Experience the Passion and Purpose of the Cross

Hear the story from those who were there in our unique first-person retellings of each passage we have chosen.

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It can be used as an individual, family, or small group.
Ideal for exploring the story of the cross over 40 days, during the Easter season, or at any time.
It can be used year after year to revisit this story in all its detail and meaning.

Make the book available to small groups. Groups can read one of the 40 writings as both an experience of the story and a chance for discussion.
Make the book available to the whole church or leaders as a gift for personal/devotional use during the Lent/Easter season or any other time.
Make the 40 audio readings available daily to church members on social media during the Lent (or another 40-day) period.
Sunday worship: pick seven readings during the Lent season and have one read each week dramatically to help people follow the passion story.
Preach through the story during Lent or another period and read the corresponding book readings out loud.
Do 1, 2, and 5 simultaneously for a more significant impact.

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John Lewis

Dr. John S. Lewis is the founder of Kingdom Story Ministries (now known as EQUIP) and is passionate about seeing the next generation of Jesus followers be rooted in their faith and the story of God. Three Nails One Purpose was written originally to offer his family a chance to focus on the cross each Easter season with some of the same intentionality on Jesus’ birth during the Christmas season.

The author Pat Conroy wrote: “The most powerful words in English are, ‘Tell me a story.’” We are, at our core, narrative beings. Humanity’s sense of the significant and small, attraction and aversion, the beautiful and banal, all find their meaning in story. John Lewis’ set of retellings on the passion story allow the reader to stop and see ancient texts in fresh ways. This is a wonderful resource for the journey of faith.

What never surprises me, but always satisfies me, is coming across someone or something that has recognized the power of the greatest story ever told in new and fresh ways. In short—and every generation needs to do this—to find the particular drama of our time within this larger story. John Lewis achieves this. Moreover, what is particularly attractive about John’s work is that you need to appropriate your feelings, thoughts, imagination, physicality—in a word your humanity—to access it. This is no small feat. It takes great skill and a heart saturated with love for both the text and the person who will eventually pick it up and read it. Having been around a while—an 80+ year old Catholic—I have seen a lot. It is from this vantage point that I highly recommend John’s Lenten reflections on the Cross.

In this collection of readings, John doesn’t explain the meaning of the cross or a theology of atonement. That comes later. Here he invites you to experience and come nearer to the story, scene by scene, character by character, line by line teasing out the passion and purpose of the Cross. The approach makes all the difference.

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John Lewis Biography

I grew up much of my life in Tacoma, Washington and went to Clover Park High School. I received my undergraduate degree in Business Administration at Pacific Lutheran University in 1983, and then immediately came on the Young Life staff. After four years of youth ministry in Tacoma and Port Angeles, an internship in a nationally recognized college ministry beckoned me to Bellingham, WA; here I was deeply exposed to a mentor and a ministry committed to making disciples. Bellingham became home for a year. (1987-88). The following year I joined forces with Young Life in Tacoma and began a college ministry at the University of Puget Sound (!988-89). I remained the director for another twelve years, officed in the inner city and I experimented widely with how to disciple students. All along the way, I took classes part time at Fuller Seminary, which integrated well with my ministry experience. Foundational convictions about life and ministry flourished in these ministry years. An internship program was begun with the college ministry (now called Tacoma College Ministry) in 1995 that birthed and used the Kingdom Story (KS) curriculum as an essential ingredient for their training.

In 1988 I met my soon to be best friend and wife Carissa. We spent a sabbatical year overseas before we had children, half of that time spent in Hong Kong and half in Israel in a study program. My eyes were opened wider to the world of different cultures and the world of the Bible. I finished my Masters of Divinity at Fuller upon returning.

Having left the full time college ministry position in 2001, I spent the next four years splitting my time as volunteer and staff for both University Place Presbyterian Church (Adult Discipleship pastor) and Northwest Leadership Foundation. I continued to develop the KS curriculum and experimented with a church based internship program. In 2004, I received a Doctorate of Transformational Ministry from Bakke Graduate University; my project focused on a one year holistic, church based, city wide transformational intern program that was designed to be transferable to other cultures. I used the KS as my primary curriculum and approach for the participants.

Carissa, myself and our three children, Jonathan, Elizabeth and Rachel packed up and moved to Beijing in 2005 for a two year stint in ministry with young adults. The intern program of my D. Min. project-along with the Kingdom story, was implemented the 2nd year. We returned to the US in June 2007 and now live in Fircrest, WA. Other teachers in Beijing have used the Kingdom Story approach/translated curriculum in now multiple settings since 2007.

I worked full time with Northwest Leadership Foundation in August ‘07 with an initiative called “City as Parish,” which invited churches to collaborate with faith/civic organizations in ministry to the poor around their neighborhoods. The initiative has an intern program and the Kingdom Story was used as part of their overall training. In that period, I helped develop a pastor’s collective in University Place where I live.

From 2009-2012, I worked with Leadership Foundations in an initiative called “City as Classroom,” exploring how the community/city of Tacoma can partner better with our universities in the shared mission of equipping college students to be lifelong and transformational leaders. My development work here was primarily focused at Pacific Lutheran University, I learned valuable lessons about working with the city/institutions at larger in this season of ministry (2001-2009)

In 2008 I came on the adjunct faculty at Bakke Graduate University to teach their OT and NT theology classes with students in the USA and around the world. I also taught the Bible Overview and Narrative Theology for Christos, a lay theology/ministry training program.

In 2012, a discernment process helped me decide to launch Kingdom Story Ministries; we believed that it was the next and natural step in my personal story and that this organization could provide some crucial resources for our local and worldwide community.

Branden Hubbell Biography

My background begins as a coach. 11 years ago I began coaching the sport of all-star cheerleading. For many years I coached young men and women through the sport of cheerleading. However, the difference for me was that I also cared about the soul of the kid that was in front of me. I didn’t know it, but all those years spent coaching taught me transferable skills for how to be a discipler for Jesus Christ. After 11 years coaching, God called me out of the all-star cheerleading realm and into vocational ministry.

My ministry career began with Kingdom Story Ministries. I first became a student of the Leadership Institute in the fall of 2014. I wanted to grow deeper in the knowledge of Christ. I knew much about the scripture, but I didn’t know that it all connected somehow, and that the words on the paper had something to do with my life right now. During the first couple of months as a student, John noticed in me a passion for God’s word, and for teaching and coaching people. He took me under his wing and I become an intern for Kingdom Story learning the ropes, traveling to China, and immersing myself into the curriculum as well as orienting my life for a life set on serving Jesus.

After a year, I was brought on the KSM staff as the Leadership Institute (LI) Program Director. This program is designed to take individuals through a 9-month intensive that will help participants develop fundamental leadership skills, relational skills, and scriptural knowledge. If someone wants to know Jesus and the Bible story better, and enter into God’s ongoing story in their own city, the LI can help get them there. I am passionate about the possibilities of this program for the future in Pierce County.

Experience the Passion and Purpose of the Cross

Introduction to the Book and Uses for Individuals

Introduction to the Book and Uses for Pastors and Leaders

John Lewis

Your Stories

#Passion| #Christ | #Lent |

Dave Hillis
Colangelo Carpenter Innovation Center Senior Fellow, Author of City as Playground

Dr. Reid Carpenter
Founder and Founder Emeritus of the Global Leadership Foundations Network

Kris Rocke
Director of Street Psalms, Author of Geography of Grace and Meal from Below

Do You Want To
Build A Devotional Life?

Subscribe to our Ministry Update list!

Our Social Media Link

Get in touch

Our Important Link

Experience the Passion and Purpose of the Cross

Introduction to the Book and Uses for Individuals

Introduction to the Book and Uses for Pastors and Leaders

John Lewis

Your Stories

#Passion| #Christ | #Lent |

Dave Hillis Colangelo Carpenter Innovation Center Senior Fellow, Author of City as Playground

Dr. Reid CarpenterFounder and Founder Emeritus of the Global Leadership Foundations Network

Kris RockeDirector of Street Psalms, Author of Geography of Grace and Meal from Below

Do You Want To Build A Devotional Life?

Subscribe to our Ministry Update list!

Our Social Media Link

Get in touch

Our Important Link

John Lewis Biography

Dr. Richard Mutura (PhD) Biography

Rob DeKlotz Biography

Branden Hubbell Biography

Dave Hillis
Colangelo Carpenter Innovation Center Senior Fellow, Author of City as Playground

Dr. Reid Carpenter
Founder and Founder Emeritus of the Global Leadership Foundations Network

Kris Rocke
Director of Street Psalms, Author of Geography of Grace and Meal from Below

Do You Want To
Build A Devotional Life?