[ On July 5-7, The Ekklesia Project will hold its annual gathering in Chicago, which will be on the theme of Slow Church. Between now and July, we will be running a series of lguest reflections here by folks connected with the E.P. We’ve asked guest posters to reflect on the meaning of Slow Church from their own local contexts. More info on the E.P. gathering. ] Today’s reflection, the second in the series, is by Jarrod Longbons. Read the... Read more
Jen Michel is a new friend from Toronto that I met on my writing retreat in February. She recently posted this piece on her blog, Finding My Pulse, and her reflections on the table were in line with our Slow Church image of “Dinner Table Conversation as a Way of Being Church,” so I asked if she would mind my re-posting it here. Years ago, I read a great book by Danny Meyer called: Setting the Table: The Transforming Power... Read more
This is the sermon that Mike Bowling preached last Sunday (26 Feb 2012) here at Englewood Christian Church. It is one of the most hopeful and energizing sermons I have heard in a long time. It is also a superb reading of Mark 4:24-34 that is in line with what we are calling Slow Church. I’ve never quite known what to make of v. 24-25: 24And he said to them, ‘Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give... Read more
Yesterday, my publisher received from Shane Claiborne an extraordinarily kind endorsement of my ebook The Virtue of Dialogue… If you have not gotten a copy of the ebook, it is available for Kindle and Nook. Also, you might be interested in the recent blog series that I ran here, Becoming Conversational, which builds on the ebook and gives practical ideas for how churches can create space for conversation in their life together. (CLICK HERE for the last post in the... Read more
Thom Turner is a friend and regular contributor to The Englewood Review of Books. Thom is also an adjunct lecturer of English at Nyack College and the Senior Editor and Publisher of GENERATE Magazine. He has recently been doing a wonderful series on his blog on a Christian ethic of eating, which has some important connections to our Slow Church project. I invited him to guest post here, and he offered this great reflection for the present season of Lent.... Read more
One of the great gifts of my writing retreat at the Convent in Cincinnati last week (here’s a glimpse inside the Convent’s own story of stability, written by one of my fellow retreatants) was the realization of how important Liberty Hyde Bailey‘s work, and especially his poetry, has been in framing the concept of Slow Church in my head and in the life I share in community with others at Englewood Christian Church. Liberty Hyde Bailey was one of the... Read more
[ On July 5-7, The Ekklesia Project will hold its annual gathering in Chicago, which will be on the theme of Slow Church. Between now and July, we will be running a series of lguest reflections here by folks connected with the E.P. We’ve asked guest posters to reflect on the meaning of Slow Church from their own local contexts. More info on the E.P. gathering. ] Today’s reflection, the first in the series, is by Lee Wyatt. Though we... Read more
One of the key convictions of Slow Church is that God’s plan for reconciling all creation involves not only gathering a people, but gathering people in particular places that span the globe. The language of Englewood Christian Church’s covenant (where Chris is a member) puts it this way: the church community is “a manifestation of the Body of Christ in a particular place.” Happily, there is a vibrant conversation happening in the church now about the importance of placedness. Christianity Today‘s This... Read more
I’m settling in with friends old and new at the Convent in Cincinnati for a writers’ retreat this week. I’m hoping to make some much-needed progress on the chapters of the Slow Church book that I’m writing. I have taken the opportunity this weekend before and on my way to the retreat to read some of what Wendell Berry has said about the necessity of limits. I’ve been meaning to do so for awhile, but this weekend I stumbled upon... Read more
My ebook The Virtue of Dialogue: Conversation as a Hopeful Practice of Church Communities was recently released by Patheos Press, and in it, I argue that open conversation is essential for the health and flourishing of church communities and the places they inhabit. Today is the final post in the series that I am calling “Becoming Conversational” in which I offer suggestions for how churches might enrich the conversational life of their church communities. (Some of these ideas have been... Read more
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