For the past year I have been detoxing from church as an expression of my faith. This was an experiment that was meant to enable me to spend more time in my neighborhood loving my neighbors. Now I am reflecting a bit on the past year and trying to figure out what I want to do next. Over the next couple of days I will be posting some thoughts on Church from my detox.
Theology is best learned through conversation rather than a lecture. The Christian Church uses the Guru model tell people about God. By that I mean that we set aside those people who have gained special knowledge of God, usually through a rigorous academic process, to tell us what we need to know about God. Not that there is anything wrong with this, the church has been doing that for over 2000 years. But is it the only way or even the best way to learn about God?
As a result of my experiment I have not had the ability to listen to preaching on a regular basis. Through my own reading of the Bible, Christian books, blogs, and most importantly conversations with friends I have been able to keep learning more about God while not attending church. If I am honest with myself conversations with friends have had a bigger impact in my life than than preachers have. Friends have incite into my life and the ability to follow through on a conversation, two things that a preacher can not do.
Even when I look at Jesus Life I see the important role conversations play. Jesus not only preached to the crowds, but he also told stories, parables, that drew people in to ask more questions. One could say that the point of a parable is not so much the theological point that it is trying to communicate but opportunity for conversation that it creates by needing to be explained further.
Photo Credit dtes.people (Click)
No comments:
Post a Comment