Monday, October 17, 2005
Strange bedfellows? evangelicals and progressive christians
I'm a bit theologied out, so this post has taken a few days. It's the final installment on the futurechurch conference.
I didn't really enjoy the evening, but there were a few points of interest.
In the end, churches have to stand for something. If they don't they have no basis in truth. This issue may cause conflict with radical post-modernism. The issues have moved from what the church stands for to the fact that the church stands at all.
Today's questions are different from those posited by our reformation/enlightenment forebears. When church and society were continuous, theological issues were internal dialogue. Should it now be external? Christian vs other?
How then, can we decide the boundaries of our fellowships? I believe that Jesus was radically inclusive, but he certainly stood against the pharisees and herodians...It was suggested we should aim to ask not what are we against, but what do we affirm?
The question of what I affirm has been clicking around for a few days now. I hope to have time to think about it after my exam.
2 Comments:
It's a salient point for many of our friends. For me personally, whenever Christians are together there is, by necessity, church. So why this strange pre-occupation we have with the 10am Sunday service as the only legitimate place of fellowship?
