Dear Rowland

From a ‘Net counsellee in the UK:

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I haven’t done one of your 19 questions for a while, so I had a bit of spare time last night and was feeling a reflective mood, so here it is… 12. What books and/or movies, great works of art etc. have most influenced you? What are your favourite Bible passages/texts? Why?

OK – favourite movies;

Regarding Henry (with Harrison Ford) . A really nasty, ruthless lawyer gets shot and is left virtually powerless and with little memory. Slowly he learns to regain the use of his body, to speak again, and to rebuild his life.and yet. as he rebuilds it he discovers that he doesn’t much like who and what he was. Now suddenly he has a chance to choose a different ‘him’.

Shirley Valentine. A bored, middle class housewife escapes from the UK for a holiday in Spain, and refuses to come back. It’s full of flash-backs to her childhood, and it’s a is there more to life than this? story.

Most piercing quote in a film; in the film Educating Rita, Rita recalls sitting in a pub with her friends and family while they all sing some inane pub-tune. “Of all the songs, I thought, there’s got to be a better song to sing in life than this.”

Books? Urban Harvest (Roy Joslin) – opened my eyes to the fact that urban ministry is tough and calls for creative thinking and a return to radical Biblical methods.

Urban Christian (Ray Bakke) – gave me a coherent global urban perspective and showed that being an urban pastor was possible

You Are My God (David Watson) – first book I read after my conversion. Introduced me to a Christianity that was charismatic, evangelical, evangelistic and positive, and to a church that was creative, innovative, and a prophetic community. Marvellous stuff.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Stephen Covey) – ok, so he’s a Mormon. But THE best all-round book I have read on the whole subject of time management. It’s just light years ahead of everything else. It’s moral and ethical, rejects quick-fix solutions, argues for principles and not just what-works-is-what’s-right , it focuses on self-leadership and not just time management. It’s like a life-management Bible..if that’s not heretical

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (John Maxwell) – read it shortly after I left my first church (or should I say ‘resigned’). I read it and thought ‘yep, broke that law.yeah, that one too.arr, so that’s why so-and-so happened when I did that..’ It was a real ‘lights going on experience’. I wish someone had made me read it BEFORE I messed-up my first church. (However, would I have appreciated it then? Probably not)

Works of Art – sorry I am a complete Philistine when it comes to great art and music.

yours