Skip to content ↓

Eighth Letter: My Most Urgent Message to the Church

Articles Collection cover image

Last week I had the opportunity to speak at a local event called Eighth Letter. I’ve been asked to describe the theological perspective of the event and I haven’t been able to do better than “emerging church.” I know this title brings all kinds of baggage with it and that not too many people want to be associated with it anymore. Nevertheless, it’s probably the simplest theological shorthand I can use. Which is to say that I was definitely not representative of the speakers who were there (a list that included Shane Claiborne, Leonard Sweet, Peter Rollins, and many others).

The format of the event was rather interesting. Each of the speakers was to bring a letter, no longer than 15-minutes in length, and read it aloud. The letter was to communicate our most urgent message to the church of North America. It was that simple. I spoke on the Friday night and immediately after my talk participated in a very brief panel discussion hosted by Andy Crouch (an editor at Christianity Today and the author of Culture Making).

My letter focused in on getting the gospel right. And if you are interested, I’ve been given permission to post the message here, though only for a limited time. So give it a listen and let me know what you think. What would your most urgent message be?

You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialize correctly.

The reaction to my message was a little bit on the cold side. I was probably something of a stranger to the audience at this conference and brought a letter that was quite a bit different from the rest. So while I was not booed off the platform and did not have anything thrown at me, my impression was that the message was not particularly popular.

If interested, you can buy my talk or any of the others at the Epiphaneia web site. You can also download (for free) the brief panel discussion.

Eighth Letter


  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (July 1)

    A La Carte: The Queen of Sheba tries AI / Did we sin our marriage away? / When to stop treatment / Essential practices when comforting the grieving / Jesus doesn’t use fake plants / Kindle deals.

  • Satan Can Stage a Quiet Revival Too

    Satan Can Stage a Quiet Revival Too

    We are hearing encouraging reports of a kind of quiet revival that is spreading throughout the West. There appears to be a small but noticeable interest in the Christian faith by groups that, until recently, had eschewed it

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (June 30)

    A La Carte: The gift of what I’ll never write / Bible reading blues / The gift of middle age / So, you can’t seem to function today / Neither authoritarian nor anti-institution / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Hell

    Let Them Leap To Hell Over Our Bodies

    One of the most sacred and most important of our tasks in prayer is to intercede on behalf of the lost. We know that every one of our friends, neighbors, and family members needs to hear the good news of the gospel and repent and believe. We know that God is the Good Shepherd, who…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    Weekend A La Carte (June 28)

    A La Carte: Why you escape to the mountains / Evangelism for introverts / Come, Let Us Return to the Lord (a new song) / My child’s success isn’t my crowning glory / Watering dirt / and more.