I’ve perused numerous postings. Detected a small universe of active contributors. Lots of verbiage (wordiage??). What is the true purpose of this website at this point? Is it, as it would seem to aspire, to truly discuss Christ, His teachings, and how 2 millenia of “christian” religiousity has utterly missed the mark of being relevant to the world and successful at opening the blind eyes of mankind to the truth Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the almighty creator of the universe??
Or is there still too much angst and self-doubt here to directly take on this thesis?
This could be a real short relationship with this website, I’m thinking.
I’m not here to debate but to be enlightened and gain greater spiritual revelation.
Re: OST - What is the current paradigm, or
Well, it’s a good question but difficult to answer without knowing what you mean by phrases such as ‘the truth Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the almighty creator of the universe’ or ‘greater spiritual revelation’. It sounds like you are looking for some sort of spiritualization of the Christian. Could you explain what you have in mind?
As far as I am concerned, the purpose of this website is to help the emerging church (the church insofar as it is emerging from modernism and, more fundamentally in my view, from Christendom) to develop a coherent and robust emerging biblical theology.
Re: OST - What is the current paradigm, or
May I presume to interpret your definition of emerging church - “the church insofar as it is emerging from modernism and, more fundamentally in my view, from Christendom” - to mean the body of Christ, TODAY?
Or is there some more marginal meaning?
Anyway, I’m interested in how the church, i.e. the body of Christ (or Christ’s future “bride,” if you will), operates best in the world today. By operate I mean function, grow, be relevant and most importantly function as Jesus would have it function.
The typical “christian” “church” experience is neither biblical nor particularly relevant or inspiring. Regardless of denomination or whatever religious term is used to describe a particular church’s theological bent, the fruit of 2000 years of “christianity” is remarkably unrepresentative of the true Kingdom of Heaven.
So how that all might change, could or SHOULD change, and what can be gleaned from eschatological analysis of the Bible, is what I’m interested in. Exclusively from the standpoint of what Jesus Himself would desire, ideally.
Re: OST - What is the current paradigm, or
"Detected a small universe of active contributors. Lots of verbiage (wordiage??). What is the true purpose of this website at this point?"
Maybe you’ve already answered your own question here, sk1bum73, and have put your finger on the true motivation of the active contributors.
Re: OST - What is the current paradigm, or
OUCH!!! John. I hope not, but you have to wonder. I’ve read more around the website, including some of your postings, and I have to say that there is a lot of ponderous thought being expressed.
I think that the most pressing issue facing humanity today is the Kingdom of God. It’s sitting there as an invisible presence, an invisible imperative, and so few acknowledge it. It was primarily what Jesus preached. The church is tattered and torn, struggling to maintain any semblance of relevance in so many areas - geographically and theologically.
Christendom?? That’s almost irrelevant as well, at least in the conventional meaning of the word (or theosophical concept, really). To the degree that anybody wants to ponder God’s purpose for His most important piece of creation on this planet - Humanity - the only thing that really matters is how to help lead man to Him in a meaningful enough way that a true relationship forms betwixt the two. “Christendom” as I understand it would be merely an overlay - if you will - a mere indicator of mankind’s dwindling effectiveness at helping to usher the Kingdom of God to earth. Or, rather, the failure of man to establish “the Church” as a true bride for Christ.
And, as scripture indicates, things will continue to get more confusing and confused here on our planet.
I’m not sure that thinking about all of this from the “head” is going to result in true answers… I was praying about this last night (on the toilet of all places!!) and in my spirit I heard “just follow me!” which jolted my consciousness. To the extent that anybody reading this is led to reply, my heart is for the Church to achieve relevance and meaning and inspirational effectiveness where ever it is in action, and for followers of Christ - in and through the workings of the Church - to have the best shot at drawing as many into the Kingdom as possible before Christ’s return.
At the end of the day, anything less is really just a palliative, I’m certain.
Re: OST - What is the current paradigm, or
‘Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.’
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Re: OST - What is the current paradigm, or
For me this site has been such a blessing. I often feel I can’t contribute because I dont know enough but everyone has always been supportive and willing to answer my questions. It takes a lot of time and effort to provide a throught provoking post and guys like Andrew, Peter, Jacob, samlcarr, etc(all the others…) do a great job in this regard. It is a process, we are having to unlearn so much to be able to learn new things, and unlearning paradigms of thought is extremely hard. One of these entrenched assumptions or rather goals is to get this final boxed up version of what we are supposed to do and be. I think there is nothing wrong with striving for what that is, but it will always be bigger than our modernistic boxes of certainty and confidence. This site does not provide an all encompassing definition of what it means to be a christian and thats why i love it. What we are to be is a wrestle, a struggle and discovery that the people of God have always been heading towards. The important thing is that we are moving closer in theology and praxis. If not then we need a few prophets to set us straight.
cheers