July 3 -- "The Unlikely Disciple"
This is a great book! A few years ago, 19 year old Kevin Roose, a student at Brown University, decided to study elsewhere for a semester. Fellow students were opting for out of country cross-cultural experiences. Kevin opted for something closer to home, but it might as well have been a different world. He went to study at America's Holiest University, Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. That's right, Jerry Falwell's university, the founder of the Moral Majority.

His book, "The Unlikely Disciple," tells the story. I have to admit that I expected an attack on conservative evangelicals. Instead, I read an extremely sensitive and thought provoking story from a young man with an open mind and heart. I laughed and cried and learned from a very wise young man how intolerant I can be of people who see things differently than I . Kevin Roose wades right into the middle of the culture wars and teaches the reader sensitivity, grace, and to look beyond easy answers and categories.

Church of the Joyful Healer has ordered several copies to sell and folk will have three opportunities to discuss this book in August. Saturday the 11th in the morning, we will discuss it at Church Family Camp, Sunday August 19th at 12:30pm and August 26 at 12:30. Each time we will take a part of the book, read some paragraphs together and discuss the issues it raises. We will work at ways to bring peace in the midst of the culture wars rather than just keep the war going.

Get this book! I think you will enjoy the read.