why?
I find myself asking "why" a lot lately. As I move closer to the presumed retirement age, I find myself doing church and to some degree ministry in a way that fits what is available. At the same time I keep anticipating retirement not as a time to get out, but as the freedom to do ministry as I am discerning it to be called by God in this time. And mainly freed from the limiting institutional constraints that use a rhetoric of change and service, and yet are so geared to the status quo and serving the institution first as it is and has been.
The category of liberal no longer feels focused on "progressive" or changing. I find as much these days of flux and change in so called conservative circles as I do in liberal circles. And each attacks the other, often demonizing the other with stories of god awful actions. I am tired of these naval gazing debates!
What is the new thing that God is doing? New wine skins. New life. Can an aging 59'er reach beyond the limits of the world as he has known it?
I am about finished with Alister McGrath's bio of John Calvin. I have learned so much from this book. Long term assumptions about Calvin, Calvinism and the Reformed Church tradition are being challenged and re-shaped. In a weekly Bible reading group we are about finished with Genesis. I am experiencing the same there. Much more grace and forgiveness in the originating narratives of our faith than normally are assumed.
How do we move beyond the assumptions that have become cemented in "fact" when its clear that those assumptions are not anyway near the content of the original sources? I plan to read Calvin's Institutes next. And then bio's on Hus, Zwingli and Bucer.
The UCC is part of the Reformed tradition and functions as part of the fellowship of the world body of Reformed Churches. Yet I see little if any intentional connection to this tradition. In fact I see more repudiation than affirmation. So, who am I in this midst? Am I changed into what the institution of the UCC claims I am to be as part of it, as it has become more doctrinaire to set boundary markers around what a group wants it to be now? Or have I changed by the grace of God through the Holy Spirit outside of the institution? That's why I am on this historical reading jag now. I should have done this back in seminary!!!!! But now, better late than never.
The category of liberal no longer feels focused on "progressive" or changing. I find as much these days of flux and change in so called conservative circles as I do in liberal circles. And each attacks the other, often demonizing the other with stories of god awful actions. I am tired of these naval gazing debates!
What is the new thing that God is doing? New wine skins. New life. Can an aging 59'er reach beyond the limits of the world as he has known it?
I am about finished with Alister McGrath's bio of John Calvin. I have learned so much from this book. Long term assumptions about Calvin, Calvinism and the Reformed Church tradition are being challenged and re-shaped. In a weekly Bible reading group we are about finished with Genesis. I am experiencing the same there. Much more grace and forgiveness in the originating narratives of our faith than normally are assumed.
How do we move beyond the assumptions that have become cemented in "fact" when its clear that those assumptions are not anyway near the content of the original sources? I plan to read Calvin's Institutes next. And then bio's on Hus, Zwingli and Bucer.
The UCC is part of the Reformed tradition and functions as part of the fellowship of the world body of Reformed Churches. Yet I see little if any intentional connection to this tradition. In fact I see more repudiation than affirmation. So, who am I in this midst? Am I changed into what the institution of the UCC claims I am to be as part of it, as it has become more doctrinaire to set boundary markers around what a group wants it to be now? Or have I changed by the grace of God through the Holy Spirit outside of the institution? That's why I am on this historical reading jag now. I should have done this back in seminary!!!!! But now, better late than never.
David Loar
"who moved my cheese?"
"who moved my cheese?"
posted by Hobart @ 11/05/2007 12:52:00 PM
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