I received the following text message from my friend Sean (from Buffalo NY): “So I just finished reading The Bible. And my impression is that IT’S A REDEMPTIVELY CONFOUNDING MASTERPIECE! God is unapologetically upending human logic! Ultimately, God insists on displacing sensibility and propriety with the spectacle and scandal of a degraded and abased man […]

A Ruling Elder in the PCA sent me this text message today, “In one of His many sermons preached on mountainsides, Jesus of Nazareth offers some shocking WOES. The woes are not the woes that we would normally classify as woes – in our normal life they would be signs of success, completeness, fullness a […]

[1] 1 Thessalonians 2:8; 19-20 – being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. … what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? […]

Our goal is not to lead from the front as seen and celebrated figures, but to lead from beneath as compost. We die to our own reputations, and we sabotage social norms that esteem and idealize punctiliousness, prestige, and propriety. Our leadership agenda is to provide the subterranean/unseen/uncelebrated nutrients for the “non-ordained” body to flourish […]

“Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly – they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.” “After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.” “The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.” “Chronic remorse, […]

True leadership at ECPC is found in the “hidden” places—the wilderness of the Psalms, the subterranean work of the soil, and the private grit of the rock climber, hiker, and/or mountaineer. We believe that God reveals the secrets of the Kingdom not to the self-assured or the “wise and understanding,” but to those who embrace […]

What is greatness? 1 But according to God 2    When Michael Jordan began his professional sports career he was projected to be a symbol of unparalleled POWER! The NBA was banking on MJ being the face of the league, and there was hefty hype that Jordan would popularize the sport unlike any player who came […]

My friend Mae told me that her favorite part of the Bible is Psalm 46. So I read Psalm 46. And I especially imagined the part where it says, “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God.” And then I thought what Isaiah said, “I will extend peace to you like […]

Psalm 104

Someone recently sent out a manifesto. It’s an ECPC Leadership Manifesto. Here’s how it begins, “The leadership culture at ECPC is not modeled after the American market-driven church, nor is it built on the pursuit of “visual success.” Instead, we are committing ourselves to the Enigmatic Value System of Jesus of Nazareth. This is a […]