
The books underscored the things God has been teaching me this year. Two words can sum up what has been taught: horizontalization and leveling.
The three books are:
- Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition (1999) by Christine D. Pohl
- The Patient Ferment of the Early Church: The Improbable Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire (2016) by Alan Kreider
- Subversive Jesus: An Adventure in Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness in a Broken World (2016) by Craig Greenfield.
These three books, more than anything, taught me about the two words--horizontalization and leveling--and their importance for a better, more proper understanding of the gospel and church.

This is what I have been taught this year. Now, let’s see if I have learned anything.