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Slow Church: Toward A Deeper Life Together

Slow ChurchA 90-minute Presbyterian Outlook webinar
Tuesday, June 9, 2015 at 2 p.m. ET (11 a.m. PT)
featuring C. Christopher Smith

Click here to purchase the live event with on-demand replay – $29.95 (1-6 participants)
Click here to pre-order the DVD – $43.95 (free shipping)

While we may bemoan the fast life of the 21st century and the fragmentation that comes with it, we often are blind to the effects that this “McDonaldization” of our culture has on the shape of our life together as churches. Our churches increasingly reflect the unreflective speed, dehumanizing efficiency and disintegrating isolationism of the wider Western culture.

In this webinar, Chris Smith, co-author of “Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus” will explain how McDonaldization has come to dominate Western culture and our churches and will explore the possibilities and practices of “Slow Church,” borrowing language and imagery from the “Slow Food” movement and other “Slow” movements.

How can we cultivate church communities that prefer quality of life together to the seductive quantities by which churches are tempted to measure their success? How can we be increasingly attentive to the holistic redemptive work of God in our midst and in our neighborhoods? How can we begin to model different sorts of economies that are rooted – not in scarcity and fear – but in God’s abundant provision and gratitude? These questions are the guideposts that point us in the direction of a slower and deeper life together. In practices of eating together and talking together, we discern how our faithfulness to this way will take shape as we grow in our knowledge of God, of one another and of our particular place.

Participants in this webinar will:

  • Understand why Western Culture moves at breakneck speed;
  • Articulate the basic vision of Slow Church;
  • Name five practices that will help our churches slow down;
  • Explain why dinner table conversation is the most important practice in helping us slow down and grow deeper.

Who should participate? Pastors, elders and everyone who loves church and desires a deeper life together.

 

Click here to purchase the live event with on-demand replay – $29.95 (1-6 participants)
Click here to pre-order the DVD – $43.95 (free shipping)

If you have a group larger than 6, please contact Jana Blazek for group pricing.

Christopher SmithCHRISTOPHER SMITH is senior editor of The Englewood Review of Books and co-author (with John Pattison) of Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus.   He works with congregations across North America to cultivate a deeper shared life within their congregations and with their neighbors. Chris is especially interested in the practices of reading and conversation and the ways in which they can work together to nurture deeper faithfulness to the way of Jesus. His next book is “Reading for the Common Good: Toward the Flourishing of our Churches, Our Neighborhoods and the World” (IVP Books, Spring 2016).

Click here to read the Outlook‘s book review of “Slow Church”

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