Sunday I will speak in Cape Town to a large group that forms the core of a church plant that is a genuine attempt to think and be in different ways. The services are more facilitated conversations than preaching events, web 2.0 technology is increasingly informing the conversation creating a church 2.0 environment. I love their willing spirit and drive to be Jesus in the worlds in which they live in.
Here is the video to open the 2 week conversation I will be doing on doubt.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Ron, I’m not sure what your stand is on this video, but I’m not sure I buy the whole of it. I agree with the wrestling part for many texts, but some are very clear. When we struggle it though it is a question of the meaning for now and how to word it.
Tradition does not come first for me, though belonging does. I shape my life and beliefs around the testimony of the Bible and that sometimes means I have to stand outside my tradition and move on also at times. Maybe I misunderstood, but hey let’s wrestle.
Well the point of the video as an opener for a conversation did exactly for you what it did Sunday night in Cape Town, create enough dissonance to make people think and create conversation. I think at times we have made the text the idol instead of lens, an icon to be shaped by instead of a finger pointing to a kind of life. My goal isn’t to shape my life according to the bible. That would mean I can’t cut my hair wear fabric of mixed fiber, i would have to sell everything I have to get to heaven, etc… and if I don’t do those things and thing I HAVE to do others then what I have done is betray I pick and choose the ones I want to do…even in the NT. This is the gist of my book coming out in Feb. The point is live a life that looks like and feels like Jesus in my context. Which means lots and lots of what they did then I will not do know. This is the very nexus of some of the wrestling issue.
Ron, would you say then that this is an acceptable statement:
“God (Trinity) is always present with an evolving humanity and humans are always following God in new ways”? In other words, Abraham followed God in his days in new ways, and Moses in his days in new ways, David, the Prophets, Paul, etc., all in their days in new ways. And now we are following God in our days in new ways. All the while, this is possible without neglecting the Scriptures but also knowing that some texts are no longer specifically part of the conversation (ex. slaves and masters, silent women, braided hair).
Actually Brad the is so well said I might start quoting you…new days bring new ways…not neglecting scripture but improvising on it. I think you know The Bible as Improv is the title of my forthcoming book and this idea that certain texts simply don’t apply any longer, and it is a body of growing texts that don’t require us to rethink what it means to “use” scripture. But I like your idea…”new days bring new ways.”