjian's Is this a Great Game of What?.  Kurkjian is an ESPN reporter who has covered Major League Baseball for more than twenty-five years.

I've also been looking over a book that is part of a new series on preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Feasting on the Word, edited by David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor.  This is a resource that looks at the Lectionary readings from theological, pastoral, exegetical and homiletical perspectives.  It's not common reading for most people but true Feasting on the Word for preacher types.  The volume begins with the Advent readings for this coming December.

More books in my stack are National Public Radio's Krista Tippett's Speaking of Faith: Why Religion Matters-and How to Talk About It; Garrison Keillor's Pontoon, a novel of Lake Wobegon; Edwin H. Friedman's A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix; a book that focuses on Family Systems Theory, Ronald W. Richardson's Becoming a Healthier Pastor; Martin Marty's The Christian World: A Global History; William Lee Miller's President Lincoln, and, The Luminous Web by Barbara Brown Taylor.  The Luminous Web I have read before but need to read it again in preparation for the Adult Education Class where it will be used this fall.

If you haven't got of a stack of reading for this summer, I hope that I've piqued your interest to read something new.  Enjoy the gift of reading God has given to you.