Sacred Roots Thriving In Ministry - Apprenticed by the Early Church

W orkshop 1 “Means”: How to Lead a Sacred Roots Cohort Rev. Eric Himelick and Rev. Dr. Hank Voss

It has always therefore been one of my main endeavors as a teacher to persuade the young that firsthand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than second-hand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire. . . . It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones. ~ C. S. Lewis, 1944 You should read twenty-five percent of your books from the first 1,500 years of church history, twenty-five percent from the last 500 years, twenty-five percent from the last 100 years, and twenty-five percent from recent years. ~ Rick Warren, 2010

I. Introduction: The Sacred Roots Origin Story

II. Apprenticing Ourselves to Mighty Mentors by Reading Spiritual Classics

A. Apprenticeship principles for reading spiritual classics

1. Lessons learned at Englewood Christian Church 1

2. Lessons learned from James Houston 2

1 C. Christopher Smith, Reading for the Common Good: How Books Help Our Churches and Neighborhoods Flourish (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity, 2016). 2 James Houston, “A Guide to Devotional Reading,” in The Love of God , Reprint (1983), Classics of Faith and Devotion (Vancouver, British Columbia: Regent College, 2018), 253−260.

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