“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And … love your neighbor as yourself.”
I pastor a church in the suburbs called CrossWalk. We have a saying around our church that we are learning to love well. It’s our mission and it comes from this simple yet challenging teaching of Jesus. Scot McKnight refers to this as the Jesus Creed. Several years ago be began reciting it throughout the day. It transformed his life and eventually led him to write The Jesus Creed.
Since the Jesus Creed is the basis of CrossWalk’s mission we decided to encourage our community to go through Scot’s companion book 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed during the season of Lent. Each day provides a simple reflection on learning to love well. So far it’s been a good experience. In fact my family is using it everyday. We’re reciting the Jesus Creed with our kids each morning and evening (we’ve even had some fun with it while driving around town).
So if you’re looking for something to add to your Lenten practices this year, there’s still time to grab a copy and join us on our journey. In fact, come by CrossWalk this week if you are in town and I’ll give you a free copy (We gave away 300 copies at CrossWalk the last few weeks). There’s a few books left, but its first come first serve at this point.
40 Days, CrossWalk, Discipleship, Jesus, Lent, Recommended Reading, Scot McKnight, Spiritual Formation
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40 Days, CrossWalk, Discipleship, Jesus, Lent, Recommended Reading, Scot McKnight, Spiritual Formation
A 21st Century Prophet?
The prophetic voice of Shane Claiborne always challenges the gravitational forces of complacency in my life (by the way, I doubt he’d refer to himself as a prophet). I love what he has to say and I hate what he has to say, the latter a result of me knowing how often I tend to be a hearer of Jesus’ words rather than a doer of his words. I was reminded of this today when I came across Shane’s op-ed piece from the November 18 issue of Esquire magazine titled “What if Jesus Meant All that stuff.” Here’s my favorite paragraph:
In fact, the entire story of Jesus is about a God who did not just want to stay “out there” but who moves into the neighborhood, a neighborhood where folks said, “Nothing good could come.” It is this Jesus who was accused of being a glutton and drunkard and rabble-rouser for hanging out with all of society’s rejects, and who died on the imperial cross of Rome reserved for bandits and failed messiahs. This is why the triumph over the cross was a triumph over everything ugly we do to ourselves and to others. It is the final promise that love wins.
I have to mention Ryan Bell again (No, I am not his press secretary), he just posted a phenomenal article on the Spectrum blog, An Adventism I Can Believe In. It’s based on the article I blogged about yesterday from the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist President Jan Paulsen. Good stuff, but make sure you read Paulsen’s article first. Ryan says, Paulsen’s article is one to print out and read over and over again. I agree, but so is An Adventism I Can Believe In. Thanks Ryan!
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