Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Advent

  • A real push notification on my phone right now: As the Easter season begins, start a Reading Plan today Two gut responses: The “Bible” app, YouVersion doesn’t actually know that Lent begins today, not Easter? Who doesn’t get that Lent isn’t Easter? The Advent/Christmas problem is invading Lent! The world mischaracterizes Advent as the Christmas…

  • Continuing our Advent and Apocalypse theme, we have more from John the Baptizer. Repent, change, because the big guy’s coming up behind me! Notice, too, the season, the demand for fairness. Just the kind of gospel for the “fiscal cliff” negotiations. Eating Scripture is a short video series in which we explore the juicy and…

  • Eating Luke 3:1-6 Back in the recesses of my mind I recall a lyric: Second verse same as the first! A little bit louder and a little bit worse! We ended Year B talking apocalyptic and we begin the new year, Year C, by…talking apocalyptic. Personally, I love it. We just aren’t that used to…

  • I have been writing and announcing Advent for a few weeks now. I’ve described the primary way the church imagines the season is through the lens of hopeful expectation. Until Sunday, I had refrained from discussing the church’s other focus. That perhaps this season is less about retelling the story of Jesus’s first coming and…

  • When I was young I used to collect comics. This was long before I could go to a comic shop and order specific titles and have them set aside for me. I would go to Waldenbooks, 7-11, and the Country Cupboard and see what issues they had. I didn’t keep track of when the last…

  • Last week was a particularly hard week for us.  My wife is in retail management, so that means we all have to follow the life patterns of the craziest time of the year.  Sales were very strong for our Barnes & Noble and the few times I foolishly ventured near the shopping center, I almost…