Here’s a few things going down in south side of Nat-town with me, lol:

• First, some personal-related stuff
  • I’ll be going to a wedding March 22 in Dry Prong, LA. It’s the wedding of one of my best friends, and they’re having barbecue
  • I imagine his bachelor party will be March 8. I’m not sure what’s going down, but I hear a small part of the day will be taken up by playing a mass-game of Dungeons and Dragons (pen & paper style)! The story for the game will be us having a bachelor party and being invaded by orcs and ogres. (This would be geeky if we did it all the time, but it’s only like once a year)
  • I go to the National Collegiate Conference (sponsered by AITP) to compete against some of the best computer/information system students in the U.S. It’s being held in Memphis, TN and I’ll be staying in the five-star Peabody hotel. Dates are March 27-29.
• Next, some blog-related stuff
  • I plan on dropping a M.O.A.B. (mother of all bombs) on Landmark theology sometime soon (I promise to be nice). I have the post saved, but unpublished, and still needing some work. I’ll be challenging the traditional thought surrounding Matt. 16:18. You can look forward to that soon. I’ll pledge 10 minutes each day to work on it until I’m finished.
  • I imagine there’ll be other stuff as I read the books I’m about to start reading. In the meantime, here is N.T. Wright on the Gospel, and in fact, here is the whole interview on this blog I found.  I found another potentially interesting blog as well, something that white people like me should probably be reading more of.
• Finally, some book-related stuff
  • Do You Like Jesus but Not the Church? Exploring Uncomfortable Questions about Christianity and the Church — Dan Kimball
    • I really look forward to reading this one, though I fear it is a rehash of his last book under a similar name.
  • The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier — Tony Jones
    • I’m really not sure what to expect with this one. I heard its the best book of its type since McLaren’s “A New Kind of Christian.”
  • Vintage Jesus: Timeless Answers to Timely Questions — Mark Driscoll
    • This is going to be a pretty awesome theology book about Jesus Christ and His nature and work. No doubt very conservative (though highly Reformation/Calvinistic) in tone. Driscoll’s a new kind of Calvinist though in that his theology doesn’t lead him to be anti-missional.
  • Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church — N.T. Wright
    • This is my first N.T. Wright (and hopefully the first of many). He challenges an erroneous position of theology that Christianity (particularly Western theology) has held to for centuries. He basically says Heaven is not “it”, there is no rapture, that God will restore the earth fully one day, that there is more to life than the “hereafter” there is also the “here and now”, and how is the Gospel “now” focused as opposed to “later” focused.
  • Jesus For President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals — Shane Claiborne
    • This book isn’t what you think. Jerry Falwell, Anne Coulter, and the rest are all shown to be preaching something far, far away from what the Bible teaches. He doesn’t pick sides (Rep’s or Dem’s) near as much as he advocates forsaking all of it. This book is heavily anti-war/pro-peace. I know that a lot of my readers are for the war (or war in general), and I challenge each of you to read this book and not have your beliefs changed. He quotes the Bible, early Christians, etc. all of which were anti-war, give or take. He shows pictures that will challenge everything you believe. He tells stories (even some of military mistreatment) that will leave you awe-struck. A point he makes, is how can we pledge allegiance to the American flag, the Christian flag, and the Bible, and not be in conflict with what Jesus said, “How can you serve both God and mammon. You can’t, either you’ll hate the one and love the other…” Not to mention… this book has THE coolest design all-throughout-it ever!!!
  • A Nation of Sheep — Andrew Napolitano
    • This book is my final book yet to read by the author about how our freedoms have been taken away, our government is tyrannical, and how we basically don’t care.
  • How Capitalism Saved America: The Untold History of our Country, from the Pilgrims to the Present — Thomas DiLorenzo
    • It’s just what the name implies. How “truly” free markets are what made us great.