Emergent
Emergent is a conversation between people and churches seeking to live faithfully in the post-modern matrix. Emergent can be understood as a corrective to the 20th century American church which became co-opted by the twin values of Individualism and Materialism. We’re thankful for friends within the Emergent Church who have helped us formulate the vision for Living Stone Church. For more information, check out these websites: www.emergentvillage.com, www.solomonsporch.com, www.theooze.com, www.watersedge.tv.

Christian Reformed
The Christian Reformed Church is our sponsoring denomination. Our roots hearken back to the theologian John Calvin, a contemporary of Martin Luther’s, and through the state church of the Netherlands before beginning on these shores in the 19th Century. The CRC is a bi-national church with headquarters in Grand Rapids, MI and Burlington, ON. We’re excited about being part of a denomination that has such a heart for mission, and for the opportunity to work alongside Christians from around North America. For more information, including belief statements, go to: www.crcna.org/pages/aboutthecrc.cfm.

Books We're Reading

 Colossians Remixed:Subverting the Empire by Brian J. Walsh and Sylvia  

 Keesmaat

 The basic premise behind this book is that the letter to the Colossians was

 written to encourage the Colossian Christians to stand up to the power of  

 Rome.  Keesmaat and Walsh, experts in post-modernity, use many

 imaginative ways to bring that idea home to readers and encourage them

 to stand up to the empires we all experience.

 Simply Christian by N.T. Wright

 Wright attempts in this book to do for the 21st Century what C.S. Lewis did

 for the 20th Century in the classic Mere Christianity.  Whereas Lewis used

 rationalism to promote the gospel Wright takes a more intuitive approach,

 relying on "Echoes of a Voice" to prove the existence of God.  This is a

 great read for those interested in what it could mean to be a follower of

  Jesus or those frustrated by current expressions of Christianity.

 Emerging Churches by Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger

 This book attempts to describe the Emergent Church phenomenon through

 interviews with many leaders in the movement.  Gibbs and Bolger have

 done a great job of sifting through interviews and pulling out the themes

 that seem to be true of these various churches.  A good starting place for

 people who want to know what Emergent is all about.

 Organic Church by Neil Cole

 Cole is the author of Cultivating a Life for God, the book that our Life

 Transformation Groups are based on.  In this book he urges that we "lower

 the bar on what it means to 'do church' and raise the bar on what it means

 to be a disciple."  Organic Church challenges most assumptions associated

 with the institutional church and calls for a more organic approach to  

 ministry.  A great read, but beware; you will never look at the church the same again!

For more information, check our our reading blog:

http://lscreadingroom.blogspot.com