![\"Peterson.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/assets_c\/2010\/02\/Peterson-thumb-333x317-11765.jpg\")
<\/a><\/span>In Eugene Peterson\u2019s new book,\u00a0Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0802829554\")
\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>, we are treated to a response to the posted from Wednesday about criticizing the church.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
What is the church? Do you tend to idealized the earliest churches? But do you neglect then the deformities of those same churches?<\/b>\n
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\u201cChurch,\u201d he observes, \u201cis the textured context in which we grow up in Christ to maturity.\u201d<\/div>\n
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\u201cSo, why church? The short answer is because the Holy Spirit formed it to be a colony of heaven in the country of death\u201d (11-12).<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The church, he says, is those people who practice the resurrection of Christ in the country of death.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Sure, he admits, the church isn\u2019t all it seems it should be but he makes this observation: \u201cMaybe God knows what he is doing, giving us church, this church\u201d (14). Peterson thinks Ephesians gives us a behind-the-scenes look at what church is.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cSometimes we hear our friends talk in moony, romantic terms of the early church. \u2018We need to get back to being just like the early church.\u2019 Heaven help us. These churches were a mess, and Paul wrote his letters to them to try to clean up the mess\u201d (16).<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cAnd what comes clear,\u201d in this letter to the Ephesians, \u201cis that church is not what we do; it is what God does, although we participate in it\u201d (17).<\/div>\n
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But \u201cwe don\u2019t read Ephesians as a picture of a \u2018perfect church\u2019 to which we compare our congregations and try to copy what we see. Rather, we read Ephesians as the revelation of all the operations of the Triune God that are foundational beneath what is visible among us and at work throughout each congregation. This is what makes us what we are, however imperfectly or neurotically we happen to be living it out\u201d (17-18).<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eugene Peterson: Practice Resurrection 2<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In Eugene Peterson's new book, Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ , we are treated to a response to the posted from\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/26\/eugene-peterson-practice-resurrection-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eugene Peterson: Practice Resurrection 2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In Eugene Peterson's new book, Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ , we are treated to a response to the posted from\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/26\/eugene-peterson-practice-resurrection-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-02-26T05:04:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/assets_c\/2010\/02\/Peterson-thumb-333x317-11765.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/26\/eugene-peterson-practice-resurrection-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/26\/eugene-peterson-practice-resurrection-2\/\",\"name\":\"Eugene Peterson: Practice Resurrection 2\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-02-26T05:04:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-02-26T05:04:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"In Eugene Peterson's new book, Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ , we are treated to a response to the posted from\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/26\/eugene-peterson-practice-resurrection-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/26\/eugene-peterson-practice-resurrection-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/26\/eugene-peterson-practice-resurrection-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Eugene Peterson: Practice Resurrection 2\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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In Eugene Peterson\u2019s new book,\u00a0Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ\u00a0, we are treated to a response to the posted from Wednesday about criticizing the church. What is the church? Do you tend to idealized the earliest churches? But do you neglect then the deformities of those same churches? \u201cChurch,\u201d he observes, \u201cis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1772,1733],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-history","category-prayer-and-formation"],"yoast_head":"\n