Roots of Eden: The First Truths for a Season of Renewal

When we tell the story of God, where do we start? As the pandemic disrupted the ways we

worship and practice our faith, we've been given an opportunity to reevaluate everything. Perhaps

the better question now is this: Where do we restart? Whatever a church or a community of faith

will be, we will always be telling the story of God. But how do we tell it best in a post-pandemic

world? How would you tell it to a child? Or to someone who has never heard it before?

Maybe the best place to begin is still here: "In the beginning..." The things we want to believe

most about God are often present in the story's first truths from the Garden of Eden. And in those

first truths, we also find the most important things to believe about ourselves. In a season of

renewal for people and for churches, the opening story of Genesis reminds us of who God is, who

we are, and the call of creation. It's a story about so much more than sin. And it's a good place to

begin, again.

Roots of Eden explores the first truths of scripture. What's the first thing the story tells us about

God? About ourselves? What's the first thing God says to human beings? What is the first truth

of the relationship between Adam and Eve? How can we see the events of Genesis 3 through the

first truths of Genesis 1? And what does all of this mean for life outside the garden? The roots of

Eden still run deep into the world we've made. And from the beginning, it's a world that can be

good.