Premier Issue

CONTENTS

E s s a y s

"If I could direct the wind, how would I instruct the Spirit to move in our modern culture?" Larry Crabb asks us to recapture a vision for true community, by first understanding what it is, recognizing the obstacles to its development and then finding the courage to walk the path that draws us into deeper relationships.

The Hidden Hope in Lament
Dan Allender

Silent despair is a treasonous refusal to cry out to God...it leads to death. Laments vocalize our doubts and our anger at God...and in our cry, hope oddly dawns. Dan Allender listens to the sounds of sorrow in African American spirituals and is reminded of the Psalms.

Sacred Discontent:
Adjusting Our Vision of the Church
Tom Varney

Why does it matter that the church is both a divine-ordained masterpiece and a monument to human fallenness? Perhaps God is inviting us to nurture a realism that releases us toward faithful involvement in flawed community.

Studies

Sucked Into the Vortex of Rationalism:
Picard's Tableau of The Flight From God
Liam Atchison

Swiss philosopher Max Picard provides a deep and chilling critique of our fallen world. Pilgrims of faith do not simply live in a world apart from God but are enwebbed in a system of flight (Fluchtgebilde) from God. Liam Atchison discusses the disturbing implications of Picard's social critique for the contemporary church and for spiritual direction.

Come, Bring Your Story
Don Hudson

How are we to read the stories of the Bible? By comparing Jepthah's daughter in the Book of Judges with the fairy tale The Handless Maiden, Don Hudson offers a unique approach to biblical interpretation.

The Mars Hill Interview

Reminders of God

Fiction

"Sweet Light and Mercy."
A short story by Dudley J. Delffs, author of Forgiving August.
A sixteen year old boy delivering flowers to a Southern funeral home contemplates his own mortality for the first time.

Nonfiction

"Wood, Water, and Hill."
A selection from Pilgrim's Way, An Autobiography, by John Buchan, writer, publisher, and Member of Parliament best known for his novel The Thirty-Nine Steps. An eloquent environment influences a man's life. A lesson in the art of writing.

Poetry

"As the Ruin Falls"
From Poems by C.S. Lewis, edited by Walter Hooper.

"Made Flesh"
From Listen to the Green, by Luci Shaw.

"At Communion"
From A Widening Light: Poems of the Incarnation, by Madeleine L'Engle, edited by Luci Shaw.

Visual Art

Susan Rodriguez reveals the stories within her photography.

Music

Review: Bruce Cockburn's Dart to the Heart
Devlin Donaldson.

Review: Patsy Moore's new CD. Mike Atkinson.

Interview: Rob Mathes
Ian Morgan Cron (nominee for last year's Gospel Song of the Year).

Books

Ken Wilson explores The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen.

Lydia Sargent reads a collection of books by G. K. Chesterton and is drawn to his way of seeing.

The editorial staff present some of their favorite books.

Film
If two angels fell to earth, what would they find and how would they be changed? Bill Bolthouse reviews the Wim Winders movie Far Away, So Close.

A collection of blurbs, sentences and paragraphs from various sources.

Concluding Thoughts

Private Assurances
Kim Hutchins

How man goes about finding God, with reference to French philosopher Gabriel Marcel.