(orginally posted on my blog www.loudloft.blogs.com which now cross posts to my Facebook)
I've been approached privately by a few of the folks who I'm "friends" with on Facebook or who follow my twitter account or read my blog about my spiritual life. There has been some curiosity about what I believe and how I manifest those beliefs in my life. There has also been curiosity about the church that I attend. I also work at that church as Storyteller - which is our term for Director of Communications. Here's a stab at answering some of those questions.
I'm fortunate to have friends (both analog and digital) who represent pretty much the entire spectrum of spirituality. I am reassuringly uncomfortable in my own place among my journey. I've lived long enough to have figured some things out and long enough to know that there are things I will never figure out and also long enough to know that my beliefs will change over time. That last statement tends to raise a few eyebrows from some folks . . . so let me elaborate.
In the Christian vernacular there is the statement that many of you have heard, it's "I've been saved" or the question "are you saved?". This refers to the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ to "save" someone from eternal separation from God. Theologians write books on this idea - so I won't go there. However, fundamentally, those statements tend to focus on just the past tense. They refer to a point in time at which something "happened" in a person's life. History is a good thing as it gives context, but context alone is insufficient.
I prefer "I'm being saved". That is not to imply that the actual acceptance of Christ is a temporal event that occurs over time or that it is possible to begin and then reverse or to lose it. I do embrace a theology that is often termed the "once saved always saved" position. What I mean by the use of the word "being" is that "once saved" is just the beginning of my journey and not my destination.
In that context I'm "being saved" every day. I'm forced to live solely in the present. The past is behind me and out of my control. The future is before me and also out of my control. Certainly the choices I made in the past have consequences today and in the future and the choices I make in the future will have consequences then . . . but NOW is the only time that I can make those choices. It's both simple and complex and that the dichotomy is one of the reasons that draw me to my faith.
So, all this is fine and dandy . . . but unless this manifests itself somehow in my life it's all just talk.
The church I attend is parish minded in the sense that it's far less about what happens inside our walls than outside. The inside is good, don't get me wrong - but if it's walled off and hidden behind facades it really does nobody any good.
I could go on but instead I would invite you to download this PDF and give it a whirl. It lays out ten key things that have to happen to make a significant impact on the community you live in. Yeah, it approaches it from a spiritual perspective . . . so I may have lost some of you. If so, humor me and at least read the ten topics that are highlighted in bold.
Those ten topics accurately paint a picture of what we are working toward.
Those ten topics present a much different "score card" than what most folks in the church biz have used in the past. I (and we) think it's a much needed change . . .
BTW If for some reason - the link to the file doesn't' come across when this cross posts to Facebook just wander over to www.loudloft.blogs.com and you will find it in this post
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