Tag: credibility

Spiritual Formation

Every Step An Arrival

I’ve been sitting with this phrase today… every step an arrival.

It’s the subtitle for Eugene Peterson’s Memoir entitled: The Pastor. I read this book for the first time last summer, and am planning to reread it this summer (and probably every summer to come — it’s one of those books).

Peterson credits a poem written by Denise Levertov, in which she gives an account of her development as a poet, for the origin of the phrase. As you might deduce, Peterson now uses it as a way to encapsulate his vocational unfolding as a pastor.

Every step an arrival.

Every step.

An arrival.

The Local Church

Hocking Jesus

I wrote this blog post after returning from a mission trip with eleven students. It is mostly in response to a deep conversation we had about what will happen when the students leave college. See, they get it – they’re tired of churches that are more concerned with creating their own world rather than changing THE world for the sake of The Kingdom.

So as our students walk across their stages and receive their long-expected degrees, will there be a church they can be part of? Will there be a movement of Jesus followers who actually pray as Jesus taught us… and believe it?

Student Culture, Trends & Issues

It’s All A Gift

According to the American Heart Association website, “approximately 95% of sudden cardiac arrest victims die before reaching the hospital.”

Sometime between 12:10pm and 12:20 pm on April 14th my world was turned upside down. During a run over my lunch hour, I went into full cardiac arrest and collapsed. At 32 years of age I had a heart attack…at 32! This was completely unexpected and the circumstances surrounding my survival are nothing short of miraculous.