Act Fast! Free Audio Book: So Beautiful: Divine Design for Life and the Church
Dr. Leonard Sweet, Dean of the Theological School at Drew University, has recently released a new book called So Beautiful: Divine Design for Life and the Church
You can download the unabridged audio book for free through April at christianaudio.com.
I’m looking froward to giving this book a read (and now perhaps a listen as well).
Here’s the book description:
What is commonly known as DNA today was called “…so pretty!” when it was discovered years ago, and over the course of his ministry, author Leonard Sweet has discovered that this divine design also informs God’s blueprint for the church. In this seminal work, he shares the woven strands that form the church: missional, relational, and incarnational. Sweet declares that this secret is So Beautiful!
Using the poignant life of John Newton as a touchstone, Sweet calls for the re-union of these three essential, complementary strands of the Christian life. Far from a novel idea, Sweet shows how this structure is God’s original intent and shares the simply beautiful design for His church.
A little writing project
I was able to invest time today in a little writing project I’ve been putting off.
Here’s what I’m working on:
Those who answer the call to become Jesus’ disciples are called to be missional, incarnational people. Yet, too often, the practice of our Christian faith and mission focuses on us rather than on God’s mission in the world; we live more like consumers than disciples on mission with God. In order to faithfully follow Christ, our practice of the Christian faith must transition from a consumeristic focus on ourselves to a missional focus on God’s mission in the world.
This little writing project will develop a set of missional practices—small, intentional actions that taken consistently over time will form people to live like Jesus and join in God’s activity in the world. These practices will lead to the development of a Rule of Life to guide both individuals and church communities as they live missional, incarnational lives.
Who’s Going to Win?
Brian McLaren writes:
In this election year, I suspect that many people will be thinking about personal interest only: what benefits will this or that candidate bring me and my family? Others will think exclusively about the interests of their own interest group - their ethnic, social, partisan, national, or religious in-group: what’s in it for us?
But my hope is that more and more of us, especially those inspired by faith, will be thinking about which candidate brings the most wins, the most benefits, the least harm, to everyone. One of Jesus’ early followers said it like this: “Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”
We will still disagree on which candidates provide the best answers to these questions, but at least we’ll be asking the right questions.
6.7 billion people …
Top 1 billion … consumes 32 times the bottom 1 billion
Top 1 percent … owns 40% of the wealth
Top 5 percent … owns 70% of the wealth
Top 20 percent … earns 83 times more than the bottom 20 percent
Since 1950, the global economic output has increased by 600%. But 80% of the gains have been shared by 20% of the population.
The rich share in the gross national product. The poor share in the gross national destruct.
"What could you do with 127 hours, 15 minutes?
What did you do in May? According to Nielsen Media Research, the average American watched 127 hours, 15 minutes of TV in May.
Maybe it was all the people still trying to decide between Barack and Hillary.
If Everyone Cared
The video to Nickelback’s “If Everyone Cared” was played in our Worship Gathering this morning. A great song with an even better video. I love the way they overlay stories of people who made a huge difference in the world.
Take a look if you haven’t seen it yet.
