on the walk

Find a moment to read Greg Boyd’s post about living “right here.”

on the walk

-Ethan

Grandview Christian Church in Johnson City, TN is a church that I love very much (and where I served for ten years).  They have just launched a very cool third service.  It meets in the fellowship hall around tables.  It is called The Table.  It is a highly communal Eucharist centered service.  It excites me in many ways.  It is a creative idea,; it is liturgically sound; it represents the reality that the church is making room for more people to find a spiritual home, etc.  I can’t wait till I get to visit TN again and worship at the table.

 I would love for many of my readers to visit the blog of Grandview’s Senior Minister Aaron Wymer.  Look at his pictures and offer a word of encouragement (ie. actually leave a comment).  This is a church that has a kingdom impact that is disproportionate to its size because of its association with Milligan College and Emmanuel School of Religion.  It is fitting for us to be in prayer and praise for this cool new ministry.

on the walk

-Ethan

Ps. If you want to see some of the hilarious promotion they did for this new service, you can check out these older posts.

Promotion 1

Promotion 2

Promotion 3

One of the consistent reminders of the summit was the outrageous truth that God has chosen to work through the church to accomplish God’s purposes in the world.  In fact one of the highlights for me was a great video piece that explored the the paradox we face when we realize that God’s response to the suffering and evil of the world it to call out a people who will be a conduit of grace and mercy.

Lot’s of people reminded us that we were God’s plan for the world.  At least one of them went on to use some variation on one of my favorite lines, “the church is is plan A and there is no plan B.”

But nobody had as cool a way to remind us of this truth than Efrem Smith.  Continue Reading »

Efrem Smith was fantastic. Nothing I will write will do anything to capture the power of his presentation. I won’t even try.

He spoke powerfully about the need to do two contrasting things all at the same time. He called us all to think multi-culturally, and he called us to recognize micro cultures. I was excited by his talk because it resonated with a lot of issues that have been floating around my conversations lately.

To think multi culturally, is to recognize Continue Reading »

Here is a thoughtful reflection on Rick Warren’s rising influence as a person of political influence.

I have some thoughts I will share here later, but I’ll give anyone who is listening a chance to reflect first.

-Ethan

On September 5th and 6th I am teaching on the book of Jeremiah.  I couldn’t be more excited.  This will be a real stretch for me.  These Conference style teaching formats involve 10-12 hours of teaching over two days.  That means that I have a lot to prep.  But the last weekend was such a huge success that I am glad to take on the next one.

If you can be there please come and bring several friends.

You can find lots of more information about the event here.

on the walk

-Ethan

Micheal Spencer from Jesus Shaped Spirituality offer this fantastic PDF from Tim Keller.

I suggest you print it out and take a quiet moment to read it and praise God.  I also suggest you hold me to that same goal.

Here is the PDF.

on the walk

-Ethan

I will need to read it again to process this powerful post about embodying today that kingdom that God is bringing.  Having just preached on Jesus as the messenger of God’s kingdom and the new king, I was excited by this post.

on the walk

-Ethan

Greetings,

I commented on the recent novel The Shack a few posts back.  My thoughts weren’t systematic and were bit tentative.  Ben Witherington weighs in with a few carefully and calmly raised concerns.  If you have read the book you may appreciate his thoughts.  He is a bit more confident on a few points than I am but I appreciate his careful reading.

on the walk

-Ethan

My friend Alex Lozada reccomended I check this out.  It is beautiful.

The parable of the brick wall. 

Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

on the walk

-Ethan