liturgy after charlotteville
The following are the brief remarks I made at Immanuel Church on the Sunday after the White Nationalist rally in Charlotteville, Virginia
I don’t have many words because, frankly, I’m embarrassed and broken hearted. For most of the weekend, as I saw report after report as to what had happened, my emotions went back and forth between sadness and infuriation. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised because I have been predicting this stuff for a long time now, but I was still flabbergasted that what I was watching could be happening in my country in the year 2017.
A Prayer for Shalom in an Insane World
Seeking Shalom for Spokane
Here is a talk a gave a month or so ago at Life Center, here in Spokane. Immanuel is partnering with LC in our new church plant. The text for the talk is taken from Ephesians 2.
A Liturgy of Peace
I wanted to put this out before it moved from the front of my thinking. A few of us have been very concerned about the increase in violent activity in our city (here is a different recent post about this). The question I have been grappling with is what is the church’s response to such issues. To be honest, the complexity of urban violence is beyond me. What can be done? What can I do? I am not sure.
Liv Larson AndrewsOne thing we (Eric Blauer and Liv Larson Andrews) arrived at was we did not want to become desensitized to how these brutal acts fractured shalom. I believe many Americans are becoming fatigued by the constant cascade
of news of this kind; that they are in a way de-selecting it for their possible choices of issues to be concerned about.
Cry for Peace
Honestly, it seems like there are a millions things on the minds of Americans right now and the potential of entering into another war seems like a strange little (and inconvenient) “gnat” only mildly clouding our attentions. We have been in international conflict for so long, for some it just seems like a “same old, same old” thing. I can remember not long ago that when our country was on the precipice of a international conflict (war) people would freak out.
Have we become that desensitized? Are we that callous? Does it not alarm you that our country is about to drop more bombs…on a different country?
Why Do We Call Him Lord (HT – McKnight)
Sowing Shalom – Common Good
I just got back from a conference in Chicago that specifically dealt with how Christian congregations can sow shalom into their local contexts. It was fantastic. Almost simultaneously, I came across this new site by CT. It is worth looking at.
Conflict Stifles Mission
Finding Nemo in the Church
Suspended Space – Peter Rollins video
This is a helfpful and thought provoking little video. I love Rollins' line, referring to the church, "I am not going to let anyone colonize the space…including myself." I wish this were true of all churches in the west.