May 31, 2008 by iMonk
Home is an interesting concept.
I have a “home” in western Kentucky, but I feel like a stranger there. I enjoyed visiting this week, but I really am like a man from another time and place.
I have a “home” in eastern Kentucky, but it’s very fragile. A few bumps in the road and difficulties, and I’m feeling “homeless.”
I have a home with my family, but with the kids gone, it’s a changed place, too. With recent changes in the spiritual directions Denise and I are traveling, it feels different as well. [Continue reading]
May 29, 2008 by iMonk
Sabbatical Week 2, Catholics make nice places to pray, Friendship and the God journey, a great book recommendation.
You all need to buy “The Gospel for Those Broken by the Church” and more Reformation theology gifts from New Reformation Press.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
May 28, 2008 by iMonk
Matthew 6:31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God* above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
If those sound like some appropriate life verses for your journey, then you will like Pete Gall’s new book.
Before I talk about Pete Gall’s book, My Beautiful Idol, I want to say a couple of things about Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz. [Continue reading]
May 26, 2008 by iMonk
(Thanks to all of you who are already supporting Jesus Shaped Spirituality, or JSS.)
We probably need a new category around here: “Words As I Ride Into The Sunset.”
Catholic blogger extraordinaire Amy Welborn has been studying me for a couple of years now, and she knows what’s red meat to my post evangelical soul.
So this morning, she sent me two examples (1, 2) of a “meme” we’ll call “What Is Something You Feel You Can’t Say Around Other Christians (or in Church?)” [Continue reading]
May 25, 2008 by iMonk
UPDATE: The new post at JSS is “God is Jesus.”
I have started blogging at Jesus Shaped Spirituality or JesusShaped.wordpress.com. The actual domain JesusShaped.com won’t be up for a while, so this is my temporary home.
If you are an IM reader, PLEASE help me make this transition.
Tell others. Update your RSS feed. Stop by both sites and get an idea of what the transition is going to look like. I’ll be asking for some help organizing some of the IM material on thematic pages later on, so that in the future IM will be podcasts and archives.
I’m off for Sabbatical Week 2. I’ll check in later.
May 24, 2008 by iMonk
Movie talk, C.S. Lewis off limits, To those who feel it’s not working.
You all need to buy “The Gospel for Those Broken by the Church” and more Reformation theology gifts from New Reformation Press.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
May 24, 2008 by iMonk
Somewhere between Mark Driscoll, David Fitch, Bill Kinnon and Jared Wilson there’s a discussion about the validity of missional/emerging church claims to know what they are doing/talking about….which I’m not part of, but one of them asks for my thoughts. Big mistake 
(OK….it was Kinnon.)
First, my own missional cred.
My community has professing converts. About 25 this past year. Several Chinese students. One Muslim at least. We baptized that many; I’d guess there’s several more that didn’t ask for baptism. Ill treat them as Christians until I have a major reason to do otherwise. [Continue reading]
May 22, 2008 by iMonk
Here’s a useful question for me right now. (Maybe it will be useful to you, or maybe not.)
Can you find places in scripture where someone had to drastically revise their idea of God in order to know and follow the true God? If so, why and how?
I’m not asking for places where people just needed to learn some new information. No, I am talking about those in the Biblical story who had to radically revise, even abandon, the kind of God they believed in in order to take hold of the true and living God? [Continue reading]
May 22, 2008 by iMonk
Because you have a real life, maybe you can only read one book about Jesus scholarship this year. What’s it going to be?
I love N.T. Wright’s Jesus and The Victory of God, but unless you are used to scholarly exegesis and discussion, you need something aimed more at the non-academic, but not short-changing you on any of the benefits of scholarly study.
The book you’ve been waiting for is Recovering Jesus, by Thomas Yoder Neufeld, the finest “undergraduate” level survey of the current scholarly study of Jesus I’ve ever seen, and a book that will warmly enhance your faith as a Christian. [Continue reading]
May 22, 2008 by iMonk
I’m completing my first week of sabbatical here in lovely Louisville, Kentucky. I want to thank all of you who made suggestions of things to do. I’ve visited many places that you recommended.
I’ve stayed at the Legacy Center on the Campus of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Accommodations are outstanding. Great bookstore, coffee shop, cafeteria, library and health center all right here on campus. [Continue reading]
May 20, 2008 by iMonk
I’ve always liked this essay, and I don’t want to lose track of it.
The Humility Zone is rarer and rarer among Christians these days. Defending the authority of scripture has come to mean asserting the impossibility of our own fallibility. Scripture is true, has authority and, of course, my interpretation of scripture just happens to be 100% accurate, even if I’m 23.
The Humility Zone was never so needed among Christians, and as Christians speak about their faith to the world.
This isn’t about postmodern epistemology. It’s about understanding what it means to be human as well as Christian.
READ: The Humility Zone. [Continue reading]
May 19, 2008 by iMonk
UPDATE: Here’s a suggestion by Ray Ortland that fits with this post.
If the truth about Christianity turned out to be very different from what we’d been taught as young Christians by people we look up to as mentors and authorities, would we stand up and tell the truth? Would we make the turn and go the other way?
Every so often, this situation occurs. Take, for example, the infamous inter-racial dating rule at Bob Jones University. Through whatever process- enlightenment, epiphany, embarrassment- it became obvious that the school’s prohibition on interracial dating was wrong, even though it had been taught as part of a “godly Christian witness” for decades. [Continue reading]
May 19, 2008 by iMonk
In fifteen minutes, I’ll be on the road to sabbatical week 1 on the campus of Southern seminary.
Look for occasional reports here. Look for some of the fruit of my time away at the temporary home of Jesus Shaped Spirituality.
Thanks for all the Louisville advice. I’m loaded for bea…..books and coffee.
God bless all of you and have a great summer. If you miss me, listen to The God Journey podcast archive.
May 18, 2008 by iMonk
UPDATE: Here’s an example of what Young is writing at his own blog these days.
I cannot tell you how important it is for you to go listen to this interview. If you’ve read The Shack and wondered how the story expresses the faith journey of the author, this is the interview you are waiting for.
Absolutely amazing story, with the beauty of the Gospel everywhere. That a bunch of the TR community will hate on this book because, as Steve says, their underwear is too tight, is a real shame. Those of you who read and thought, “I am reading a journey inside someone’s own experience of The Great Sadness,” will be doubly rewarded.
Steve also has Paul Young’s web site linked, and there is more material on Young’s journey there.
Please, listen to this story. It will change completely the way you hear the idea of going to “The Shack” and it will make Mark Driscoll’s ridicule of that image truly sad.
May 17, 2008 by iMonk
What’s happening to the IM website? Dragged down front and made to dance.
Jake Colsen.com
So You Don’t Want To Go To Church?
The God Journey. An absolute must for IM readers. Go to “Recent Episodes” and listen to “Who Is This God?”
You all need to buy “The Gospel for Those Broken by the Church” and more Reformation theology gifts from New Reformation Press.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
