Countdown Day 29
Bill Dahl from PDL has posted the first review (that I've seen) of NKoC here.
And there's a contest where you can win a pre-release copy of NKoC - here.
Today's quote:
We do not conceive of our faith primarily as a promise to our ancestors, a vow to dutifully carry on something that was theirs and we have inherited. No, it is more like God’s promise uttered to us from the future, toward which we reach an outstretched and hopeful hand – just as our ancestors did. (28)
From A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith (available February 9, 2010)
"Very rarely a book appears that houses the power to change a generation. A New Kind of Christianity is nothing less than one of those moments."' (-Peter Rollins, Ikon)
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Comments from a critical college student
I just received this:
I'm a college student writing my undergrad senior research on the political philosophy of the emerging church. There's a lot to write about. Actually, I'm up to 75 pages, 50 of them since Thanksgiving because it's such a fun project. Interesting how a project gets easier when I'm figuring out what I think about faith and not just writing a paper.
Anyway, I'm critiquing the emerging church, and you'll be in that, and at some point I'll send along a draft to you and other folks, in fairness to what you guys are doing, that probably none of you will have time to read, and that's fine, too.
Still haven't gotten to the point. I'm reading The Last Word today - all of it, and I want you to know that 1) in all of your work, you're asking important questions, regardless of how many of us disagree with you and if you're right or wrong, and the discussions you're provoking need to be held and 2) that The Last Word is perhaps even more important than the others. And I'm really proud of the way you handled a delicate topic, and I'm going to read back through my notes and consult the people that I 'church with' :) but I like it. Doesn't make it right, obviously, but on first read I like it a lot. And in everything I've read attacking what you've done, none of it talks about this book (probably something to do with reading books that are just a bit too old instead of blogs...) and this is the best one I've read. Really heartening.
Also, I think it's vitally important that these stories address the problem of brokenness in the church because of the church, especially with pastors' families. I'm a former PK. That should say it all.
So, to bring this to a close, thanks a lot for the personal struggle that you've shared with us via some 'creative nonfiction.'
When she says, "... in all of your work, you're asking important questions, regardless of how many of us disagree with you and if you're right or wrong, and the discussions you're provoking need to be held," I feel all the more excited about the upcoming release of A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith."
And of course, it's heartening to hear that a critical reader - and a PK - finds The Last Word helpful.
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Countdown Day 30
We do not sense in the gospel of Jesus a once-upon-a-time newness. We do not experience the gospel as new only in contrast to something called the “Old Testament,” leaving the gospel over time to grow arthritic, hardened, stiff, and crotchety. No, we sense in the gospel a perpetual fountain of youthful newness, an ongoing advent, a constant beginning, a continually generative genesis, always fermenting like new wine, a tide that rises, wave by wave. (28)
From A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith (available February 9, 2010)
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Amazing music …
Aaron Niequist is a songwriter and worship leader you should know about. Here's why. Try including this song in your church's worship repertoire! (And be sure not to miss Lynne Hybels talking about her experience in Congo around the eleven minute mark. If you want to know more about what's happening in Congo - check out this.)
Also - enjoy this song with my friend Steve Bell and Carolyn Arends ... the song gets going around 3:20. "This is who you are ..."
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Countdown Day 31
We are acknowledging that the Christianities we have created – or constructed – deserve to be reexamined and deconstructed, not so that we may slide into agnosticism, atheism, or secular patriotic consumerism, but so that our religious traditions can be seen for what they are. They are not simply a pure, abstracted, and ideal “essence of Christianity,” but rather are evolving, embodied, situated versions of the faith – each of which is unfinished, imperfect, and sometimes pretentious, and each of which is often beautiful and wonderful, renewable and serviceable too. (27)
From A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith (available February 9, 2010)
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