Underground Presbys

For the past several years we have had a study group at the church.  We meet on Thursdays from 10:30 until noon.  The group is called "Thursdays With Jesus" even as Jesus has yet to make an appearance in any non-metaphorical manner.  I keep hope alive.

We have been watching and discussing a great Teaching Courses series by Bart Ehrman, called Lost Christianities:  Christian Scriptures and the Battles Over Authentication.   We are down to the last four lectures.  We watch two per week.  It has been well-received.

Beginning Thursday September 20th, Thursdays With Jesus goes underground.

We are going to read Robin Meyers, The Underground Church:  Reclaiming the Subversive Way of Jesus.   Here is the blurb:

The Underground Church proposes that the faithful recapture the spirit of the early church with its emphasis on what Christians do rather than what they believe. Prominent progressive writer, speaker, and minister Robin Meyers proposes that the best way to recapture the spirit of the early Christian church is to recognize that Jesus-following was and must be again subversive in the best sense of the word because the gospel taken seriously turns the world upside down.

 
Robin Meyers is a good guy.  He granted me an interview for Religion For Life.   He will be coming up.  I have a bunch of interviews recorded.  I need to get into the WETS studio and produce them.   Good programs are on tap including:

• James Howard Kunstler. Kunstler is the author of Too Much Magic:  Wishful Thinking, Technology and the Fate of the Nation. Peak Oil, Climate Change, and the big picture. 

• Sam Jones of Johnson City who blogs at Tennessee Transitions about Transition Towns and practical ways we can adapt to Peak Oil.

• Lawrence M. Krauss, physicist and author of A Universe From Nothing: Why There is Something Rather Than Nothing about the advances in cosmology over the past 30 years and why a concept of God is unnecessary for understanding our universe.

• Tory Mills of Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee about the new programs available in the Tri-Cities including the Johnson City Health Center on 409 East Unaka Avenue.

• Diana Butler Bass and her new book Christianity After Religion:  The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening on why religion is changing in America.

• Along that same theme, David Kinnaman of the Barna Group talks about his new book, You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church...and Rethinking Faith.  He comes at this question from evangelical standpoint.

• Psychologist Jonathan Haidt talks about his new book, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided Over Politics and Religion.

• Film director, Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Basic Instinct, Total Recall) is directing a film based on his book, Jesus of Nazareth.  Verhoeven participated in the deliberations of the Jesus Seminar and is presenting a film about his understanding of the historical Jesus.

• Marcus Borg about his new book, Evolution of the Word:  The New Testament in the Order the Books Were Written.  

Religion For Life is a lot of fun.   I am getting a lot of good response since that nice article in the Kingsport Times and Johnson City Press.  

Catch Religion For Life Thursdays at 8 and Sundays at 2 on WETS and Sundays at noon and Mondays at 1 pm on WEHC.    If you miss it live, catch Religion For Life via podcast and on iTunes!  Follow us on Facebook and Twitter! 

Feel free to join us for Thursdays With Jesus at your favorite underground church in the woods.