"The members of the Church of the Savior (in Washington, D.C.) pursue both the inward journey of faith and the outward journey of social justice. Gordon Cosby and his wife, Mary, lead this community to find the substance of their lives in pursuing Christ and ministering to the broken in their neighborhood. When someone in the church senses a call from God for service, the church prays about it, and if God is in it, the vision is refined and a handful of members commit to bringing it to fruition.

Over a cup of soup at the Potter's House, a coffeehouse run by the church, eighty-plus-year-old Gordon shared with me how much more can be accomplished by ten people who discover their call than one hundred who are unsure. His desire is to lead people to living from the focused center of God's kingdom and then following the call God gives them. When I asked him why more churches don't follow his example and better their cities, he responded with a rather sobering comment: "Because the servant leadership Jesus offers us is a leadership toward unimpressiveness."

- from Buck Naked Faith by Eric Sandras

What would it be like if Christians embraced their niche and call and together transformed a city with "unimpressive" servant leadership?

Oh Lord let me be a nobody used for You!!

Well, my new blog is up and running. Hopefully with such a good-looking skin, developed by the notorious Hugo Fitch, I will blog more and begin to pontificate again.

I am finally finished with school. So this summer maybe I will have more time to blog. I am going to study Greek this summer to get ready for my semester of Greek this fall. I really want to go beyond the cursory learning of this language that most "pastor" trainees do in seminary. I want to really learn the language and master it - even after I have finished my classes - which I know two years will not even get close.

I have numerous books going now - the one that is stimulating me the most is Call to Commitment by Elizabeth O'Connor. It is the story about the Church of the Savior in Washington D.C. I know us postmodern folks don't like models or anything like that - etc. but I would love to see churches like that that do three things.
1) Make it tough to be a member - discipleship required - and not our Americanized version of a "six-week study" discipleship. All on the "altar" to use revivalism langauge.
2) A real burden and concern for the poor, the oppressed and the fringe. And not just a burden - but really doing something about it.
3) Small healthy churches planted that cultivate community around common Kingdom purposes and take serious the call to wholistic evangelism.

Oh Lord - to be apart and to have our fellowship do those three things - for that I do pray

I believe that this is what I am seeing pop up throughout the emerging church and I believe that it is a wave of the Holy Spirit to ge us back to the basics.

I received my CDs that I ordered from Regent College. I ordered:
Leadership and Spirituality - Dallas Willard
Romans in a Week - NT Wright
Kingdom, Spirit and the People of God - NT Wright
Soulcraft : Spiritual Formation - Eugene Peterson
Spiritual Formation meets the Gospel - Dallas Willard
and bonus CD on discernment and emotions

I am excited - what a nerd I am - I cannot wait to soak of these guys teaching and put it to practice.

"Many Christians are not disciples of Jesus - but consumers of Jesus" - Dallas Willard

Heard this quote today on some CDS that I am listening to. What a great and true quote. I watch people all the time thinking that they are going to heaven because they have accepted a doctrine and not a life. Jesus is something to consume - like a vitamin or etc. get me going in my "life"

How far have we drifted from the scripture?

I am still reading NT Wright's book - (which by the way it was good to see him on that special last night with Peter Jennings) but since I am so busy with school I have not read it for a few days - I will persevere with this book - just to prove to myself that I can do it.