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Where are the playlists?

I was working this week on stuff for our men’s small group that we’ve recently started on Saturday mornings. We’ve been meeting at 7:30 a.m. on Saturdays which sounds ridiculous but we’ve had a great turn out and great discussion every morning. I know many of our men have commented that it works great for their schedule in that they can have a few hours to spend with the guys in the morning and pick up some donuts for the family on the way home. It’s quickly becoming one of the favorite parts of my week. 

I’ve been doing a three part series from the book, Point Man, by Steve Farrar. This week while prepping for a discussion on the importance of committing to spiritual disciplines, I was reminded of how many weeks have passed since I posted a Friday playlist. Steve writes this in his book about the temptation to slack off in your attention to reading scripture. 

Every morning at home, as I step off the stairs, I have to make a decision. What I want to do is open the door and pick up the paper. What I need to do is make a left turn, go over to the bookshelf in the family room, and get my Bible. Every single morning, it’s the same dilemma! Nearly every morning in my life, I have to make a conscious effort to read the Bible. You’d think it would get easier the longer I make the choice. But it doesn’t, at least not for me. The temptation to do something else is always there.

I don’t know why I find what Steve is sharing here to be so true, but I do share his sentiment. The temptation I face in the morning is to plow through the morning email, check my Google reader or see what happened the previous night in the world of sports. Everyday, no matter how many consecutive days I’ve been faithful in that practice, that temptation is there, and one of the reasons I started working up the Friday playlists is that I knew it was a way to be accountable to something else in that practice. 

But I was reminded of something else while getting ready for Saturday. I was reminded of the other reason I started the playlists… that for many, the idea of personal bible study sounds incredibly intimidating. In the spring I did a survey of our congregation and that was the number one barrier most people said they were dealing with. They didn’t know where to start, how much to read, and often didn’t understand what they were reading. This was the other reason I started the Friday Playlists.

So all that is to say, expect to see a new playlist posted next Friday, July 4th. In the meantime, you can find the three books I’ve already published a reading plan for here. 

I had thought about doing Genesis next, but if anyone out there has another book you’d like to do next, leave me a comment and let me know.