Back To It

Okay, I'm not sure what happened there for a few months...so let's get back to it.

As I read over my usual feeds from bloglines , I have several different topical pathways to take. From origami to lesbian priests, the possibilities are endless.

However, the thing that has me a bit fired up (from Tony's article at Out of Ur as well as from personal experience) is the tendency of those within the church to be so good at drawing lines and creating boundaries. As I read mechanical responses to passionate attempts at "conversation", I just have this question that keeps coming to mind? Do we think we're modeling Christ when we do everything within our persuasive grasp to convince other's that we're right and they're wrong??

I feel like like I'm in some netherworld of ambiguity between evangelical orthodoxy and emerging discovery. That's certainly not to say that I've walked away from anything or that I'm looking for some new label that's cool and let's me smoke a pipe and drink some thick dark German beer. It just means I'm questioning, searching, hoping to redefine, begging for our orthodoxy to be relevant in this new world.

And it seems to me, if we're going to follow Christ...we should err on the side of inclusivity. Didn't Jesus seem to include some people that the church of his day didn't want to be cozy with? Didn't Jesus extend salvation is some fairly unorthodox ways? The theif on the cross, the woman at the well, the paralytic who just wanted to walk...I don't recall any of them reciting the sinner's prayer or filling out an application for Kingdom membership.

Let's just entertain the thought that God can do His job and we can do ours and not get the two confused.