text & context

Mars Hill Church in Seattle has a resource ministry (theology, ministry, conferences, etc.) that is live-streaming a conference on the biblical text and the world context in which we live it out:  www.theresurgence.com/live

why “ikonograph”?

The new church that we are starting in Medina, OH is called ikon.  (www.ikonmedina.com)  Ikon means “image.”  Here are three foundational ideas for the church:

1.  Jesus is the image of God (colossians 1.15).  It’s all about Jesus.

2.  We are being conformed to the image of God (romans 8.29).  We’re becoming more like Jesus.

 3.  We are created in the image of God (genesis 1.27).  We represent Jesus in the world.

 So “ikonograph” is the rambling writings of an ikon in process – daily becoming more like Jesus.  Over time, I’ll share many resources that have been helpful to me, news about the new church, and miscellaneous thoughts about life, theology, and more.

slow learner

I admit it – I’m a slow learner when it comes to blogging.  I’ve taken quite a while to figure out how to make this blog look the way I want, and it’s not quite there yet.  Ultimately, I’d like this to be a collection of many resources that have been helpful to me in theology, church planting, and life.  More to come…

how people change #1

In their book how people change, Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp tackle the ever-present issue of how spiritual growth happens.  From the foreword:

How People Change starts with God, and so avoids the fatal flaw in all the self-help books.  You become profoundly different as you come to the growing realization, “It’s not all about me.”  It’s all about the One who is remaking us – each one and all together – into his image, and thus into a community that practices loving-kindness, justice, and righteousness in the earth.  “In these things delight.”  – David Powlison

A thought-provoking paragraph from chapter 1:

We all know on some level that Christ must be our identity, meaning, purpose, hope, and goal.  Yet our self-righteousness dies hard.  We want to be at the center of our world, and we think we are capable of more independence than would be spiritually helpful.  So we tend to reduce the gospel to comfortable elements, none of which do justice to the message of grace found in Christ. (p. 14)