Challenging Thoughts From The Blogosphere

Posted on Jul 26, 2011 in Theology | 2 comments

With my new ipad and great tools like flipbook, I find I am spending more time reading blogs than books lately.  This week I stumbled upon several interesting but challenging posts.  Below are the highlights but I encourage you to visit the links and read the full article.

These words from Carl Medearis, former missionary and international expert in Arab-American and Muslim-Christian relations which appeared in a CNN Belief Blog titled “My Take: Why evangelicals should stop evangelizing”

What if evangelicals today, instead of focusing on “evangelizing” and “converting” people, were to begin to think of Jesus not as starting a new religion, but as the central figure of a movement that transcends religious distinctions and identities?

Jesus the uniter of humanity, not Jesus the divider. How might that change the way we look at others?

The post “Illusion of the Emerging Church”by Spencer Burke which appear on the blog Red Letter Christians also caught my attention.  In particular these words made me stop and think:

I do not think there is a modern church, emerging church or whatever comes after that. What we are trying to “Brand” or label is a transitory state the Church goes through all the time. It has just been fashionable (and maybe profitable for publishers and critics alike) to name it….But it is also important to hear the words of Arthur Schopenhauer who said, “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident”.

Someday those who are defending the church today will realize that it was the loss of modernity that they were grieving. And those who are so eager to be the torch bearers for the emerging church will be left with a new institution to feed. But for some, the Church will always be the Church and she will continue to surprise us…

This post by Pastor Neil Christopher titled “Can Christians Truly Be Inclusive?” which appeared in the Huffpost Religion section, really challenged me.

This brings us to the conundrum of inclusivity. In order to actually be inclusive someone or something is going to have to be excluded.

Today there is a debate going on in religious circles over a similar matter concerning the LGBT community. There are certain churches or groups that say they have become inclusive to them, but at the same time the refuse protect them or exclude those who oppose the inclusivity or even attack them. They say that this is done in love — that to not include both the oppressed and the oppressor would be to cease to be truly inclusive, but this simply isn’t true.

For in order to be inclusive to both gay people and straight people one must by definition be willing to let those who hate the idea feel excluded, and to not offer aid, protection or have consequences set up for those who attack one part of your group is actually taking the side against them, driving them out.

So what did you read this week that made you think a bit deeper?