Chapter 2
Dispatches from the Frontier of the American Church

Tony talking of Jesus makes this statement, “And the gospel, which he breathed into fullness, calls Christians to affiliate first and foremost – if not exclusively – with him.”

I really feel that we take our denominational slants and get excited about our forefathers more than we get excited about Jesus. Sometimes it is even closer than our forefathers and it the leaders of the day that get us excited. We run out and grab the newest book and look for the newest sermons online all to turn a deaf ear to the word of God (Bible). How much better off we would be if the primary affiliation with our methods and philosophy of ministry really fell on the what Jesus had to say rather than what Andy Stanley has to say.

Dipatch #3 The gospel is like lava: no matter how much crust has formed over it, it will always find a weak point and burst through.

In the lives of the people we minister too along with the ourselves it is easy to see the truth in this dispatch. When we engage in the life of another individual and take the time to get to know them and to share in life together over time we see this breakthrough happen. It is in those moments that ministry in the church is something that we can get excited about and look forward to. I pray right now that we will have these moments more often and the relationships will be built that take God into the lives of individuals who are waiting for that breakthrough.

The rest of this chapter along with dispatches 4 and 5 talk about how the emergent movement has come into existence and where it is developing.