TED link from Sunday and a tribute to Dallas Willard

Some of you may be familiar with the life and ministry of Dr. Dallas Willard.  He passed away this week at the age of 77, and he leaves behind a legacy of thoughtful Christian scholarship and engagement with our culture unlike anyone else with whom I'm familiar.  John Ortberg, an author and pastor in California, befriended Willard over many years, and he wrote a moving tribute to Willard for Christianitytoday.com, which you'll find below.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/may-web-only/man-from-another-time-zone.html

Ortberg gives honor to Willard's life and legacy more beautifully that I ever could.  My personal experiences of Willard's work focuses primarily on a book he wrote in 2011 called Knowing Christ Today.  If you've been around FPC for a while, you'll probably remember the title because I mention in often.  Actually, I've probably used it more than any other resource (except the Bible :) ) in my sermons.   

Knowing Christ Today had a tremendous impact on my life because it taught me about the reliability of what Willard calls "spiritual knowledge."  In an interview with Ken Myers, Willard talked about how spiritual knowledge - understanding what is good and true based on the spiritual revelation of Jesus Christ - has been degraded in public conversation.  Genuine spiritual knowledge has been reduced to the categories of sincere belief, conviction, or disciplined feelings impacted by a social group.  But Willard pushed back against that notion - quite brilliantly and accessibly - in Knowing Christ Today.  It's a challenging work to tackle, but that was Willard's M.O.  Reading Dallas Willard is always a costly exercise, but one which always produced an abundance of gifts and insights for those willing to try.

After I learned of his death, I felt a great sense of loss but also a sense of responsibility.  Dallas Willard's work impacted my life, and I hope that his thoughtful Christian scholarship will be available to generations of Christians (and those unsure of their faith) for years to come.

 Solo Dei gloria,

Travis

PS -

For those of you who were in worship last Sunday, you might recall a clip from a TED talk which was shared during my sermon.  Here's the link to the talk:

http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html

We'll continue to show parts of this talk throughout the sermon series, and we'll also have it available in Fellowship Hall after each worship service.