Jesus Creed
Kris and I were kindly invited to the wonderful Trinity Covenant Church in Manchester CT last weekend. It was good to be with Phil Hakanson and Peter Tullson. And Phil and family are friends with my editor, Lil Copan, and it was great to see Lil again. I wanted to say more about Lil when I spoke, but I became emotional and couldn’t get through it … so I went on to the Jesus Creed (which she edited).
We find that thriving churches have vibrant community groups, and Trinity has shifted its focus in the last few years toward those groups and it has made a big difference, as was so visible in the story of Barbara in the Sunday morning services. She told of how community groups had helped her with the lonely joy of her new faith and of how these groups were enhancing both her marriage and her family.
Increasingly, I have come to value the incidental remarks about our books. At Trinity Covenant, I heard some encouraging comments about both 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed
and The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible
. Phil suggested to me, wondering what I thought, that he liked 40 Days more than Jesus Creed. It is true, that 40 Day book is a completely different kind of book.
. Phil suggested to me, wondering what I thought, that he liked 40 Days more than Jesus Creed. It is true, that 40 Day book is a completely different kind of book.
Churches have to be one of the best resources for the development of music and the music and worship at Trinity was something special. Both worship teams and the solos and the drums and piano … all fantastic.
Kris and I loved how Trinity finished the worship services: instead of receiving the famous Blessing from Numbers 6 (“the Lord bless you…”) from the pastor, we faced one another and sang the blessing to each other. Moving … and wonderful example of what the priesthood of all believers means.
If you want a good example of a multigenerational church, Trinity is the place to begin. We need more of this, folks.
By the way, I did a Jesus Creed talk and then one of how everything about the other-oriented ministry of Jesus ends up in the community life of Acts 2:42-47.
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