Recent comments by presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann have stirred up the discussion about gay marriage once again. While speaking to a group of high school…
17
Oct
2012
tsmith0095
The Author
tsmith0095
Terry was raised in a Southern Baptist environment. He has always seen a need for the church to return to social justice. He is the administrator for a non-profit called The Van Atlanta, a 501(c)3 that meets the need of homeless friends and neighbors. His theology has progressed to affirming of all individuals, no matter race, religion or sexual preference. He has a beautiful wife, Rebecca.
I’ve spent the majority of my life in the institutional church, giving of myself and being blessed by folks giving of themselves into my life. That time in my life was very valuable. It was necessary. Had I not spent so much of my life in that environment, I would not be suited for the plan God has for my life, for my family and for my church.
My wife and I are planting Church of the Misfits in the West Atlanta Metro area. We have both spent so much of our lives to the institutional (brick, mortar and steeple) church. That time is valuable as I said previously and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I thank God for the churches in my hometown that allowed me to serve for so many years.However, I am at a point now where the practices of the institutional church don’t necessarily work for me anymore. The idea that only one person (the pastor) of a congregation has the ability and responsibility to interpret Scripture doesn’t work for me anymore. I am no longer interested in going to listen to a 30 -45 minute lecture on one man’s interpretation of what a particular Scripture has to say.
Image courtesy of David Hayward (http://nakedpastor.com)
I am through being “given” and “giving” concrete interpretations on Scripture. Instead, I want to start building interpretations.
We’ve all heard the phrase, “Give a man fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for the rest of his life.” Another telling of that phrase goes, “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and you’ve lost a customer.” I think a lot of churches treat parishioners like customers. We give them a good hearty “meal” once a week, just so they can come bns on Scripture. To build a beautiful building, you need a lot of things. You need a foundation layer. You need a framer. You need an architect. You need an interior decorator. You need a landscaper. All of these things and more are important, so why when we are “building our faith” or “working out our own salvation with fear and trembling”, do we let only one person dictate what that faith should look like? Shouldn’t a group of folks have an input on what that faith should look like?ack hungry the following week. Yet, how many folks are we teaching to fish? How many folks are we equipping so that they might internalize their faith? I much rather my parishioners have a faith that is unique to them than have 750 folks attending every week with a cookie cutter faith.
God created us all differently and we all interact with God differently. We should allow room for questions. We should allow room and create space so that folks know that it’s okay for them to interpret Scripture for themselves. They don’t need to rely on a pastor. We all need help molding our faith, even your pastors.
Your faith should be unique to you.
How do we create a faith that is unique to us? We find safe space for us to question. We find folks who challenge us to think critically. We challenge others to think critically. We take the words of Jesus seriously. We wrestle with the writings that we don’t agree with or don’t like, rather than just write them off.
Are you brave enough to create a faith that is unique? Are you brave enough to think critically about Scripture? Are you brave enough to let the Bible and the Spirit of God ruin your life? Are you brave enough to lose your life, so that you may find it?
Join me on this path. Let’s come to church and not check our brain at the door.
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I was raised with 12 years of Catholic education by Dominicans and Jesuits. A critical intellect, with a few exceptions, was highly encouraged. It has always been part of my faith to question, which eventually led me away from Catholicism.
I agree that we each relate to God uniquely. If every individual were fully tested on their beliefs, no two would be in agreement. Yet I do not feel this is something we must seek to actively create; it is a simple product of our essence. The boldness would come in standing in that integrity of spirit or “to sin boldly” as Luther said. A radical dependence on grace, however, is the order of the day. But because this also seems to produce some truly looney ideas and practices, most Christians caution for a safety net or ground. This is, of course, almost surely self-defeating in realizing a profound relationship with Christ. It really does take a “leap of faith” which is not unlike that scene in one of the Indiana Jones movies: to literally step off a cliff and trust you walk onto God’s hand.
I definitely agree about the Spirit of God ruining our life. Going along with the first paragraph, all supports to faith and being are gradually removed. We are not done mourning one thing when another is taken away, sometimes ripped from our grasp. The only way to maintain some sanity is to go where we being drawn: into the stillness of ambiguity. We come to see that paradox is the native tongue of truth. And we gradually become a means with ends, the only light a “lamp unto our feet” with just enough illumination for the moment, past and future remaining in blessed darkness. Turth is no longer anything that we hold and act upon but God’s expression through us. As C.S. Lewis said, “The more God takes us over, the more our true selves we become.”
A human being fully developed, our final maturation, is to openly partake of the divine, to be “the light of the world. This is perfect humility, for humility is not the recognition of our smallness in a lowly comparison to God but the realization of our oneness in loving companionship with God. We live in the complete freedom of Christ, our heart a raw spirit of action and not a considered system of belief.
Correction: in the third paragraph, that should read “And gradually we become a means withOUT ends…”
No response. Sorry, did I somehow offend? I can be pretty crude. I really would appreciate your most critical comments.
Jerry, I’ve been on mobile all weekend and working. As soon as I can sit down at a computer, I will respond. I took no offense.