Continuing with our What I’m Reading This Summer series, today we hear from Rick Collins. Among other things, three books Rick is planning to read this summer are:

A Remedy for Wandering Thoughts in the Worship of God by Richard Steele
An ex-inmate who was in for a white collar crime highly recommended this book that I have just started reading. Richard Steele was an English Puritan in the 1600s, and I will be sure to let everyone know what the “remedies” will be so my mind will not wander any longer.

The Explicit Gospel by Matt Chandler
This is a fantastic book that does not sugar coat the fact that the gospel is bloody and horrific. We are in a bible study with a group of dear friends who are fast becoming antinomian in their belief system; so parts of this book (and surprise, scripture) have been helpful in our late evening discussions.

Basketball Junkie: A Memoir by Chris Herren
I have just about completed reading the amazing, and true, story of a Boston kid (Chris) who made it to the NBA, but ended up in prison due to drug addiction, and lost everything. It’s a tragic story, but has a measure of redemption in the end as he ends up on his knees in desperate need of God’s intervention in his life.

Rick is a member of Redemption Hill Church in Richmond, Virginia, and has married been married to his wife Nancy for 38 years, who was the high school cheerleader/sweetheart that announced his name when he played hoops in high school (He is still bitter that it was a technical foul to dunk when he played in high school). Rick and Nancy have three adult children: Holly, Jeremy, and Timothy, who all still insist that dad pay for dinner. In his free time he enjoys college basketball, and chasing a white ball around a golf course; but his true passion lies in being a prison chaplain and teaching and caring for those who are incarcerated.