Jul 13 2009

Children of Grace

by jonny/admin

Every so often you read a book that you just love, to the extent that it seems a waste to rush it, but all the same to chug through it. Then you tell everyone about it, and then even that’s not enough and you start to think of who you could buy copies for. Culture Making by Andy Crouch is such a book. It’s well research and also include plenty of the authors own wisdom and experience, it challenges mind, heart and body, and inspires new ways of thinking, being and acting.

The book starts with a sociological and anthropological take on culture before moving on to a narrative theological overview, both of these I found very helpful. Finally Crouch moves on to some practical outcomes, including some fantastic thoughts on power and grace. Crouch reflects on his time as a campus minister at Harvard. He note how he met students that fell roughly into 3 camps, i’ll briefly mention them here, before moving on to a prize quote. One group were the strives, or children of crisis (never fully at home, always working hard, never seeing a fully reward of their efforts), another were the children of privilege (walking about like they owned the place but achieving little), the last group were the children of grace, who walked around in wonder that they got to study at Harvard, quietly brilliant savoring every opportunity. But in reality: “Every student I met, anxious, confident, or otherwise, had been the recipient of a gift. Only few of them knew it.” Really I’d love you to read the whole book and this section makes more sense in light of that, however this section really moved me and I want to quote it here, and allow you to spend some time with it too.

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Aug 1 2007

An attempt at an explanation

by jonny/admin

[note: I keep finding myself editing this and making adjustments]

This is a space for those of us who have been captivated by Jesus’ message of the Kingdom of God. We want to see this good news lived out in our every day lives.

We believe in God who is restoring the world with his radical embracing grace. This God of grace disrupts our everyday lives and inivtes us to live with the conviction the Jesus is Lord and the systems of this world are not.

This embracing grace is changing our whole lives, reconnecting us to God, to the earth, to each other and to ourselves. Restoring us to who we were created to be.

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