on the walk

It was a great day today at Mountain. The teaching team brought a message (Check it out here) about God’s spirit present in the chaos of life. The power of the sermon flowed out of Genesis 1:1-2. God comes into the formless and void, into the chaos, and from that chaos God creates new life. Continue Reading »

We are almost through the gospel of Mark in our search for all that Jesus models and teaches regarding prayer. In all of this my goal is to bring these reflections into immediate action in my life. I hope that a similar goal inspires you. If you want to see the whole series you can click on the category link just below the title of this post.

Today we come to the 12th chapter and Jesus find himself again in conflict with the scribes and Pharisees. This is late in his ministry and by this point, he holds little back. Continue Reading »

The Willow Creek Association has recently published a book in which they suggest that churches need to move beyond measuring how many and to try to do qualitative analysis of the effectiveness of their programs at leading toward spiritual growth. I have some quibbles with their methods and their assumptions but in general I think that the challenge they offer is important and long overdue. Continue Reading »

I am at a conference today.  There is much that could be said about it, but this one thing will suffice for a lunch break post.

The speaker concluded after about 25 charts representing 16,000 survey’s of Christians about the state and trajectory of their spiritual life, “The single most predictive trait of a mature Christian was daily bible study and consistent prayer.” Continue Reading »

If you want to have your mind challenged early in the morning, check out this dramatic and provocative post from Greg Boyd.  This kind of stuff gets me inspired.

on the walk

-Ethan

We had another fine sermon at Mountain this week in our recycled series. This week Ben used the story of Joseph to discuss God’s ability to recycle us through financial hardship. Due to tired fingers, I recorded my first reflection. There may be more later after my fingers recover.

Hope you enjoy.

playgrounds and tires 5
on the walk

-Ethan

Here is a promised picture. We had a wonderfully recuperative(at least psychologically if not physically) 30 hours away from home. We saw a whole lot of family and met a few new cousins. Here is a picture of my boys and my brother’s kids next to the king pumpkin.

Later today I will post some sermon reflections and share a few pictures from the Barnesville pumpkin festival. But for now, I will share this wonderful story that Ben Witherington offers on prayer.

Check it out.

on the walk
-Ethan