Jeffrey C. Long » Books

Innerland by Eberhard Arnold

jeffreyclong — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 13:50:34 +0000

This book, written by Eberhard Arnold, the founder of the Bruderhof communities seeks to get at what he calls the heart of the gospel, which is developing the inner person in a way that develops outer transformation both in the individual, the community of believers and in the world. The language is very pious making it a little difficult at times. But I hope that it will answer some nagging questions in my spirituality.

Technorati Tags: bruderhof, eberhardarnold

Thy Kingdom Come: A Blumhardt reader edited by Vernard Eller

jeffreyclong — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 10:48:53 +0000

The publisher has taken this ebook down from their website, but since they allowed people to redistribute without commercial gain, I’m making it available here. Blessings

Technorati Tags: bruderhof, ebook, blumhardt

Jesus and the nonviolent revolution by Andre Trocme

jeffreyclong — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 10:46:42 +0000

This is a free ebook. The publisher has taken the ebook down from their website, but since they allowed people to redistribute without commercial gain, I’m making it available here. Blessings

Technorati Tags: bruderhof, peace

Jesus the Victor by Christoph Blumhardt

jeffreyclong — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 10:41:53 +0000

Free ebook download of Jesus the Victor by Christoph Blumhardt. The publisher has taken the ebook down from their website, but since they allowed people to redistribute without commercial gain, I’m making it available here. Blessings

Technorati Tags: bruderhof, ebook

Eberhard Arnold: Selected Writings

jeffreyclong — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 12:02:09 +0000

This is a selection of writings by Eberhard Arnold, founder of the Bruderhof communities. The publisher has taken the ebook down from their website, but since they allowed people to redistribute without commercial gain, I’m making it available here. Blessings

Technorati Tags: Anabaptist, eberhardarnold, puritan

Provocations by Soren Kierkegaard

jeffreyclong — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 11:47:59 +0000

Following is the ebook “Provocations” by Soren Kierkegaard. It was previously available online, but the publisher has taken down their site. I believe their copyright allows distribution in this manner. Blessings

Technorati Tags: Anabaptist, philosophy

The Early Christians

jeffreyclong — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 11:35:40 +0000

This is book edited by Eberhard Arnold, the founder of the Bruderhof communities. It includes excerpts from the writings of the first three centuries after the death of the apostles. It includes the full text of the Didache, the Shepherd of Hermas, excerpts from the Early Church Fathers and others, fully annotated. The publisher has taken the ebook down from their website, but since they allowed people to redistribute without commercial gain, I’m making it available here. Blessings

Technorati Tags: Anabaptist, bruderhof, eberhardarnold, puritan

Salt and Light by Eberhard Arnold

jeffreyclong — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 11:28:14 +0000

This is a fabulous book on the sermon on the mount by the founder of the Bruderhof communities. The publisher has taken the ebook down from their website, but since they allowed people to redistribute without commercial gain, I’m making it available here. Blessings

Technorati Tags: Anabaptist, bible, bruderhof, eberhardarnold, sermononthemount

To read

jeffreyclong — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 11:26:53 +0000

I’m sure there are many of you like myself who have stacks and stacks of books spread out between office and home. This has always been a problem for me, even when I wasn’t ministering. I get an idea in my head, think about a book to pull off the shelf or buy from Amazon, and next thing you know I’ve got a stack up to my knees.

A trick I’ve adapted from Getting Things Done is to create a toread file on my computer. Now, when I get an idea to read something, instead of pulling the book down and carrying it around with me. This has saved me a few pennies at Amazon as well. Instead of buying, I put it in my wishlist and wait ’til the new-book-fever is gone to make my decision.

If you are a user of Getting Things Done, there are a few other categories that books can go into. The first is “someday/maybe.” When I first moved to Idaho to pastor, I lived for 6 months without my family. Towards the end of that time, I thought “this is the perfect time to start learning Greek.” So I bought a Greek book with workbook. Haven’t touched it. I occassionally think to start it. But it has a new home in my someday/maybe list. This keeps it from stressing me out that I _should_ be doing it. Someday, I’ll make the time. Until then, I have a placeholder for it in this list which keeps it from nagging me.

The other place to put book ideas is in your projects support materials or next actions. Right now, I’m working on nailing down how I give invitations and how I will lead people in the process of moving from visitor-to-seeker-to-new-Christian-to-disciple. A book that I want to read on the subject is “Ancient-Future Evangelism” by Robert Webber. Again, instead of carting the book around, I put it on my next actions list. Then when I decide to pursue the subject, I’ll reach for the book.

The main thing that all of these hacks do is that they move reading and stacking from being impulses to being intentional. I still do some impulsive reading, but more often then not, it’s for pleasure, not for study or work.

This post is licensed under the Creative Commons license.

Technorati Tags: gettingthingdone, GettingThingsDone, gtd

Lifehacks

jeffreyclong — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 17:54:11 +0000

Today, I am at Moxie Java in Twin Falls, studying and writing. As I arrived, I hung my leather coat on the back of a chair, and promptly worried that I would forget it. It’s not horribly cold outside, so I could feasibly walk out, get into my car, and never remember that I brought a coat. Thinking for a moment, it hit me to put my car keys in my pocket. That way I wouldn’t be capable of leaving without my coat.

This is what’s called a lifehack. A trick to better handle the perplexities of our lives.

Another one, is from a friend. Many months ago, I was at a banquet and I needed to remember something but didn’t have pencil and paper. My friend told me to associate what I needed to remember with an object. He handed me a sugar packet and said that whenever I felt the packet in my pocket, I’d remember that thing. It worked.

I need hacks. And lots of them. As I’ve continued to wade through Getting Things Done, I’ve discovered that I keep my mind like a disorganized closet. It is so full of stuff, that I can never find something when I need it. I’ve been learning to clean it out by doing a brain dump of everything that’s on my mind and to find hacks like these to take the load off of the stuff that I have to keep in my mind.

If you’d like to learn more about Lifehacks, the following links will do you good.

Danny O’briens Notcon conference video talking about Life hacks

43folders.com Where I first discovered the Lifehacks movement and Getting Things Done

Lifehacker.com

Interview with Danny O’Brien, father of “life hacks”

Wikipedia entry for Lifehacks

del.icio.us tags for lifehacks (I subscribe to the RSS feed for this)

What tricks do you use to get through this information saturated world we live in?

Technorati Tags: GettingThingsDone, lifehacks