I am excited to begin with the book, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel and Community, as the first book for our Reader.  I read this book for the first time about 3 years ago.  I was so compelled by its content that I read it again for the second time immediately afterwards.  I was compelled because this was the first time that I had come face to face with this type of gospel-rich content that focused directly on the concept of community and gospel-centrality.  What’s more, I was compelled because I had read this concept in the New Testament but I had yet to see what I was reading actually lived out in reality.  I had heard about it in churches from afar, but I had never really experienced this type of community before.

I found myself wanting what the authors were putting forth in this book.  I found myself wanting community like this.  Wanting an environment of grace like this.  Wanting authenticity like this.  Wanting realness like this.  I found myself wanting this identity — an identity that shapes the whole of life so that life and mission, really do become, “total church.”  I am excited to venture through this book with you all and the fruitful discussion and growth that it will bring.

READING PLAN FOR THIS BOOK:

• One chapter a day for the next 15 days.  Starting tomorrow with the Introduction and day 15 with the Conclusion.

REVIEWS:

• Trevin Wax’s Review of Total Church.
• Saint Beagle’s Review of Total Church.
• Jared Kennedy’s review from Sojourn Community Church.

STUDY GUIDES:

• My Outline of Total Church
• A Study Guide put together by Veritas Church in Columbus, OH.

CROWDED HOUSE RESOURCES:

• www.thecrowdedhouse.org
• Tim Chester’s Blog
• Steve Timmis

OUR CREW:

• There are a total of 19 of us for this very first Reader at Veritas.
• Thank you so much for participating.  This is an exploration, of sorts — an experiment.  I look forward to answering this question 3 months from now:  What happens when a bunch of people get together in online community for the purpose of discussion?  And more specifically, discussion centered around the gospel, the mission of God, and his Church.
• Blessings as you begin reading!

Welcome to the first ever Veritas Reader!

We are thrilled to have about 20 people signed up thus far.  It should be a pretty fun journey these next 3 months as we dive into some great books together.  Before we get started on May 1 with the book, Total Church, though, let’s take the next week and get acquainted with everybody.  If you don’t mind, take a few moments and tell us a little bit about yourself, why you signed up for the Veritas Reader, and maybe what you hope to get out of participating for the next 3 months.  You can be as brief or as long-winded as you would like to be.

Also, in the meantime, you can:

• Follow Veritas on Twitter:  @Live4Veritas
• Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/VeritasNet
• Tell your friends about the Reader  and send them to this link –> http://theveritasnetwork.org/2012/03/13/veritas-spring-reader/

Again, here is the schedule:

THE CHURCH / May 1-31:

• May 1-15: Total Church: A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel & Community, by Tim Chester & Steve Timmis
• May 16-31: Vintage Church: Timeless Truths and Timely Methods,by Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears

MISSION / June 1-30:

• June 1-15: The Shadow of the Almighty: The Life & Testament of Jim Elliot, by Elisabeth Elliot
• June 16-30: Community: Taking Your Small Group Off Life Support, by Brad House

THE GOSPEL / July 1-31:

• July 1-15: The Explicit Gospel, by Matt Chandler
• July 16-31: Gospel Wakefulness, by Jared Wilson

“To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquiries.”  - A.C. Grayling, Financial Time (in a review of a History of Reading by Alberto Manguel)

By Roger Duke
Article originally appeared in the Founders Journal

Gleanings from Classical Rhetoric

Aristotle states that, “[R]hetoric … does not belong to a single defined genus of [any one] subject …. [I]t is … clear … that its function is not to persuade, but to see the available means of persuasion in each case.”[2] For him, rhetoric was just like the other arts–even medicine. He goes on to explain: It is not the “function of medicine to create health but to promote this as much as possible; for it is nevertheless possible to treat well those who cannot recover health.”[3] So then, rhetoric is to the orator similarly what medicine is to the physician. It is only a tool; a tool to be used as a means to an end. And that end–the movement or persuasion of the hearers.

But it seems in contemporary times that the artistry and practice of rhetoric as a discipline, or at least its perception, has fallen on hard times. With even a cursory “ear” to current events of the evening news or an “eye” to the print media, it is possible to hear and see the “rhetoric of the Democrats,” or the “rhetoric of the Republicans,” or the “rhetoric of Hitler,” or “the Communist’s rhetoric.” Rhetoric is used and defined today in pejorative and negative terms almost exclusively. Rhetoric truly is a misunderstood discipline!

Even in religious contexts a disparaging attitude toward rhetoric abounds. Michael Beaty in his recent “Hester Lectures” to the International Association of Baptist Colleges and Universities states:

[I]n those heady West Point days of weekday drills and Saturday morning dress parades, of flower children and peace marches, of Southern pride and shame, of the soaring biblical rhetoric of Martin Luther King, Jr., and of the strident states’ rights rhetoric and self-proclaimed Christian rhetoric of Carl McIntyre and George Wallace, I became aware for the first time of some intellectually discomforting tensions (emphasis added)… [4]

To be completely fair to Beaty, the persuasive tactics of the era of the 1960s were indeed motivated by vitriol. In his address, he contrasts his days at West Point with those of his experiences after transferring to Ouachita Baptist University. There were, at that time, many negative cultural factors involving issues such as war, race, religion and generational divides. So any persuasive devices employed by antagonists on the opposite side of lightning-rod issues were bound to be interpreted as “rhetoric.” Sometimes they were even perceived as propaganda. Because of these negative uses, rhetoric has indeed received some “bad press” and an unnecessarily negative connotation. In some circles, those who choose to employ rhetoric are even considered sinister. Rhetoric in itself is neither good nor evil. Its usage determines its morality. All of us use rhetoric whether we know it or not. We are all rhetoricians–trained or not. After all; “Life is Rhetoric!”[5]

[...]

Veritas Readers are designed to cultivate an online community of people who desire to grow in their understanding of Scripture, engagement in mission, and love for their local church. Two times a year, we will host a 3-month, 6 book journey about the gospel, the church, and mission. You must register below to participate. Upon registration, you will receive a password and link to enter our Veritas Reader page. There you will have the opportunity to interact with one another, watch videos, read reviews on the books, and connect with folks from all over the world.

The Spring Reader will begin May 1 and end July 31. Even though those months are primarily summer months, we just like the feeling of “spring” that much better.

Here is the schedule:

THE CHURCH / May 1-31:

• May 1-15: Total Church: A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel & Community, by Tim Chester & Steve Timmis
• May 16-31: Vintage Church: Timeless Truths and Timely Methods, by Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears

MISSION / June 1-30:

• June 1-15: The Shadow of the Almighty: The Life & Testament of Jim Elliot, by Elisabeth Elliot
• June 16-30: Community: Taking Your Small Group Off Life Support, by Brad House

THE GOSPEL / July 1-31:

• July 1-15: The Explicit Gospel, by Matt Chandler
• July 16-31: Gospel Wakefulness, by Jared Wilson

REGISTER NOW:

Dear Jason…

March 26, 2012— I was walking by the bridge the other night. Actually, I got engaged there just a few months ago. My fiancée sat on the same bench and looked out over the dark river and the city beyond – and I couldn’t help but think about you Jason and that terrible night.

For me, it was dark and a perfect night for a walk. I guess you and your fiancée and friend though the same. It’s what 20 year olds do. That train bridge would have given you a spectacular and stunning view of the city, for sure. Little did you know that this evening stroll would change my life.

I’ll be honest Jason, I haven’t quite been the same person since that night. When I saw Ginny running on the bridge, I didn’t know what I was seeing. I’d never seen a human being on a massive train bridge. The dam below was empty that night, so it was quieter than usual – but when I heard her weeping, I knew something was wrong.

Then the sirens. I jumped off that special bench and had to run on the sidewalk around to the other side of the bridge and there she was, almost falling on the ground. I tried to get her to settle down, but she couldn’t keep from crying out unintelligible phrases.

Finally, I realized that you had fallen. [...]

200 years ago today, a man named Adoniram Judson jumped on a ship with his wife, Ann, and gospel partner, Luther Rice, and headed toward the unknowns of Burma.  Take some time today and get to know this amazing missionary pioneer.  I promise, his life will greatly benefit yours.  Millions of Christians in Burma today (now Myanmar) find their heritage in Judson’s life and ministry to this country.

• Judson’s Wikipage 
• His Great Missionary Biography, To the Golden Shore, by Courtney Anderson.

I see Your face in every sunrise
The colors of the morning are inside Your eyes
The world awakens in the light of the day
I look up to the sky and say
You’re beautiful

I see Your power in the moonlit night
Where planets are in motion and galaxies are bright
We are amazed in the light of the stars
It’s all proclaiming who You are
You’re beautiful, You’re beautiful

I see you there hanging on a tree
You bled and then you died and then you rose again for me
Now you are sitting on Your heavenly throne
Soon we will be coming home
You’re beautiful, you’re beautiful

When we arrive at eternity’s shore
Where death is just a memory and tears are no more
We’ll enter in as the wedding bells ring
Your bride will come together and we’ll sing
You’re beautiful, You’re beautiful, You’re beautiful

I see Your face, You’re beautiful, You’re beautiful, You’re beautiful
I see Your face, You’re beautiful, You’re beautiful, You’re beautiful
I see Your face, I see Your face
I see Your face, You’re beautiful, You’re beautiful, You’re beautiful

Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience.

Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, Novemeber 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.

-William Bradford

Ye Governor of Ye Colony