current reads / ADD & ministry

i finally finished the half dozen books on ADD that i bought right around the time i was diagnosed a month or so ago. it's quite relieving to finally have a better understanding of so many of the struggles i've faced in life.

the last two i read were good books.

the first of those was ADD Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life by Kolberg and Nadeau. there wasn't a ton of stuff in there that i haven't tried that seems particularly helpful. but the book was well laid out for someone with ADD and easy to follow. at some point i might try to implement at least a couple of their ideas, but i'm not feeling ready for that yet.

the latter of the two was Scattered by Gabor Mate. it was an excellent book that while speaking specifically about ADD managed to seem more like a book on attachment than anything else. it was theoretical yet practical, and something i'll find helpful not only now, but in the future when Jak and i are raising kids.

i think that the only other book i've finished since i last posted on what i've been reading has been Experiential Storytelling by Miller. it's a book about relearning how to communicate in our culture so as to be able to present the biblical story in way that it can be heard. he explains how preaching as we know it is something that came about with the reformation and as such has only been around for about five hundred years, during the days of the Enlightenment and through modernity. now, that we've entered a postmodern and post-literate period, we have to learn to preach through other means. so he offers experiential storytelling as an answer. experiential storytelling, as he explains it, involves people, involves the senses, includes the location, and allows people to use their imaginations, their minds, while trusting in God to draw people towards him. it's a short book (under 150pp), so i just read it this afternoon. it was interesting, and certainly has things i would love to work with whenever Jak and i are doing youth ministry again.