On Tuesday evening, I had a friend over for dinner. He is an MDIV student with the intent of working in academia. Over Fat Tires, wild rice, and shrimp, we discussed the struggle we foresee of taking what we are learning back to our communities. Personally, I wondered aloud how to explain what I want to do, which will look very different from what I grew up in, to the people and church that raised me.
I think Ryan just answered my question.
Perhaps learning to put theology and practice into dialogue with each other will make those conversations possible. Perhaps then I would be able to express the reasons behind the differences and even understand it all better myself.
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We started going through the process of starting a new church movement.
I think the first three steps to Ryan's process - figuring out who we are, laying out what baggage we're bringing, laying those things down, and letting God rebuild us into a cohesive whole - could take a long time. Maybe it is an ongoing process though. Dying to self and surrendering ones will to Christ, as individuals and as a group, is a daily pursuit. At what point then do you begin step four - experimentation? I guess that's why Ryan calls it a discernment process.
(I think it's awesome, by the way, that I go to school in a place that talks about listening to God and discernment. Those are such spiritual, otherworldly things. It's neat to talk about them so matter-of-factly.)
I also think that it would probably be best if the group which gathers to start the movement aren't bound together by the movement, or at least that shouldn't be their only connection. They should be bound to each other apart from the thing they are creating.
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