Todd Hiestand

March 22, 2010

Practice Resurrection by Eugene Peterson

Eugene Peterson’s latest book, Practice Resurrection is fantastic.  I don’t know how else to say it.  An excerpt,

“Church is the appointed gathering of named people in particular places who practice a life of resurrection in a world in which death gets the biggest headlines: death of nations, death of civilization, death of marriage, death of careers, obituaries without end.  Death by war, death by murder, death by accident, death by starvation. Death by electric chair, injection and hanging. The practice of resurrection is an intentional, deliberate decision to believe and partciate in resurrection life, life out of death, life that trumps death, life that is the last word. Jesus Life…”

He goes on the point out that the church is far from the utopian dream that many of us have when it comes to church and says,

“Romantic crusader and consumer representations of the church get in the way of recognizing the church for what it actually is.  If we permit – or worse  promote – dreamy or deceptive distortions of teh Holy Spirit creation, we interfere with participation in the real thing.  The church we want becomes the enemy of the church we have.”

Eugene has an incredible and important prophetic voice for the church today.  Simply out, this book is worth getting and reading.