While I was reading Luke 9 today, a new thought (for me) immerged. It’s a familiar passage about the feeding of the 5,000. 12 Now the day began to wear away, and the twelve came and said to him, “Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, … More Creating Communities with Memory
The essential ingredient to what? Discipleship of course. The opening paragraphs of Bonhoeffer’s Life Together “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” (Ps. 133:1) In the following we shall consider a number of directions and precepts that the Scriptures provide us for our life together under the … More Community – the Essential Ingredient
No comment necessary except to say, Bonhoeffer’s little book Life Together is worth reading over and over again. (Confession: I have probably read it half a dozen times myself so I am an unabashed fan.) “The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them. Just as love to … More Learning to Listen — a Christian Duty
I am working on some garden projects. A hugelkultur mound (German for, “hill garden” or “hill culture”) that I am preparing for planting in the spring. See the pictures on the left and below for stages 1-5. Hugelkultur requires the digging of a trench and filling it with rotting logs, sticks and other organic matter … More Borrowing Stuff as a Ministry
The video is from an Anglican Church in Lisburn, Ireland. It celebrates the joy of community in the life of the church to the tune of Rend Collective’s MY LIGHTHOUSE. Enjoy. Rejoice. Let the contagion spread. And here is a link to the article that discusses why this has gone viral. What do you think? … More Celebrating the Joy of Christ in the Life of the Church
The good news of the Gospel is good because of some really bad news. We have been pronounced guilty before . . . an absolutely good being, an absolutely holy king, an absolutely righteous judge, an all seeing, all knowing sovereign who knows every thought and intention of our hearts, every behavior of our past, every secret … More Pronounced Guilty, and the Good News of the Gospel
An Excerpt from Bonhoeffer “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath” (Eph. 4:26). It is a decisive rule of every Christian fellowship that every dissension that day has brought must be healed in the evening. It is perilous for the Christian to lie down to sleep with an unreconciled heart. Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 74. … More How Community is Protected
It is the beginning of a new year and that means the beginning of another rereading of Bonhoeffer’s Life Together. I am looking forward to this year’s reading more than others. I feel like after reading it so many times over the years I am at the place where I might understand it at a deeper … More Bonhoeffer: It Starts Again
Saturday Afternoon Musings The garden is fenced in and ready for planting. The front driveway is edged and looking crisp. The compost pile is heating up and in the raised bed “greenhouse” the lettuce, spinach, onions, beets have all broken the surface while the carrots are still stalling their appearance. So after tending the garden it was … More Why Pray this Way?
Wednesday is for Prayer and Reflection I ran across a brilliant article from an Jamie Dunlop, associate of Mark Dever and Capital Hill Baptist Church. Jamie and Mark have recently co-authored a book, The Compelling Community: Where God’s Power Makes a Church Attractive. The article was titled, “3 Ways We Prevent the Gospel from Making Our Churches … More Things We Do that Prevent People from Hearing the Gospel
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