gathering in light

Recently, I wrote an review of emerging church leader Dan Kimball’s book “They Like Jesus but Not the Church.” The was for Barclay Press and can be read in its entirety here. » Read the rest of this entry «

A good friend of ours from Canton, Kevan Pedan, recently mailed me his band’s new album. It’s Atlas Songs’ first full-length and it’s called (Wide Array). I am always excited to see what Kevan does with his music because he’s the kind of artist that is continually reinventing his style and always reaching new heights of creativity in the way he goes about making his music. I talked to him about posting some of the music here so I could share it will all of you and he was glad for me to make the music available. » Read the rest of this entry «

I almost missed doing a my post of random links from around the web this week, but had a little spare time in between church and lunch today to get this out. This is great because I have a special edition today with a focus on a show I am particularly excited about. » Read the rest of this entry «

Today I had the chance to lead Ryan’s class for the second time this week. On Tuesday we covered aspects from the book Emerging Churches, while today we covered questions and key insights concerning one of Barna’s more recent hit titles, “Revolution.” Here is some of what we discussed in class today (with slides attached at the bottom).

After reading the book I was a bit stumped as to how to present the material and lead a discussion on it that would be constructive, fair and cover the relevant material. Part of my big hang-up with Barna’s presentation is the way in which he presents his material, he’s a modern outsider trying to be a postmodern insider. I don’t fault him for this, I just think he doesn’t really get it. So because of his own starting point his standpoint shifts the way he understands what’s happening in the church and culture in ways that seem to me to be too reductionistic and individualistic. » Read the rest of this entry «

This past Friday night I went to see Elvis Perkins with Emily, Cate and Bob. Recently, I found out about Perkins through Paste Magazine. Their review concluded with a statement that grabbed my attention. They said though this guy hasn’t been around long, and it may be too early to tell, the album feels like a classic. Hisdebut album “Ash Wednesday” has only been out a couple weeks and he’s making quite a stir with it.

I purchased the album directly after reading the review from Paste and I think they may have even understated just how good this guy really is. I’ve been hitting play and repeat on my ipod for the couple weeks as if I were trying to overdose on his music. And it just keeps getting better.

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A couple days back I purchased all my books for next quarter (or at least most of them) and one I am really excited about is “An Emergent Manifesto of Hope” coedited by Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones. The book is a collection of essays from emerging church leaders, the essays tend to be theologically focused and help to get at some of the main themes and ideas that run behind these young churches. I purchased the book for a couple of reasons: Ryan Bolger, Barry Taylor, and Adam Walker Cleaveland all have an articles in the book. I am also curious as to what a number of these other leaders have to say about other topics covered in the book: leadership, inclusion, parenting, creativity, orthodoxy and orthopraxy, Karl Barth, activism, sexuality, economics, and even pentecost!

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Relient K’s new album, Five Score and Seven Years came out today [you can read more here] and is currently in 6th place on Itunes. I’m kicking myself currently because I’ve been wanting to write about the album for a while and give a preview of what you could expect from their latest work, but alas it’s too late for previews. So, now we’ll switch to review mode. » Read the rest of this entry «

This is a guest post, reprinted with permission, Review and rant by Jarrod McKenna.

What’s emerging out of the “emerging church movement”?

Ever wonder what will emerge out of the ‘emerging church movement’? Watching from the very different context of Australia it’s interesting to observe some of the heat Brian McLaren’s new book “The Secret Message of Jesus” is receiving on the very different (and sometimes bizarre and disturbing) landscape of American Christianity. While the title sounds like might be flaky text you’d find in a New Age book store along side crystals and tacky objects exploiting aspects of indigenous cultures, it is in fact one of the best pop communications of some of the most exciting biblical scholarship around. » Read the rest of this entry «

“Celtic Treasure: Daily Scriptures and Prayer” by J. Philip Newell is a great book for family devotions. Emily and I got it a year ago and often use it when we have prayer times together. It’s really easy to follow and has beautiful prayers and pictures painted by the author’s children in it.

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I’ve been asked to review The Scholarship Blog for Reviewme.com. This isn’t the first time I’ve come across this site, it was just this past October that fellow blogger Paul Stamatiou was trying to get enough votes to win a $5000.00 “blogging scholarship” from “Scholarships Around the US.”
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