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The Year of Living Like Jesus at Vintage Faith Church
By Dan Kimball

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I first heard of Ed Dobson back in the early 1990's when he was pastor at Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was passionate about people outside of the church and was going against the grain of what normal churches did at the time. I totally was mesmerized with his passion for those who didn't know Jesus. I have got to meet up with him on occasion over the past couple years and yesterday we had the privilege of him speaking at Vintage Faith Church in the morning and evening gatherings. He has a new book out called 'The Year Of Living Like Jesus" which was inspired by AJ Jacobs "The Year Of Living Biblically", and AJ wrote the Foreword to Ed's book.

The book is the story of how Ed decided to live a year as Jesus lived and eat like Jesus, observe the Sabbath as Jesus did, read the Gospels every week etc. Ed's talk at our church was based from some of the book and other aspects of his life.

He has tremendous stories and insight from this adventure he went on. He shared some at our church and it was an honor to have him there and I got to have lunch and dinner with him and it was wonderful seeing our church get to hear from him and in the evening gathering have an open Q and A time as well.

This photo at the bottom is my wife Becky, myself and Ed and Ed's wife Lorna, who was great to meet and hang out with. I loved that our church got to experience someone who has an incredible life story from being at Bob Jones University, working with Jerry Falwell, to a passionate pastor pioneering things in the church for the sake of those who don't know Jesus. He has Lou Gehrig's disease which is now part of his story and he now went through this adventure of living like Jesus for a year.

The book is great and I see Ed as a hero of the faith and someone who has inspired me about evangelism for many, many years. It was a joy to have him at our church and I am glad our church got to experience him and the message of living like Jesus that he gave! Thank you Ed and thank you Zondervan for having him with us!

Dan Kimball is the author of numerous books, including They Like Jesus But Not the Church. He is also the pastor of Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, California. This article originally appeared on his blog - www.dankimball.com. He is part of the creative team launching the Origins Project.

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