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Mon, 20 Jan 2025 17:44:18 GMT

The devotional thought I sent out to our little church this morning: This morning is January 20th. This day marks a particular tension that I feel.

On the one hand, it is the day we celebrate the life and work of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one imperfect man who dedicated himself to lifting others up.

On the other hand, it is Inauguration Day for the next president of the United States, another imperfect man who seems, by all credible accounts, to have spent his adult life pushing other people down and around in order to grow his power and wealth.

As I think about today and the coming years, I find myself reflecting on what it means to be an imperfect person embedded in an imperfect system and how the calling to follow the way of Jesus challenges all of this.

You have heard me speak of other-centered, co-suffering love, and I expect you'll hear that a lot more in the coming months and years. But I will also remind you that Christians have walked this path before,

whether living in the margins or wrestling with how not to be co-opted by imperial powers. One of the books that has influenced me the most in the past couple of years is Michael Gorman's Inhabiting the Cruciform God. Here's one excerpt:

"The embedded theology of most Christians still revolves around a non-cruciform model of God's holiness, character, and power, and a crucial corrective is needed.

This brings us inevitably back . . . to politics, to the 'normal' God of civil religion that combines patriotism and power. Nationalistic, military power is not the power of the cross, and such misconstrued notions of divine power have nothing to do with

the majesty or holiness of the triune God known in the weakness of the cross. In our time, any 'holiness' that fails to see the radical, counter-imperial claims of the gospel is inadequate at best." (128)

The way of Jesus will always challenge the comfortable and "common sense" path laid out by any system dedicated to pursuing the self at the expense of others, even if that pursuit is for good things like "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

We are being given an opportunity if we choose to take it. We are being invited to conform our own lives – including our calendars, to-do lists, and bank registers – more fully to the cross of Jesus,

where we understand that the greatest power in this universe is the power to give ourselves away for others. Blessings.

Sat, 04 Jan 2025 20:55:28 GMT

It’s the new year, and that means it's BOOK LAUNCH! It's true. If you follow me on social media (and if you're seeing this, that's you!) you will see me posting about my new book. AAAAAND... I hope you will be too! Really. 😁

I'm so proud of this new book. Walking Otherward is my best work yet. I feel like I've hit my stride with my "writing voice," and (more importantly) I think this book has the capacity to help Christians find their footing in this crazy, polarized, fearful, and power-hungry moment.

In our current media and publishing landscape, getting a strong launch is one of the most important predictors of a book's reach. For small authors like myself, generating a strong launch is impossible. It requires support from friends, family, and fans of the book—that's where you come in. 👉🏼

If you're a fan of my writing or a supporter, 🏆but don't want to commit to being on the launch team (entirely reasonable), then I hope you'll do two things. First, I hope you'll 💵pre-order the book. (The ebook is live now for pre-ordering, and the print version will be live for pre-ordering this week.) Second, I hope you'll recommend it 🗣️ to your friends in whatever way is comfortable and appropriate. That's it.

On the other hand, if you spend some time online and are willing to share more,🎉 I want to invite you to join my launch team. A number of folks joined and started reading before the holidays, but there is always room for more!

What does being on the launch team entail? Well, once you sign up, you get invited to a private Facebook group where we coordinate our work. Then, you get a free PDF copy of the book 📖 to start reading right away. Then, in whatever ways you feel comfortable, we ask you to tell your in-real-life friends 🗣️ about the book, share about the book on social media 📣(we'll provide cool graphics you can share), and once you've read the book, post an honest review on Goodreads and Amazon. We also ask---if you can afford it---to pre-order a copy of the book 💵 for yourself or someone else. All of these actions tell the all-knowing algorithms online to share this book more broadly with others we don't even know.

Now, we know that different folks have more or less margin and comfort with sharing things online, so we only ask you to do what you can and are comfortable with. I don't want this to turn into used-car sales. I want it to be authentic. But I promise it will also be fun.

So, do you want to join? Want to read Walking Otherward before others get a chance? Are you willing to help get the word out when the time comes? Then complete the form to provide your info: https://forms.gle/1QM3MspWFtThpLg67

As soon as we receive your form, you'll be added to our Facebook Launch Team Community, and we'll email you the ARC so you can begin reading!

Sat, 04 Jan 2025 20:53:22 GMT

As soon as we receive your form, you'll be added to our Facebook Launch Team Community, and we'll email you the ARC so you can begin reading!

Sat, 04 Jan 2025 20:53:15 GMT

As soon as we receive your form, you'll be added to our Facebook Launch Team Community, and we'll email you the ARC so you can begin reading!