I am very excited to share with you that it is indeed true….  I am writing a book!

The ideas that will become the essence of this book have been ruminating inside of me for quite awhile, but up until now it didn’t seem the right time to translate them into a book.

I believe that time has finally come.

I have been working with a fantastic agent over the past couple of years (John Eames), and that has led to a great relationship with an equally fantastic publisher (New Growth Press).

I couldn’t be more excited.

The title of the book is not finalized yet, but I want to share with you some of the backstory of the genesis of the book as well as the essence of what I hope to communicate.

Here is the first chapter of the backstory:

As many of you know I am the pastor of a multiethnic, economically diverse church in the city of Chicago called River City Community Church. It is a community of people I love dearly, and I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity I have been given here.

Living in and participating in a community like this is a daily reminder of the broad scope of the human experience.  A person’s race, culture, age, gender, education, and socioeconomic upbringing play such a substantial role in shaping the way we view the world.  It has tremendous impact on our values, our perspectives, and the way we live out almost every dimension of our daily lives.

One of the significant challenges that stem from this is learning how to understand, appreciate, and eventually embrace those differences — but that is a topic for a different day.

The flip side of that challenge is what lies at the heart of this book.  Let me put it in the form of a series of questions:

• What are the universal threads that connect all human beings together?
• What lies at the core of humanity that remains true across cultural, gender, and socioeconomic lines?
• What is that ‘thing’ that we all long for?
• What is it that our soul craves for – that we seem to always be searching for but can never seem to find?

I have often pondered these questions, and asked them long before I started River City. But the experience of being in this community has both intensified my curiosity and increased my insights around them. These questions are the genesis of the journey that led to my ultimate desire to write this book.

Are you curious as to how I would answer them?  Well I am curious how you would as well.  So you will have to wait a post or two to hear my answers.

For now, I have a couple of HUGE favors to ask of you:

1.] Will you consider setting some time aside over the next few weeks to have a dialogue with me about this book?

I am going to enter into serious writing mode over the next couple of months, but before I do I would LOVE to talk out these ideas in community.  I would like to hear your thoughts on some of mine, and I crave hearing from a variety of voices on what you think about the guiding assumptions of my book.  Please leave comments below, and I promise I will respond to them.

2.] Will you consider subscribing to my blog?

This is really an extension of the first request.  I have been a bit erratic on this blog in terms of frequency, but over the next few months that is going to change.  I need LOTS of feedback, and this is the best venue for me to dialogue with you.  So would you consider subscribing? (The button is at the top right corner of the page) This way you will be contacted each time the conversation around this important topic is updated.

Thank you, and I look forward to the conversation!