New Kind of Christian
The "A New Kind of Christian" trilogy, as many of you know, has just been re-released in paperback. The new artwork is excellent, and we included a new introduction to each book. I keep hearing from people - especially young people - who are just discovering the books for the first time, and the response is encouraging.
For example, I just received this note this morning:
Just a few minutes ago I finished reading The Last Word and the Word After That. When I started reading the last few chapters, I thought I would just finish the book tonight, rather than leaving one or two chapters for tomorrow. As I read the final chapter, I got choked up and some tears formed in my eyes. It was time for me to say goodbye to the friends that I had come to know over the past year or so. I'm sure you hear this often, but I wanted you to know that the trilogy you have penned has been inspiring and affirming to me. Neo, Dan, and many of the other characters through whom you speak have led me to a place that I did not intend to go when I began reading A New Kind of Christian for a denominational class. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the guidance and mentoring that you have provided to me through these books.
May God, the author of our stories, be with you as you continue to touch people through your writing.
You can order the books here:
New Kind of Christian
Story We Find Ourselves In
Last Word and the Word After That
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Blessed in the Bronx
Jeremy Del Rio blogged and photographed our EMC event in Bronx last weekend. The next best thing to being there would be catching his excellent verbal and visual report here.Vic
Your last chance this year to be part of the EMC tour comes this weekend in Goshen, Indiana. Hope to see you there!
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Envision 08, June 8-10
If you haven't heard about Envision 08, I hope you'll do three things:
1. Right now ... click on this link: ev08.org
2. Register and be part of this historic gathering if you possibly can.
3. Send this link to other people you believe would benefit by being involved.
I'm thrilled to be part of this gathering. If you look at the speakers who are coming, you'll see they represent a broad range of voices from the Christian community - including E(e)vangelicals (Big E and small e) and Mainliners and emergent folks and others. You'll see that the purpose of the event is to look forward and imagine what we can and should become and accomplish together. I hope you'll be there ... let's see what we can envision!
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An amazing weekend …
Week ten of our eleven-city tour is now history. I wished we had four or five days together in the Bronx instead of just one and a half. What a tremendous group of people.
We were hosted by two inspiring groups:
Latino Pastoral Action Center, founded by Rev. Ray Rivera. It was an honor for us to have Ray present, and to hear his thoughts. Ray was "an emergent Christian" decades before such a term had been created. The Center houses a charter school, a local congregation, and a number of tremendous community resource ministries.
Latino Leadership Circle, founded by David Ramos. This group brings together some of the most thoughtful and dynamic people I've met in all my travels.
A huge thanks to coordinator Liz Rios and to Susan, Rose, and all the other amazing LPAC volunteers. We couldn't have been better cared for!
A special highlight was our panel on Saturday morning. In addition to Rev. Ray Rivera, we heard from Lisa Sharon Harper, Gabriel Salguero, Alexie Torres-Fleming, and Jose Humphries. What a rich conversation ... We may be able to make audio or video downloads available. Stay tuned.
Tracy Howe, our worship leader, was joined by some tremendous musicians, including a great rhythm section from LPAC, plus Aaron Strumpel and Rev. Vince Anderson ... whose "dirty gospel" CD called "100% Jesus" had me singing along all the way home. (You can hear "I don't think Jesus done it that way" here.)
Thanks to all who were present - from the greater New York City area, from around the Northeast, from the UK, from Montreal, and elsewhere. And once again, a huge thanks to Ian Morgan Cron and Trinity Church, whose generosity covered the expenses for the event and made it possible.
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