Monday, December 30, 2019

A Complaint Free World

Here is my sermon from Sunday. It was to introduce the Complaint Free World project.

In episode 166 of Seinfeld, entitled “the strike”, we hear of an unusual holiday that Frank Costanza had invented called Festivus, or the Festivus for the rest of us, which was said to be created in opposition to the commercialization of Christmas. But, in the show Festivus begins with a meal and then is followed by a particular event, and just to test any Seinfeldians out there, what happens after the meal? It’s the airing of grievances, or as Frank Costanza says, "I got a lotta problems with you people, and now you're going to hear about it!" While we might not be as blunt as that, or at least not normally, the truth is that we all do a lot of complaining. The average person complains 15-30 times a day, and research has found that there is not a difference in the amount of complaining between men and women, just what they complain about. But the thing is, most of the time we don’t even realize that we are doing it.

The first reason we don’t realize we are doing it is just because it’s part of our everyday fabric, we complain, others complain, it’s just there. And the second reason is that complaining is like bad breath, according to Will Bowen, we notice it when it comes out the of the mouth of others, but rarely do we notice it when it comes out of our mouths. And the reason that happens, I believe, is because we don’t know the reason why others are complaining, we don’t have their rational, and so we question the legitimacy of others complaints. Not always, but sometimes. Whereas we feel totally justified in our complaining. Our mind thinks it up and we say it and move on without even normally realizing that we are doing it. There are lots of reasons why we complain, but most of the time we simply complain just to complain, because it’s a habit for us, it’s what we do and how we communicate. But complaining normally doesn’t help make our lives better. In fact, normally, complaining makes things worse for us and makes us focus on negative things rather than focusing on the positive things.

And so when we were concluding our worship series on gratitude I said that I was going to be challenging us as a congregation to do the complaint free challenge for the New Year. That we as a congregation were going to work on noticing and practicing and living into gratitude, and the opposite of gratitude is complaining, so if we move away from complaining, it should lead us to gratitude. That’s what Rev. Will Bowen realized when he was preaching to his church in Kansas City. They were talking about prosperity and he said he realized that they could never be prosperous because they didn’t realize what they already had, and the ways they were truly blessed, because they were complaining about their lives and what they already had. And so he then preached a sermon on complaining, and he handed out purple bracelets to everyone and challenged them to go 21 days without complaining. And the trick was when they complained, they had to switch the bracelet from one wrist to the other wrist, and start all over again on day 1. His idea took off, and more than 10 million complaint free bracelets have now been distributed all over the world.

The 6 millionth bracelet was given to Maya Angelou, who has talked about complaining, with one of her most famous quotes being “If you don’t like something change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.” And if you know anything about Dr. Angelou’s life, you know she had some things she could have complained about. What Rev. Bowen says is we are so busy focusing on what is wrong in the world, which is what our complaining is about, that we are perpetuating these problems, and not noticing the things that are going well, and worse is that rarely is the complaining we do seeking to bring about something different or seeking to change the problem. Because rarely do we actually complain to the person we are complaining about. If we are having a problem with our boss, we complain to our spouse or partner, or other coworkers, and if we are having a problem with our spouse or coworkers, we complain to our friends. That is our complaints are not leading to solving our problems, but simply to complain.

And so part of the complaint free challenge is to direct your issues to the person who can actually work with you to resolve them. But what Bowen found for himself, and for millions of others who have reported on their progress, is that it normally takes 4-8 months for people to complete 21 days without complaining. If you do it in a month, or even 21 days, its either because you are extraordinarily good and were not complaining a lot, or more than likely it’s because you aren’t paying attention to the complaints you are actually making. Just as a fish isn’t aware that it’s surrounded by water, we too are usually not aware of the complaints we are making, until we become cognizant of them, and believe me just in hearing me talk about complaining, you are going to start noticing it more. And if you begin the challenge, you will notice it even more, especially how often you do it, and so here are the five rules for the complaint free challenge:

  • While you don’t have to wear the bracelet, you do have to wear something in your wrist for the challenge. But this is not a sign of support to inform others you support living complaint free. Instead this is a tool to make you aware of how often you complain so that you can stop. It is the act of moving your bracelet that causes you to become consciously aware of what you are doing, so you can work to make changes.
  • And so rule 2, then is switch your bracelet with every spoken complaint. The definition of complaining is “to express pain, grief or discontent,” so by its very definition a complaint is spoken. What we are working on doing is cutting back on the verbal complaints we have, and when we do that we are also retraining our minds not to give complaining thoughts.
  • Rule three is to always know what day you are on. If you don’t know what day you are on, you’re not taking it very seriously.
  • Rule four is don’t be a bracelet cop. Your job is to focus on your complaining, and so if you focus on others and tell them they just complained, make sure you switch your bracelet as well.
  • And rule five is don’t be clever. Don’t wear a bracelet on both wrists so that you never have to switch them, and if you complain, don’t immediately complain again so that you don’t have to switch it. It’s the repetition of the movement that is what makes it effective. If you complain don’t say “well I messed up, now I get a free day of complaining.” That is not effective or helpful for you. 

The purpose here is not to please the pastor, it’s to help you change your life and the lives of those around you for the better. And you don’t have to participate, it’s totally up to you. I would strongly encourage you to do it. And if you start, you will notice two things will happen. One is that you will begin to feel happier, and two you will find less things to complain about, not necessarily because bad things stop happening, but because you have refocused your mind away from focusing on bad things. Negative energy does attract negative energy, but when we look for negative things we can be sure to find them. And it’s not about the amount of good or bad stuff in our lives. I’ve known some incredibly happy people who have had incredible tragedy in their lives, and I’m sure you have too, but they choose to focus on the positive and by doing so they stay positive. We create the reality of how we perceive the world. If we want it to be negative, it will be negative, and if we want it to be positive we can find positive. It’s that whole give thanks in all situations thing that Paul tells us to do.

Now, if I say “It’s cold today,” is that a complaint? It could be dependent upon how I say it, the tone of my voice, but it’s really just a statement of fact. But if I say, “Man, can you believe how cold it is today,” or I sigh and say “it’s cold again today,” it’s a complaint. Remembering that a statement of fact is not a complaint. But tone of voice or other things can give indication for complaints. If you sound like Eeyore, it’s probably a complaint. Another example, someone asked me if they stub their toe and say “Darn it that hurt” although it was a certain other d word. And so I said, “Is that a statement of fact?” and they said yes, because it hurt. And I responded, it hurts is fact, but the darn it is not fact, but commentary, and thus a complaint.

Additionally, gossiping is considered complaining, and so if you are gossiping you need to switch your bracelet, and the decision making is if you would say the same thing with the same tone of voice to the person if they were present as you are saying when they are not there. And the one that will be hardest for me is sarcasm is also a complaint, and here is something I didn’t know. The Latin root is sarco which literally means “tearing of the flesh.” Sarcasm is a critical statement couched in the context of telling a joke, but it’s still a criticism and thus a complaint. Eckhart Tolle summed it up this way: “Complaining is not to be confused with informing someone of a mistake or a deficiency so that it can be put right. And refraining from complaining doesn’t necessarily mean putting up with bad behavior. There is no ego in telling the waiter your soup is cold and needs to be heated up – if you stick to the facts, which are always neutral. ‘How dare you serve me cold soup…?’ that’s complaining.” A complaint often has a sense of being a counterattack for a perceived injustice, or a “this is unfair” or “how dare this happen to me” quality to it.

And there are times in which complaining is okay, read the Psalms, read lamentations. There are acceptable times for complaints, but the 15-30 times a day  we do it are not productive and not healthy and not the Biblical complaints. There are some who will argue that getting these things out is healthy, and for the major events that is true, but if complaining made you healthier and happier then the happiest people in the world, and the healthiest, would be those who complain all the time. Anyone know anyone for whom that is true? No, because people who complain all the time tend to be the unhappiest people we know, why? Because all they are see and focus on and talk about are negative things, and so they are negative people and bad things continually happen to them.

Dr. Robin Kowalski, is a professor of Psychology at Clemson University, whose Ph.D. thesis was on complaining, and she found that there were five basic reasons why people complain, which Rev. Bowen turned into a mnemonic device, and so very quickly, so that you don’t start complaining about how long this message is, here they are:

People complain to Get Attention – Sort of speaks for itself. They want attention and can’t think of a more positive way to do it, and so they complain, and remember that if you always give grease to the squeaky wheel it will keep squeaking and so find ways to turn it around. Since you know they want attention, ask them questions about their life, hobbies, family, whatever you want. And if they keep complaining, redirect the conversation and ask it “So, what’s going well with” whatever it is they are complaining about. Then keep asking the same question until they give you a positive answer, and one of two things will happen. They will either tell you something positive, or they will get tired of hearing the question and go away, and either way you win.

People complain to Remove Responsibility – this is why something is impossible to do, or why they didn’t do what they said, because traffic was bad, or you can’t fight city hall, or it’s a management decision. It is to remove blame from themselves and put it somewhere else, often to explain their own lack of effort or why they can’t do something. You know this is the complaint if you offer a way to correct it, why don’t you, and they say, yes but. So the way to overcome this is to say “yes, but if it were possible, how would you do it?” and reinforce your belief in their ability to get it done and again say “yes, but if it were possible, how would you do it?” Put the onus back on them to find an answer and a solution.

The third reason people complain is to Inspire Envy – this is people doing a humble brag by saying that they don’t have the trait about which they are complaining. So, “my boss is so stupid,” is saying “I am so smart, and if I was in charge things would be much better” People who are complaining to inspire envy are wanting you to complement them, and so do that, but without giving into their complaint. So if they say “so and so is never on time” say “the thing I appreciate about you is your punctuality.” Or “they don’t have any fashion sense,” respond “the thing I like about you is you always dress so well.” You are not agreeing with them in the complaints, but you are giving them what you want and so are stopping the behavior.

The fourth reason is Power. In any group, including the church, there are power dynamics and play and people fighting for power, and so what power complaining does is try and purchase power by recruiting soldiers to fight on their side, to build support against a rival should a power struggle arise. They are saying “if it ever comes down to me against them, here are the reasons you should be on my side.” The way to stop this is to show first that your loyalty is not for sale and don’t get involved, or stuck in the middle, and most importantly to stop the triangulation that is taking place, and say “it sounds like you have a problem with this person, so you should really talk with them about it, and I would be happy to help facilitate that conversation, but I’m not going to be in the middle.” And if or when it continues, keep saying “you really need to talk with them about this.” When you show that you won’t be involved, they will either take their complaints elsewhere, stop complaining or go to the person they should be talking to about the problem.<

And the final reason people complain is to Excuse Poor Performance. This is different than removing responsibility, which is often about inaction, but this takes place after something has happened. Have you ever watched a tennis match and the player makes a bad shot, and they immediately look at their racket and maybe adjust the strings? What are they doing there? They are saying that the bad shot was not their fault, it was the rackets fault. This is “the sun got in my eyes” or “I was hit before I made the shot” or “I didn’t have the right equipment to do the job.” It’s an attempt to rationalize away what happened and say that it wasn’t your fault. And so the question to ask is “what are you going to do differently next time?” That is what have you learned, and how are you going to incorporate that into your life?”

Not complaining is not a talent, it’s a skill, and like any skill it can be acquired simply be doing it, or not doing it again and again. And it takes your time and dedication, especially when it seems so hard at the beginning, but like any skill it gets easier the more you do it. And so if you take on the challenge, here is what it will look like. It will be day 1 and then day 1 and then day 1 and then day 1, and you’ll go like that for a while and then it will be day 2, and then day 1, and then day 2 and day 3 and maybe day 4, and then day 1, and you keep working at it until you get 21 days in a row, which again normally takes 4-8 months on average, and then you keep going.

And here is my theological argument for why we should be doing this. In Romans Paul says “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The pattern of this world is complaining, and by not complaining we are actually renewing our minds. But here is the even more important piece and that is that we are to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, our savior, and that should be a cause of celebration. Do we bring good news by complaining? Do we bring good news by conforming to the ways of the world? Do we bring good news by always talking about negative things? No. Our lives should reflect the good news we have received. Our actions should reflect the good news we have received. Our words should reflect the good news we have received and words are important and have meaning, and we know that because we proclaim the word made flesh who came to dwell amongst us as transforming the world.

And so what we say should matter and our complaining all the time does not match who we are called to be. and even worse is that we are told not to take the Lord’s name in vain, which we often attribute to words we say about God, but what if taking the Lord’s name in vain is to proclaim our allegiance to God but then living as anything but disciples of Christ, of setting a bad example for what Christians are, or allowing people to think bad things about Christians or about God because of what we do and say. What if that is what it means to take God’s name in vain? We are called to give thanks and praise in all situations and so I challenge you this year to take on this activity to find the positives in situations so that we can learn to complain when we truly need to express pain, grief and distress, and to learn to be happier in all other situations. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

General Conference Response

Here is the letter I sent to my congregation in response to the actions of the called General Conference. We are the only reconciling congregation in the New Mexico Annual Conference.

When I recognized the 100th birthday of Jackie Robinson a few weeks ago in worship, I mentioned that while he and Branch Rickey, the owner of the Dodgers who brought him to the majors, were both Methodists that they could not worship together because of our own church’s history of racial animosity and division. That division line of having separate churches for blacks and whites, and not allowing black pastors to serve in white congregations or to have authority over white pastors, which was argued from a scriptural basis, existed until 1972. That also happens to be the year that the General Conference added what came to be known as the restrictive language to our Book of Discipline which said that “homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.”

As some of you are probably now aware, the special called General Conference ended yesterday. The Traditional Plan passed with 53% of the vote, while the One Church Plan, which is what I had been advocating for, was rejected. There were many different amendments being offered to the plan, and I have not yet seen a final copy of the approved plan, but here is what I know at the moment: The plan retains the restrictive language and continues to forbid “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from being ordained, clergy from performing same-gendered marriages, or allowing them on United Methodist property, and puts more “teeth” into enforcement of these rules, including penalties for Bishops who refuse to enforce these rules.

The original plan called for clergy and churches to be forced to take an oath of allegiance to follow the Book of Discipline in all its parts including teaching and saying that “homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.”  If clergy or churches would not take that oath, they would be (kindly) asked to leave the denomination. I don’t know if that language was retained, but as I said before, that is not an oath I am willing to take because it is not one I believe in. It is not who I believe that God is, and my allegiance is not to the church but to God. Because of our statement of reconciliation, I am also assuming that Mesa View would not be willing to take that oath.

So, where does that leave us? The answer is no one really knows.

The original Traditional Plan had 17 parts, of which the judicial council, which works as the Supreme Court for the church, ruled that 9 of those parts were unconstitutional. The Wesleyan Covenant Association (WCA), which is a fundamentalist caucus in the church, reworked portions of those which was then presented to the General Conference in 15 different parts. The Judicial Council ruled this weekend that 9 of the 15 parts were unconstitutional, but that did not stop the conference from passing that plan. There were amendments made, but no one knows if they will pass constitutional muster.

Additionally, while there was a motion made to hold votes on each of the separate parts of the plan, that motion was rejected, and the plan was voted on in its entirety. That is important because the plan has now been referred to the Judicial Council, which will meet at the end of April, and most people believe most of the plan will still be found unconstitutional. If that is the case, there are some bishops who are saying that if some parts are unconstitutional the whole plan has to be thrown out since it was voted on as one piece of legislation. No one knows for sure how the judicial counsel will rule on that, so we will have to wait. If the plan is found constitutional, it will go into effect January 1, 2020.

There was also one plan for allowing churches to “graciously exit” the denomination that was passed, but it too had been found unconstitutional, so we don’t know the status of that either. Again, there were amendments made so I don’t know what the final language of that proposal is now.

The WCA had already said before the General Conference that not only would they leave if the Traditional Plan was not passed, but, even if it was passed, many of their churches would leave anyways. They are meeting this week to discuss their next steps, and I suspect, although I could be wrong, that many of those churches will seek to leave the denomination even though the Traditional Plan passed.

There had been no talk amongst centrist and progressive churches of leaving the denomination, because the vast majority believed that being in a connectional relationship was important, and that we could have unity without uniformity, which is what the One Church Plan was. But, now that the church has swung even farther to the right, and with every indication that it will continue to move in that direction in the future, we are not sure what that means. But, as Adam Hamilton said on the floor yesterday, the centrist and progressive churches have been united in a way that they were not before. He also announced today that there will be a meeting at the Church of the Resurrection, which is the largest United Methodist Church, after Easter to discuss where Methodism goes from here.

So, does that mean we will leave the United Methodist Church, or that we will be kicked out? I don’t know and don’t even want to speculate. But here is where I find hope.

According to the WCA’s own estimates, 2/3 of the delegates from the United States supported the One Church Plan. At a gathering of the youth of the church from around the world earlier this year, the One Church Plan was supported by more than 60% of the youth. More than 15,000 young adults signed a petition from the end of the conference on Monday evening to the beginning of conference on Tuesday in support of the one church model.

One other person and I have been very vocal on this issue in the annual conference, but we were supported by many clergy who were silent allies. Many of them are not silent anymore and have now publicly stated their support of changing the church’s position. I wish they had spoken out earlier, but I’ll take their support now. All those things give me enormous hope for the future.

What I also know is that this action has done and will continue to do significant damage and hurt to those who are LGBTQ. There were many organizations last night posting the number for the suicide prevention hotline to help those who were being told again that they are not worthy, that they are less than, and that they are not loved by God.

Now, more than ever, we need to be advocates on their behalf. This is where we must move beyond mere words on paper that we are welcoming of all, and actually live it out. We have posted a message of welcome on our Facebook page and I would encourage you to share that and reach out to friends and family who are lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgendered, queer or questioning, whether they are in the church or not, to let them know that they are loved and beloved. That they are children of God and they are worthy. If you are lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgendered, queer or questioning, please know that you are loved and beloved. That you are worthy. You are not less than. You are welcome here.

We cannot know the pain this is causing to many people, but we hurt with them, and I hurt. I hurt deeply and have shed many, many tears over the past few days about what is happening to my church. But, because it is my church, I also know that I still have a say and I can claim with integrity that what 53% of the church said on Tuesday is not who I am, it is not what I believe, and it is not who Mesa View is either. We can be the proverbial light on the hill proclaiming the good news, because if the good news is not for the least, the last and the lost, then we have missed the point entirely.

Let us remember that God is not the church and the church is not God. Sometimes the church and God are in alignment, and sometimes we are not, and we see plenty of examples of that in scripture, many of which we will hear in Lent.

I have to be honest and admit that I am struggling mightily with people I considered friends who have said that I cannot be in their church. I want to be like Diotrephes as we heard about in 3 John last week and not extend hospitality. I don’t want to be in prayer for them. I don’t want to even talk with them or associate with them. I know that many of you are probably there as well. But God is love and we are to love our neighbors, all of them, because God first loved us. As Edwin Markham once wrote about those who want to draw narrow circles: “But love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle and took [them] in!

We are an Easter people, but to get to Easter we have to go through the darkness of the cross and the tomb. That is where I believe we are now. I don’t know what the resurrection will look like yet, but I have hope, and so do millions of others, because God is not through with us yet, and in the end love wins. God wins.

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

What I Read In 2018

Here are the books that I read in 2018. This list is more for me, but I would recommend nearly all of them.
  1. (((Semitism))): Being Jewish in America in the Age of Trump by Jonathan Weisman
  2. [Re]designing Worship: Creating Powerful God Experiences by Kim Miller
  3. 30 Days a Black Man: The Forgotten Story that Exposed the Jim Crow South by Bill Steigerwald
  4. A Colony in a Nation by Chris Hayes
  5. A Little History of Economics by Niall Kishtainy
  6. A Mouth is Always Muzzled: Six Dissidents, Five Continents and the Art of Resistance by Natalie Hopkinson
  7. A Song Flung Up to Heaven by Maya Angelou
  8. Adam: God's Beloved by Henri J.M. Nouwen
  9. America: The Farewell Tour by Chris Hedges
  10. Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives by Gary Younge
  11. Behind from the Start: How America's War on the Poor is Harming Our Most Vulnerable Children by Lenette Azzi-Lessing
  12. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
  13. Beyond the Worship Wars: Building Vital and Faithful Worship by Thomas Long
  14. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcom Gladwell
  15. Bloodline by Claudia Gray
  16. Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin
  17. Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet by Claire L. Evans
  18. Camino Island by John Grisham
  19. Catalyst by James Luceno
  20. Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy
  21. Code Talkers by Joseph Bruchac
  22. Confessions of Nat Turner by Nat Turner (reportedly)
  23. Cross-Shattered Christ: Meditations on the Seven Last Words by Stanley Hauerwas
  24. Crucible by Troy Denning
  25. Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe by Lisa Randall
  26. Darth Plagueis by James Luceno
  27. Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
  28. Dear Committee Members: A Novel by Julie Schumacher
  29. Dear Madam President: An Open Letter to the Women Who will Run the World by Jennifer Palmieri
  30. Death on a Friday Afternoon by Richard John Neuhaus
  31. Detour from Normal by Ken Dickson
  32. Discrimination and Disparities by Thomas Sowell
  33. Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton
  34. Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Really About the Worst President Ever by Rick Wilson
  35. Experiential Worship by Bob Rognlien
  36. Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward
  37. Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy by Michael Lewis
  38. Finding Me: A Decade of Darkness, A Life Reclaimed by Michelle Kinight and Michelle Burford
  39. Finding Words for Worship: A Guide for Leaders by Ruth C. Duck
  40. Friend of Sinners: Why Jesus Cares More About Relationship than Perfection by Rich Wilkerson, Jr.
  41. God: A Human History by Reza Aslan
  42. Good Grief by Granger E. Westberg
  43. Good Things Happen Slowly: A Life in and out of Jazz by Fred Hersch
  44. GoTell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
  45. Hard Contact by Karen Traviss
  46. How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
  47. If You Bite and Devour One Another: Biblical Principles for Handling Conflict by Alexander Strauch
  48. In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History by Mitch Landrieu
  49. Is Eating People Wrong?: Great Legal Cases and How They Shaped the World by Allan C. Hutchinson
  50. It's Even Worse than You Think: What the Trump Administration is Doing to America by David Cay Johnston
  51. Leading Causes of Life: Five Fundamentals to Chaneg the Way You Live Your Life by Gary Gunderson and Larry Pray
  52. Leading Worship by Taylor Burton-Edwards
  53. Making Friends with Death: A Field Guide for Your Impending Last Breath by Laura Pritchett
  54. Meeting God in Mark by Rowan Williams
  55. Millennium Falcon by James Luceno
  56. Money Problems, Marriage Solutions by Ann and Chuck Bentley
  57. Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Girl Tells You What She's Learned by Lena Dunham
  58. On Being Raped by Raymond M. Douglas
  59. On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and David Kessler
  60. On Inequality by Harry G. Frankfurt
  61. On Your Mark: Reading Mark in the Shadow of the Cross by Megan McKenna
  62. Patriot Games by Tom Clancy
  63. Planning Worship by Taylor Burton-Edwards
  64. Rebel Rising by Beth Revis
  65. Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West by Benazir Bhutto
  66. Redesigning Churches: Creating Spaces for Connection and Community by Kim Miller
  67. Say to this Mountain: Mark's Story of Discipleship by Ched Myers, Cynthia Moe-Lodeda and Stuart Taylor
  68. Seven Last Words by Timothy Radcliffe
  69. Shockaholic by Carrie Fisher
  70. Shoot Like a Girl: One Woman's Dramatic Fight in Afghanistan and on the Home Front by Mary Jennings Hegar
  71. Sometimes Amazing Things Happen: Heartbreak and Hope on the Bellvue Hospital Psychiatric Ward by Elizabeth Ford
  72. Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair by Anne Lamott
  73. Stonewall: Breaking Out in the Fight for Gay Rights by Ann Bausum
  74. Talking to My Daughter About the Economy, or How Capitalism Works - and How it Fails by Yanis Varoufakis
  75. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
  76. The Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict by The Arbinger Institute
  77. The Apocalypse: Controversies and Meaning in Western History by Craig Koester
  78. The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America by Michael Eric Dyson
  79. The Butler: A Witness to History by Wil Haygood
  80. The Case for Impeachment by Allan Lichtman
  81. The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer
  82. The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars by Dava Sobel
  83. The Last Words of Jesus: Meditation on Love and Suffering by Daniel P. Horan
  84. The Legend of Colton H. Bryant by Alexandra Fuller
  85. The Lion in the Living Room: How House Cats Tamed Us and Took Over the World by Abigail Tucker
  86. The Making of a Racist: A Southerner Reflects on Family, History and the Slave Trade by Charles Dew
  87. The Making of Donald Trump by David Cay Johnston
  88. The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography by Sidney Poitier
  89. The Origin of Creativity by Edward O. Wilson
  90. The Partner by John Grisham
  91. The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
  92. The Rooster Bar by John Grisham
  93. The Secret World of Sleep: The Surprising Science of the Mind at Rest by Penelope A. Lewis
  94. The Setup Man by T.T. Monday
  95. The Seven Last Words by Michael H. Crosby
  96. The Trouble with Reality: A Rumination on Moral Panic in Our Time by Brooke Gladstone
  97. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
  98. The Worship Workshop: Creative Ways to Design Worship Together by Marcia McPhee
  99. The Worshipping Body: The Art of Leading Worship by Kimberly Bracken Long
  100. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
  101. The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman
  102. Think Like a Filmmaker: Sensory-Rich Worship Design for Unforgettable Messages by Marcia McPhee
  103. This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female and Feminist in (White) America by Morgan Jerkins
  104. To Be Where You Are by Jan Karon
  105. Toughtest People to Love: How to Understand, Lead and Love the Difficult People in Your Life - Including Yourself by Chuck DeGroat
  106. True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society by Farhad Manjoo
  107. Uneasy Peace: The Great Crime Decline, the Renewal of City Life and the Next War on Violence by Patrick Sharkey
  108. We Wear the Mask: 15 True Stories of Passing in America edited by Brando Skyhorse and Lisa Page
  109. We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates
  110. White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson
  111. Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner? by Katrine Marcal
  112. Why Read Moby Dick? by Nathaniel Philbrick
  113. Why We Worship by H. Grady Davis
  114. Worship Matters: A United Methodist Guide to Ways to Worship, Vol. 1 edited by E. Byron Anderson
  115. Worship Matters: A United Methodist Guide to Worship Work, Vol. 2 edited by E. Byron Anderson
  116. You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir by Sherman Alexie