About a week and a half ago, I posted about my plans to help bring my son from childhood to manhood. Tonight, we talked about the ceremony together. I explained to him the purposes of the ceremony:

1. Mark his transition away from childhood and into young adulthood
2. Define what it means to be a man and encourage him to that goal
3. Chart a course for his becoming a man, including goals for the next year and beyond.
4. Help him identify more closely with the men in his life than he has in the past, to begin the transition toward identifying with them as peers when he is an adult.

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Another book that I have read recently is: Don’t Waste Your Life, by John Piper. Like Mark Driscoll, John Piper is one of those pastors that I like to listen to. Frankly, I have not been listening to Piper’s sermons recently. I found this book very thought provoking. At its heart, this book is an application of the themes that John Piper is best known for. His catch phrase is probably that “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” In this book, Piper tries to kindle the fire of applying this concept in daily life. Using an illustration from his evangelist father’s life, of a man late in life who finally accepted Christ, and realized that he had wasted nearly his entire life, Piper tries to encourage his readers to find out how to live so that Christ may be glorified in our lives.
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I just finished reading Mark Driscoll’s book: Confessions of a Reformission Rev.: Hard Lessons From an Emerging Missional Church. I found it to be a very engaging, and at times funny read. I have finally begun making time to read on a more regular basis. This is one that I have wanted to read for a while, and was one of the first few books on my list to start.

In this book, Driscoll tells the story of Mars Hill Church, the church in Seattle that he pastors. Over the last 11 years, it has grown from a handful of people to over 6,000. Driscoll, in his own somewhat profane way, tells of many mistakes that he made on the way, how God blessed the church in spite of their mistakes, and tells of his vision and strategy for developing a church that will glorify God and draw unbelievers in a city that is known for unbelievers.
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My son, who is also my oldest will turn 12 later this year. I am now looking for resources to help him navigate the next six years of his life and as turns from a boy into a man. I am also searching the scriptures specifically for what character traits are most important in a man, so that I can develop ways to encourage those traits.

Finally, after a conversation with one of my good friends a couple of weeks ago, I am trying to think of one or more rites of passage to help him gain respect for himself and confidence in his own abilities, and to help him recognize the transition that he is making.
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I just finished reading a book. This is worth commenting on for two reasons. First, it is the first book that I have had the time to read in a couple of years that was not children’s literature. It seems that 90% of my reading these days is either at work or to my kids.

The other reason that this is worth commenting on is that it was a good book. I read Riding with the Blue Moth by Bill Hancock. The background on the book is that Hancock’s son Will was on the airplane from Oklahoma State University that crashed several years ago killing one basketball player and several staff members of the basketball program. Hancock begins by telling of his grief and depression. Eventually, he decides that it is time to start putting “one foot in front of the other.” To jumpstart this process he and his wife decide to pursue his long time dream of riding his bicycle across the United States.
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