Book Giveaway – Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove’s Awakening of Hope.

August 29, 2012 By 51 Comments
Awakening of Hope

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove's newest book The Awakening of Hope Paperback: Zondervan. is the book of of the month over at the Patheos Book Club. For more on the book, check out Tony Jones' review, and more coverage at the Patheos Book Club... Watch for our review here tomorrow and for an interview with Jonathan about the book in the next print issue of The Englewood Review of Books! Today we're giving away 3 copies of the book, 1 copy of the accompanying DVD (which features Jonathan and Shane Claiborne) and 1 book/DVD combo package! Enter to win a Free copy of this book … [Read more...]

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Slow Reading?

August 7, 2012 By 7 Comments
open_book

Last week I wrote an article recommending poetry as one way to help us slow down in our ever-accelerating world.  This piece, "In Defense of Poetry," was published yesterday on RELEVANT magazine's website. (and giving credit where credit is due, this piece was inspired by Phil Kenneson's excellent talk at the Ekklesia Project gathering last month, on which I hope to do a series of reflections here in the near future). But my editor at RELEVANT stuck a little tagline on my article that contains a thought that I cannot get out of my head: "With all the Slow Movements picking up steam, maybe … [Read more...]

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Ragan Sutterfield’s Farming as a Spiritual Discipline

July 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Ragan-Cover

Food is central to the vision of Slow Church, in the practices of sharing food together and also caring about where our food comes from that God so graciously and abundantly provides food for us. One of the most helpful introductory books in thinking about food in the life of the church is our friend Ragan Suttterfield's book Farming As A Spiritual Discipline. This book was developed from three talks that Ragan gave here at Englewood Christian Church in 2008, at a conference that we hosted on the church and agriculture. For today (Monday July 16) and tomorrow (Tuesday July 17), this book … [Read more...]

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Following Christ in a World of Distractions (RIP, Ray Bradbury).

June 7, 2012 By 2 Comments
Ray_Bradbury_(1975)

As you probably have heard by now, Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451 and other novels passed away yesterday. (NY TIMES obit) My friend Chase Roden, sent me the following reflection this morning, which I share here, since a key part of what we are calling Slow Church is vigilance and attentiveness to discerning together what is faithfulness and what is distraction.  Thank you, Chase. And R.I.P., Ray Bradbury Ray Bradbury died on Tuesday. I loved his books as a kid and never really returned to them after high school, but there's one scene -- from Fahrenheit 451 -- that has … [Read more...]

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Reading for Conversation.

April 5, 2012 By 1 Comment
Bibliothek_St._Florian

John and I agree that the practice of reading is essential to our understanding of Slow Church. Indeed, it was a mutual love of books that connected us in the first place.  In the age of talking heads, the soundbite and the two-minute YouTube video, reading is a practice that can be useful for slowing churches down and guiding us into meaningful conversations.  Here at Englewood Christian Church, we are blessed to have many people who are deeply committed to the practice of reading, which continually energizes our on-going Sunday night conversation (I have told the story of this … [Read more...]

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New Ebook – The Virtue of Dialogue

January 26, 2012 By 9 Comments
The Virtue of Dialogue - C. Christopher Smith

Chris has has a new little ebook that is now available from Patheos Press: The Virtue of Dialogue: Conversation as a Hopeful Practice of Church Communities. http://amzn.to/virtueofdialogue This ebook narrates Englewood Christian Church's practice of conversation, how we -- a failed megachurch -- stumbled in the practice of conversation 15 years ago, and how it has transformed us and continues to transform us. A strong case is made that open, conversation is an essential and timely practice for all churches. Conversation -- and particularly dinner table conversation -- is … [Read more...]

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More on the Drama of Scripture…

January 13, 2012 By 1 Comment

Thanks to everyone who added their thoughts to my post on Wednesday.  They have been immensely helpful in thinking about the drama of creation.  A particular thanks to Wes Vander Lugt, who pointed me to the following two books, which I have been devouring over the last couple of days, and finding very helpful.  I'm posting excerpts here, so that you might enjoy them as well... Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics. Sam Wells. Brazos Press, 2004. *** CLICK HERE to read an excerpt from this book on Google Books The Drama of Doctrine. Kevin Vanhoozer. WJK Books, 2005. … [Read more...]

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