If I had a dollar for every person who has asked me "So, what IS the emerging church?" we could meet our budget this year. Here's my own definition, and it is just that -- my definition. Not the definition. This is descriptive, not prescriptive. When I use the term "emerging church" here's what I mean by that. (I feel like I'm walking into a minefield, but here we go ...)

It's always difficult to find just a few minutes from Pastor Efrem's sermons to highlight on the blog. With this sermon, it was impossible. So for a change, here's the entire sermon, in which he preaches from Proverbs 3 and talks about:

On the first day of the Obama administration, our newly elected president signed the order to close down Guatanamo. Scores of human rights advocates were in ecstasy. For those of us committed to peace and social justice, the words Guatanamo and Abu Ghraib invoke images of shock and horror. How could we as a nation have stooped so low? Where was the outcry from the Body of Christ?

It is often pointed out that some of the places most lacking in hope are not the industrial wastelands or the bleak landscapes shorn of beauty, but the places where there is too much mo