My latest piece for Dmergent.

---

 

The church universal is standing at a crossroad; right now the church sits at the corner of the 21st century and the gospel.  Communities of faith have struggled with how to proclaim and live out the gospel of Jesus the Christ in a true, authentic and meaningful way.  In our ever changing, connected and fast-paced world the church has some stiff competition for people’s time, attention, and even money.  Ministers around the country gather with financial officers and committee members to pour over the annual stewardship pledge cards trying to craft a budget that speaks to the communities’ faith as well as trying to be reasonable and practical.

The ministries and activities that the church present are a reflection of the priorities and commitments of that particular faith community.  How does the church proclaim the story of God’s love moving through humanity?  What is the point of all this if we have nothing to show for it?

When trying to formulate an answer comes a temptation, one that is easy to fall for.  This temptation is not one of grand proportions where the choice is between a piece of carrot cake or a rice cake that we can see comedically presented in advertisements.

This temptation is lurking in the background of many churches and in the minds of congregations.  It is easy to make it the central focus of how Christians articulate their faith, the reasonings behind ministries and the ultimate goal, purpose and role of the church in a particular community.

Read the complete article here

Every year Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas holds a week long conference called Minster’s Week. It’s a great time to collaborate with other ministers from all over the US and reconnect with colleagues and friends.

This year I was pleased to find out that my book Seeking Imperfection would be a part of the bookstore run by Cokesbury.

I was able to make it to Fort Worth yesterday and hold a mini book signing. Below are some pictures of the event.

Thanks for reading and sharing!

God bless.

In Christ,

Rev. Evan

---

Below is a sermon I preached at First Christian Church (DOC) in Longview on Luke 4:1-13 entitled “The Thread of Temptation.”

 

I am excited to announce that Seeking Imperfection has received its first 5 star review on Amazon!
Thanks to everyone for their support and I hope that you are enjoying the book!

If you have a moment and would like to, please stop by the Amazon page (link) or the Goodreads page (link) and review it.  I would greatly appreciate it.

If you haven’t picked up your copy yet you can do so by going to the Books page.

Happy reading!

In Christ,

Rev. Evan

Below is a sermon I preached at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Longview, Texas entitled “If Not Today, When?” based on Luke 4:14-21.

In Christ,

Rev. Evan

Below is a piece of the first article I posted on the Disciples of Christ website/blog Dmgerent.  I hope you enjoy it!

In Christ,

Rev. Evan

---

 

I am constantly amazed by what my daughter (age 5) picks up.  Her brain absorbs everything that is thrown at it.  She has a knack of hearing a song once and can sing back with clarity hours, if not days, later.  She wants to know more how the world works and she tries with all of her might to read everything that is put in front of her.  The world is her playground and she is trying to figure out where she fits in it.

We were riding together going to a doctor’s appointment when she proudly declared she knew what holiday was coming up next.  I inquired and she stated with confidence that “King Arthur Day” was the reason she would not be attending school on Monday.  Looking for clarification, she tried to articulate the long string of names, “Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.”

I asked her what she knew about Martin Luther King, Jr. and she said that he was a man who helped people who had different colors of skin.  But that is not the part of the story that impacted her the most.  She began to tell of King’s childhood and how there were places, even bathrooms, where he could not go because of the color of his skin.  She then told the story of when King was playing with some Caucasian children; the parents of the Caucasian children came out and sent King home and instructed him to never come back; she exclaimed, “just because he had black skin!”.  I could tell this struck a nerve with her and asked: “I wonder what it felt like to be sent home because of the color of your skin?”  She answered, “I would not like it one bit; I hope no ever does that to anyone.”  I agreed and thought to myself, “there is still hope for the world yet.”

Click here to read the rest of this article on dmergent.org

At the start of a new year people are generally introspective and make resolutions or promises to make things different over the course of the next 365(or 366) days.  There is an intent that people want to make their lives fuller, more focused, more determined.

With that in mind I am going to make an effort to read more in 2016. I know that this is a pretty general resolution but its something that I have been wanting to do for some time.  There are so many good books that have come out in the last decade (if not longer) that I have on my shelf or ever growing “to-read” list.

Above are four of the books I will try to tackle this year.

• Ask: Faith Questions in a Skeptical Age
• Accidental Saints: Find God In All The Wrong People
• An Altar In The World
• Emergence Christianity

Be looking for reviews and other books I recommend!

In Christ,

Rev. Evan

---

 

If you haven’t already, add Seeking Imperfection to your “to-read” list; to learn more click here.

I am happy to announce that I have been asked to be a monthly contributor for [D]mergent, a Disciples of Christ blog about the church in the 21st Century.

Continue reading →

Happy New Year!

May 2016 be filled with love, hope, peace and grace!

In Christ,

Rev. Evan

---

Photo Credit.

On December 27, 2015, I preached at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Longview, Texas based on Colossians 3: 12-17.

 

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/fcclongview/2015-12-27_110222.mp3|animation=no]