We will be convening here at the ZigZag café, Suisse, on Thursdays for conversation and dialogue.
I invite you to stop by every Thursday for the question of the day. Your thoughts and participation are most welcome. Pull up a stool, avec un café, un thé, ou un chocolat chaud, et un croissant, and join in here on Thursday at the ZZ café.
For today:
Do you think women are undervalued in your church?
Christian spirituality is both overwhelmingly communal and intensely personal. As you read slowly and carefully through this book, we encourage you to think deeply about the questions and ideas presented. Following are some questions for discussion in a group, personal reflection, or both.
Chapter 14 – Losing and Finding the Path
* Have you ever fallen to the extremes of either legalism, total freedom, or both? What things were/are instrumental for you in returning to the path?
* As we took a long view of our present adversity, so it can be helpful to take a long view of some of the painful circumstances of our past. Take a moment to consider your own story, and try to imagine ways in which it can be re-narrated into your life in a redemptive way. How does it fit within the larger biblical drama of creation, fall and redemption?
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
--Psalm 51:10-12
Suggested Map Reading:
For Further Study:
To Be Told: Know Your Story, Shape Your Future, D. Allender
Christian spirituality is both overwhelmingly communal and intensely personal. As you read slowly and carefully through this book, we encourage you to think deeply about the questions and ideas presented. Following are some questions for discussion in a group, personal reflection, or both.
Chapter 13 – Facing Adversity
* As we seek to contextualize our present adversity, what are some ways in which we can place ourselves in the larger narrative of redemption? What are some of the landmarks that would be useful in helping us place ourselves?
* Are you part of a community that aids you in seeing the long view of adversity? Do you think that such a community is as important as we have stated? Why or why not?
* Take a moment and consider Sarah’s story. Have you been in a similar situation? If so, how did you deal with the internal disintegration that took place? Were you able to resolve it? If a similar situation were to occur again, would you handle it differently? In what ways?
* How can you take some of the ideas drawn from Paul’s letter to the Philippians and flesh them out? What are some of the ways we can depend on God while being responsible for working out our salvation with fear and trembling? Think about this particularly in the face of adversity.
* What are some of the primary places in which you encounter adversity/oppression in your life? Take a moment to consider as well the ways, intentional or unintentional that you may cause adversity for those around you.
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, first and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen
--1 Peter 5:10-11
Suggested Map Reading:
For Further Study:
Pathways to Wholeness, R. Hurding
Embodying Forgiveness, L. G. Jones
Exclusion and Embrace, M. Volf
We will be convening here at the ZigZag café, Suisse, on Thursdays for conversation and dialogue.
I invite you to stop by every Thursday for the question of the day. Your thoughts and participation are most welcome. Pull up a stool, avec un café, un thé, ou un chocolat chaud, et un croissant, and join in here on Thursday at the ZZ café.
For today:
How can we protect ourselves from shaming and abuse without being selfish?
Christian spirituality is both overwhelmingly communal and intensely personal. As you read slowly and carefully through this book, we encourage you to think deeply about the questions and ideas presented. Following are some questions for discussion in a group, personal reflection, or both.
Chapter 12 – Knowledge
* What do you think of the statement that “to demand one hundred percent knowledge is a violation of the creator/creature relationship and is therefore a sin?” (p. 123) Or the opposite view that embraces total ambiguity? Have you ever thought about knowledge claims in moral terms? Do you think it is appropriate? What are the competing claims about knowledge in your context?
* How would you describe sufficient knowledge? What are some of the criteria that would need to met for you to feel comfortable making a knowledge claim? What external forces inform you?
* We often focus on the “see through a glass darkly” in 1 Corinthians 13:12, but have you ever thought about what it will be like when we see “face to face”? Remembering the theological perspectives of relation/distinction and continuity/discontinuity, what do you think this means for our future knowledge?
Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom: Enlighten by your Holy Spirit those who teach and those who learn, that, rejoicing in the knowledge of your truth, they may worship you and serve you from generation to generation; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen
--The Book of Common Prayer
Suggested Map Reading:
Suggestions for Further Study:
Total Truth, N. Pearcey
A Primer on Postmodernism, S. Grenz
Truth is Stranger Than it Used to Be, J. Richard Middleton & B. Walsh
Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism? J. K.A. Smith
Christian spirituality is both overwhelmingly communal and intensely personal. As you read slowly and carefully through this book, we encourage you to think deeply about the questions and ideas presented. Following are some questions for discussion in a group, personal reflection, or both.
Chapter 11 – Justification and Sanctification
* Do you identify more with Jason or Caroline? What has been your understanding of justification?
* Often in the church we believe that our faith saves us. How does the relation/distinction configuration of justification nuance our understanding?
* In speaking of sanctification in degrees, do you believe that it is possible to move backwards – to become less sanctified?
* Have you ever struggled with what we are calling “false-option identity syndrome”? What are/were the poles you tend to gravitate towards? Does a both/and approach help resolve them? How?
* As we continue in the process of sanctification, another relation/distinction comes to mind: We are becoming like Christ, but we are not becoming Christ. We retain our uniqueness and individuality. How does this configuration contribute to understanding ourselves not as “zeroes”, but as salt and light of the earth? How does it inform our sense of Christian mission?
* One of the points of tension that increases as we grow in understanding the diversity of the body of Christ is seeking to understand the components of our personality which are good and contribute to our uniqueness, and which others are harmful. This is particularly true in a culture that highly prizes particular ‘types’ of people and personalities. What are some criteria that we can use as we navigate the path and seek a fuller understanding of our identity?
* Is the understanding of the blood of Christ as both prescriptive and preventative familiar to you? What are some areas in your life that you can see this truth played out? Places in which forgiveness led to transformation? What are some areas in which the prescriptive view may have hindered transformation?
Almighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us grace to receive thankfully the fruits of his redeeming work, and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
--The Book of Common Prayer
Suggested Map Reading:
Further Reading:
True Spirituality, F. A. Schaeffer
Beyond Identity, D. Keyes
