I’ve been thinking about how I can safely and morally join with a church for missional work, even though I find myself fundamentally opposed to joining or building any institutional church. The word that came to me was “partnering,” and here are some thoughts.
Partnering Despite Differing Read More »
Those maps showing a shrinking Palestine are widely disputed by Zionism supporters, but there are some major problems with those counter claims. But there’s a better way than political or military solutions.
About Those Maps of a Shrinking Palestine… Read More »
Some kinds of testimony probably do more harm than good. Too often, a story about ourselves comes across as an accusation about the other, and actually harms our witness. We can do better.
A Different Kind of Testimony Read More »
I’ve been in an interesting place for a while now, trying to come to grips with a God who turns out to not meet my old expectations, and watching a lot of people who call themselves Christian act rather unlike the Jesus I read about in the Gospels. So I’ve been thinking hard about the nature of truth, and the nature of the Bible itself.
The Bible portrays a complex, changing view of God. To find the Truth of who God really is, I need to follow the trajectory of God’s self-revelation to humanity.
When we learn to release what other people think of our doctrine or politics or God, there’s a real joy and freedom. I may be feeling betrayed, but I’m also feeling released and freed.
There is Joy in Disconnection Read More »
Betrayal causes a trauma response in humans. Institutions, not just people, can be the source of betrayal. A normal human response to betrayal trauma is to disengage completely from the institution. That’s where I am in relation to several institutions I previously trusted and depended on for my identity.
As my religious understanding changes, I’m discovering that so does my language about religion. But to “be all things to all men, so that I may save some,” I have to become multilingual – fluently speaking the native language of whatever tribe I am with.
Becoming Multilingual Read More »
A transformative moment for me recently was realizing that my compulsive need for labels to figure out how to treat people was harming my relationships, and keeping me from truly loving people who are very different than me.
Did God stop speaking at the end of the first century AD? Did He tell us literally everything we need to know in the Bible? I’ve been thinking about the various basic approaches to reading and understanding the Bible. It seems to me that there are at least two related methods of Bible interpretation, and their interaction results in some rather different outcomes depending on your assumptions.
Is the Bible the Final Word? Read More »
