The author is the national coordinator of Emergent Village. He provides a comprehensive review of the Emergent Church conversation, helpfully summarizing its main tenets in the “20 dispatches from the Emergent Frontier” that are scattered throughout the book. It is a must read for anyone desiring to understand the complexity of these new Christians who [...]
James Choung pours his experience of sharing the Good News of Christ as a divisional director of InterVaristy Christin Fellowship. In recommending the book, I wrote, “True Story does not gloss over sincere and profound questions concerning the content of the gospel and the way it is lived out, but grapples with many issues that [...]
This is a scholarly study of the social interaction in both fresh expressions of church and traditional churches in transition. The authors, Sara Savage and Eolene Boyd-MacMillan, are both Research Associates with the Psychology and Religion Research Group at the University of Cambridge. Although scholarly in its approach it is also accessible in its presentation [...]
This passage is about death and new life. It is the story of the raising of Lazarus from death back to earthly life by Jesus who is the resurrection and the life. The OT passage read in some churches this week is Ezekiel 37:1-14. This is the story of a valley of very dry bones [...]
I just finished reading NT Wright’s new book. It is fantastic. Wright engages in a biblical discussion of life, death and heaven, and relates it around the theme of the resurrection of Jesus. He challenges us to move beyond a shallow understanding of the mission of the church by encouraging an embracing [...]
Buy this book! Read this book! then Act–in the name of Jesus. Jim Wallis has just written The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America. It is an excellent book. Following on the heels of McLaren’s Everything Must Change, Wallis reminds us that being followers of Jesus, being the church means that [...]
David Olson’s The American Church in Crisis (Zondervan) is a wake up call to the American institutional church. Olson’s research shows that, in spite of some appearances, all is not well with established churches. If the church is going to make a difference in contemporary culture, something must change. This book begins [...]
This text focuses on Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. Chronologically, Jesus has been baptized. His identity and vocation have been affirmed. Now he is led by the Spirit into the bleak Judean wilderness. Jesus is tested three times regarding making fast food, bungee jumping without a rope, just a little worship of the [...]
Jesus’ ministry now begins in earnest. He has been baptized in the Jordan, and he has been tested in the wilderness. Now Jesus begins to announce that God’s new way, rooted and extending from God’s always way, is here. To a people walking in darkness, to a people with fleeting hope, to a people [...]
Reflections following the weekly lectionary cycle A, on the Epistle, Psalm and Gospel portions for each Sunday. The reflections are drawn from the church fathers and other ancient sources. Great for connect4ing with the theological insights and spiritual depth of Christian thinkers and saints in past ages.
