so, last week i let our youth decide what they wanted to do this summer. we had planned on going to a week-long event called merge that is about connecting our stories to God's. there wasn't much excitement generated in the group about it - mostly because it would "take a whole week out of our summer". so, i gave the choice of going to merge or another event - 'the call' in nashville. the call is something that many people from the church are planning on going to, and it's been advertised frequently.
internally, i struggle with that decision. i don't know if it's all the books i've been reading or what, but something about the call just feels off to me. probably because of this line taken from the call's website: "The Church and the nation are in a crisis! In no uncertain terms, the elections of 2006 showed us that there is no clear moral foundation upon which the nation votes. In this present historic moment, the Church was paralyzed. Tens-of-thousands stayed home and could not vote as if they were drunk with disillusionment."
the implication seems to be that since democrats won, we obviously have lost our moral foundation. to be fair, they do go on to say that God is neither democrat or republican (which i agree with wholeheartedly). however, throughout the website there seems to be this idea that the church should have total influence and control of this political party, and that's how we will restore the moral foundation of the country. i might be reading more into it than there really is, i dont' know.
anyhow, it really highlights the struggle that i've been having for a while, and i think it's probably somewhat due to the fact that i'm almost entirely influenced by emerging and missional church books. i've decided that for one week i will put those books down and focus primarily on the Bible and a christian classic: the practice of the presence of God, by brother lawrence. i'm hoping to bring a little balance to myself spiritually, because all of the emerging stuff tends to get me critical and cynical for some reason.
maybe it will help shed light on 'the call' for me too. i want to be open, but i also want to be faithful to Jesus.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comments:
Hey i understand the struggle too! Cynicism comes to easy when we compare what we have to what we know could be. I'm also wary, like you, of thinking that we can change the world for Jesus through politics. I want to give these guys the benifit of the doubt. It will be interesting to hear the response from the youth.
Post a Comment