The Next Christians by Gabe Lyon

With one hand on the pulse of society and the other on Christianity, Gabe Lyon’s book The Next Christians, challenges believers to embrace being Christians in this day and age. As our society has changed, so must the methods of Christianity. What worked to reach our parents or grandparents generation, will not reach our generation or the next generation of people. Filled with many true life stories, Lyons shows in practical terms what being a Christian and a godly influence in this day and age means today.

"I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review"

A Year in Review: Checking in on the 25 in 25

Here is the 25 in 25 list. I started this about halfway through the year, sometime in August of 2010. So I definitely did not expect to get everything done, which is why some of the things were reposted on the 26 in 26 list. But I did accomplish a few things. :-)

25 in 25

1. Grow Closer to God - While spiritual growth can be hard to see. I definitely know and can see some growth. Being an intern at Mill Pond Church has totally grown me and stretched me. I needed that.
2. Learn sign language - I bought The Joy of Signing at the end of the summer and started going through that a little bit. I will work on this more and try to begin practicing it.
3. Find a full time job - Well, not what I expected, but I am currently in an internship with Mill Pond Church. Technically it is part time, but it has become my life now.
4. Read a non-fiction book a month - Of the 7 months, I think I only missed 2. Not bad for this one.
5. Write some devotionals
6. Lead a small group - I teach my first lesson with my high school Connect group next week.
7. Visit a castle - Researched a few, found some surprisingly close, but haven't made it to any. Maybe when spring/summer comes.
8. Go on a mission trip
9. Go on a date - Well, I have a boyfriend. We've been long distance the whole time, but I still can cross this one off.
10. Pay off one of my loans
11. Get on track with a budget - I definitely need to work on this area, but I am more aware of things now and have a sense of where I need to go.
12. Get my first apartment
13. Buy a car
14. Get health insurance
15. Finish my “Legacy Drawer” - I have worked on putting this together, but it is not finished.
16. Finish Philippines Journal - Another that has been started but not finished.
17. Get recipes in order - I am not sure what the best way for me is to go about this, but I have organized a lot of my recipes and have begun trying out the new ones.
18. Write devotionals - Somehow this was on here twice. But needless to say other than writing notes and ideas down, it hasn't gotten done.
19. Work on OT Curriculum
20. Work on NT Curriculum
21. Put Scripture together with my verses
22. Make at least three collage frames with the Scripture/verses
23. Finish reading all of Tracie Peterson’s books - I didn't read all of them, boy are there a lot. But I probably read close to half of them. Figured out they all have similar progression while the characters and incidents may be different. I'm happy with what I read that I could cross this off.
24. Put together a dream book of things I want to do (aka Bucket List) - Yup. It's posted on the blog somewhere.
25. Make a list of habits I want to start and make a plan to start them - Monday Meanderings and my bucket list helped me work on this.

26 in 26

Happy Birthday to me. It's not even 8 am and I've had birthday wishes from around the world! The Philippines, Germany, Hungary, Nigeria, Poland, and of course the USA.


I started thinking about this list at the beginning of the year and finished it this morning. Here's is my 26 in 26, or my list of goals to try to accomplish while I'm 26.

26 in 26

1. Grow closer to God
2. Work on learning sign language and find opportunities to practice it.
3. Find a full time job
4. Get on track with a working budget
5. Pay extra on my loans (ideally at least equivalent to 13 payments a year, hopefully more)
6. Move out on my own, hopefully with a roommate.
7. Buy a car
8. Get health insurance
9. Read a ministry minded book a month
10. Read a fun book a month (fiction, classics, etc)
11. Publish some of my writings
12. Go on a mission trip
13. Begin learning to play the piano
14. Sell some of my photographs
15. Write a book of curriculum (Marty the Miner)
16. Buy and learn Adobe Photoshop
17. Pick out at least one new recipe a week (or month if have limited access to a kitchen) to try
18. Go to a local play (community or local school)
19. Listen to podcasts regularly
20. Learn to decorate cakes
21. Visit a castle
22. Paint something
23. Go on a road trip
24. Scrapbook (or make digital books)
25. Do something spontaneous once a month
26. Put together a list of resources for the various age groups/ministries as well as activities and ideas for various occasions.

Number 14 actually has been sort of accomplished already. I'd like to continue with it, but i was just notified two days ago that a photo I submitted to CAMP-of-the-WOODS' marketing department was chosen to be made into a postcard and sold in the bookstore this summer. They were wanting to update their postcards and asked for submissions from the staff and campers.