on the walk

Here is a insight into what I do for fun.

If you have the time and interest to read a pretty hefty article on the inherent philosophical contradictions of the arguments coming from the “new atheism”, you could do much worse than this fine article over on First Things.

In particular he confronts the increasingly common claim that religion represents a danger to civilized and peaceful society.  He does so not through historical argument (though he acknowledges the possibilities of such an approach) but through philosophical analysis.  In particular he looks to Nietzsche who offers a startling (if somewhat depressing) look at atheism.

It was time well spent.

on the walk

-Ethan

Last Saturday night, my colleague Susan Owens, delivered a beautiful homily on the call of Christian leadership.  Her text was Jesus confrontation with Peter recorded in John 21.  In this encounter, Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves Jesus.  Three times Peter acknowledges his love, and three times Peter is called to care for Jesus’ sheep. Continue Reading »

Tonight was our foot-washing service, sponsored by the Small Groups Ministry. It is part of a new focus in the small group ministry at Mountain. We are trying to pay attention to spiritual formation first and training second. It isn’t that we have abandoned the value of training. In fact in a sense we value it more than ever. Continue Reading »

Have you ever noticed that when Christians gather and read scripture, we almost always read in the same dry monotone. Whether it is a dramatic narrative section of Mark, or a heartfelt psalm; a section of law, or a prophecy of judgement and doom, we read it all the same way.

In fact often when one person reads, this pattern is so habitual that we get caught up in it. Continue Reading »

This Saturday, the small group team at mountain is hosting a worship event. We hope to explore the nature of Christian leadership as service. Our central text is John 13.

In this text John describes the Passover feast that Jesus and his disciples held on the week of Jesus death. Before the meal, Jesus washes the feet of the disciples and calls them to a similar life of service. Continue Reading »

The Journey ministry is kicking off its spring programming with a three week series on connecting with God. Our title is “Connections: getting where God is.” In part, the series title was inspired by an interview with Bono in which he said, “Someone gave me this good advice. Stop trying to get God to bless what you are doing. Find out what God is doing and go do that. It is already blessed.” Continue Reading »

Today was the second Sunday in our God’s Frat Party series, as we talk about our Fraternity letters, Kappa Delta Pi. Today was Delta. It was a great day and powerful message. If you want to check it out, here it is.

The main point of the sermon was that as Christians we are called to be slaves (doulos) of Christ (and God) and therefore we are commanded to serve (diakonos) one another. It was a powerful reminder of our identity in Christ and the calling that flows out of that identity. Continue Reading »

One of my most enjoyable roles on staff is the opportunity I have to work with the young adults at Mountain.  I was particularly mindful of this in light of the sermon at Mountain last Sunday on koinonia.  This Greek word that describes the deep fellowship that Christians are called to enjoy is one of the hallmarks of Mountain’s young adult community.

Our kickoff meeting was last night.  It was great.  We had 11 new people, and I can already tell that this will be a place where people will form relationships that matter.   My boys came with me and so I wasn’t able to hang out as much as I would have liked but I had two people come up afterward and give me heartfelt thanks because they were desperate to connect with others their age and had been unable to do that until last night.

After the meeting, I talked late into the night with one of our new leaders who is on fire for fostering kiononia with his peers at Mountain.  He must have told me a dozen times variations on, “Ethan, so many of my friends has totally lost connection with the church.”  He knows that without koinonia, Christians wither.

All in all it was a good Friday night.   Not only did we get to have a great time, we got to live out the sermon from the previous Sunday.

on the walk

-Ethan

Parables can be tricky. It is hard to know where to focus and what parts matter most. Sometimes it is even hard to know what they mean. Part of this difficulty is inherent to any teaching that happens through stories.

When one tells a story to teach a point, there are necessarily lots of details that flesh out the narrative but are not necessarily essential to the point narrative teaching works for lots of important reasons but not because it is efficient.  Continue Reading »

I was invited to share a word on reading parables to a women’s Bible study group at Mountain Christian Church. In my next post I will share a short version of that talk, but first I want to comment on the text.

The text I was given for this exercise was Luke 15 and 16. It is a great text for practicing parable interpretation. I has several important parables. It has a few with reasonably obvious meanings and then a few that can be pretty tough for people.

I went into my preparations with a pretty technical attitude. After all, I was asked to come teach a skill not preach a sermon. Continue Reading »