{"id":147,"date":"2008-04-05T23:35:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-05T23:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chadstutzman.net\/?p=147"},"modified":"2008-04-05T23:35:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-05T23:35:00","slug":"just-finished-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/?p=147","title":{"rendered":"Just finished Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I finished two books this weekend.  I had been working on these books for a few months and finally finished them both.  One of the books I was using as a book study with a group of guys I meet with every other Tuesday morning for breakfast.  The book is called &#8220;Simple Church&#8221; by Thom Rainer &#038; Eric Geiger.  They did a study on churches that are growing and those that are stagnate or declining.  This book shares the results of those studies.  It is very interesting.  <\/p>\n<p>The bottom line is that the churches that keep it simple and made it clear and easy for people to grow spiritually were growing.  The churches that offered a lot of programs and minstries were declining.  We have had some great discussions about our churches.  The guys in my group go to a different church, so it was nice to hear their perspective on this stuff as well.  If you are involved at your church I would highly recommend you read this book.<\/p>\n<p>The other book I finished is called &#8220;Soul Cravings&#8221; by Erwin Raphael McManus.  This is an incredible book.  It is different in its layout and design, more like a journal than a book.  McManus talks about Intimacy, Destiny, Meaning and Seeking God.  He addresses some of the tough questions about God and why we exist and how we are wired.  I found Soul Cravings to be a refreshing, thought provoking book.  If you are seeking to know God and yourself better, this book may help.  I plan on giving some of these away.  <\/p>\n<p>One of the quotes toward the end of the book says &#8220;God has placed cravings within your soul that will drive you insane or drive you to him.  Your soul longs for God; you just may not know it yet.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are all searching for truth.<br \/>We are all looking for God.<br \/>We crave meaning.<br \/>We long to trust.<br \/>We need to believe in something.<br \/>We need to believe in someone.<br \/>We need to believe in God.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>McManus is real and relevant in his writing.  He is clearly a free thinker and not stuck in being religious.  He stresses relationship and intimacy, read it for yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I finished two books this weekend. I had been working on these books for a few months and finally finished them both. One of the books I was using as a book study with a group of guys I meet with every other Tuesday morning for breakfast. The book is called &#8220;Simple Church&#8221; by Thom &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/?p=147\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Just finished Reading&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-growth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}