By This Way of Life Master Series
Darkwood Brew created 12 series with over a year’s worth of episodes based on the Pheonix Affirmations and the acclaimed commentary on the Phoenix Affirmations by Eric Elnes. This master series can be used by pastors, churches, and small group who are serious about spiritual exploration, or would like a suggested path through the Darkwood Brew materials. The following is a list of completed series along with the corresponding Phoenix Affirmation from which the series takes it’s cue. (Note: The Phoenix Affirmations are not identified by name in these series but simply serve as conceptual starting-points).
Love of God
The Faith of Jesus In A Pluralistic World
Phoenix Affirmation #1 (Christian love of God includes): Walking fully in the path of Jesus, without denying the legitimacy of other paths that God may provide for humanity.
Listen. Hearing That Still, Small Voice and Finding Your Own
Phoenix Affirmation #2 (Christian love of God includes): Listening for God’s Word, which comes through daily prayer and meditation, studying the ancient testimonies which we call Scripture, and attending to God’s present activity in the world.
On Earth As It Is in Heaven
Phoenix Affirmation #3 (Christian love of God includes): Celebrating the God whose Spirit pervades and whose glory is reflected in all of God’s Creation, including the earth and its ecosystems, the sacred and secular, the Christian and non-Christian, the human and non-human.
Drawn IN: Living OUT the Creative Life with God
Phoenix Affirmation #4 (Christian love of God includes): Expressing our love in worship that is as sincere, vibrant, and artful as it is scriptural.
Love of Neighbor
Hookers, Looters, and Cheats: The Curious Companions of Jesus
Phoenix Affirmation #5 (Christian love of neighbor includes): Engaging people authentically, as Jesus did, treating all as creations made in God’s very image, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental ability, nationality, or economic class.
For the Love of God: Civil Conversation on the Bible and Homosexuality
Phoenix Affirmation #6 (Christian love of neighbor includes): Standing, as Jesus does, with the outcast and oppressed, the denigrated and afflicted, seeking peace and justice with or without the support of others.
Prophetically Incorrect: Amos and the Fine Art of Uncomfortable Truth
Phoenix Affirmation #7 (Christian love of neighbor includes): Preserving religious freedom and the church’s ability to speak prophetically to government by resisting the commingling of church and state.
The Great Convergence
Phoenix Affirmation #8 (Christian love of neighbor includes): Walking humbly with God, acknowledging our own shortcomings while honestly seeking to understand and call forth the best in others, including those who consider us their enemies.
Love of Self
Failing, Falling, and Flying: Genesis Stories of Original Grace
Phoenix Affirmation #9 (Christian love of self includes): Basing our lives on the faith that in Christ all things are made new and that we, and all people, are loved beyond our wildest imagination—for eternity.
Evolving Universe, Evolving Faith
Phoenix Affirmation #10 (Christian love of self includes): Claiming the sacredness of both our minds and our hearts and recognizing that faith and science, doubt and belief serve the pursuit of truth. Collaboration with the Adler Planetarium, Chicago, and the Clergy Letter Project.
BUSY: Restoring Our Connection to an Unhurried God
Phoenix Affirmation #11 (Christian love of self includes): Caring for our bodies and insisting on taking time to enjoy the benefits of prayer, reflection, worship,and recreation in addition to work.
Vocatio: Finding and Doing What Brings You Fully Alive
Phoenix Affirmation #12 (Christian love of self includes): Acting on the faith that we are born with a meaning and purpose, a vocation and ministry that serve to strengthen and extend God’s realm of love.