QotW

Several "Quotes of the week" that I really like

first from U2's new CD No Line ON The Horizon

I can stand up for hope, faith, love
But while I’m getting over certainty
Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady

Out from under your beds
C’mon ye people
Stand up for your love

Love love love love love…

I gotta stand up to ego but my ego’s not really the enemy
It’s like a small child crossing an eight lane highway
On a voyage of discovery

Also:

Its not if I believe in love
If love believes in me

And from John Philip Newell

I do not believe that the gospel, which literally means "good news," is given to tell us that we have failed or been false. That is not news, and it is not good. We already know much of that about ourselves. We know we have been false, even to those whom we most love in our lives and would most want to be true to. We know we have failed people and whole nations throughout the world today, who are suffering or who are subjected to terrible injustices that we could do more to prevent. So the gospel is not given to tell us what we already know.

Rather, the gospel is given to tell us what we do not know or what we have forgotten, and that is who we are, sons and daughters of the One from whom all things come. It is when we begin to remember who we are, and who all people truly are, that we will begin to remember also what we should be doing and how we should be relating to one another as individuals and as nations and as an entire earth community."

(This came from a response to Tony Jones' Blog Post)

Just some thoughts to think about!

Exploring Framing Stories(Part 3): Where do they come from?

I was recently asked, concerning my last post, to address from where framing stories come?

This is a tough question to answer in the confines of a blog post, so know that this is not comprehensive. However this should give one a good idea. Let's take a step back away from religious framing stories for a second. EVERYONE has a framing story (or sets of framing stories) that inform and affect their lives. Our individual framing stories are a mix of genetics and environment. Our framing stories are passed down from our families, education, culture, experiences, etc...

These framing stories inform our decisions, personality, preferences, and well... everything about us. We can't escape our framing stories, for without them we wouldn't be who we are!

Now back to religious framing stories. I'm going to stick to the overly-simplistic examples used in the first post of this series: the conventional and emerging.

We develop our faith/religious framing stories as we grow up. We inherit these frames from our church experiences (or lack of), our parent's/families' faith, and the religious culture from which in which we are exposed. We also feed back into this frame and culture. It also should be mentioned that our overall framing stories impact our religious FS, and visa-verse. It is truly a tangled web. Studies show that the #1 place from which we learn our faith practices are our parental figures. Church actually appears 3rd on the list.

Please understand that a person can inherit EITHER (or any) FS, not just the conventional. It just happens that in American Christianity, the conventional FS is the one that is inherited.

However, I think that although understanding where these FS originate is important, the question that is MORE important is WHY are so many people choosing to move away from their original Framing Story?

I use the work "choose" loosely. For the majority of people it is not a conscious decision to transition from the inherited framing story into a new one. Yet many (more every day) are realizing that they are indeed emerging out of and away from their original FS. The factors that inform this happening are as complex as are the factors that make up our original FS. In fact, the easiest way to understand WHY and HOW people move away from their original FS are the SAME factors listed above that inform their original FS. What changes? The overall frame. They move away from their family, they experience new cultures and cultural surroundings. They break free of the bubble of thoughts and ideas into a new surrounding. They explore their own thoughts, world, and beliefs through higher education (not just a college degree, but education derived from new experiences). What they are finding is that the conventional FS does not do a good job addressing the "new" reality in which they now find themselves. A reality that has always been there, but was outside of their spheres of influence as a child.

There is a lot we can learn from other's FS. Everyone's journey is unique to them. The greatest thing we can do is listen and share in each other's journeys! This will help us to understand each other's FS's, and hopefully, will help churches to embrace and even encourage people to explore and question their own framing stories. The pews should no longer be a place of forced conformity, but full of people who are diverse in their experiences and FS's, willing to listen and willing to share. Otherwise, I fear that the Church will not survive, or at least thrive, as more and more people continue to move away from the conventional FS (the one that most mainstream churches cling to), towards the emerging FS that addresses their reality.

Thoughts From A Wanderer

My friend, Mary, has 2 fantastic posts over @ Not All Who Wonder Are Lost. The first one I want to link to because I want to give her credit. We are all part of the same Bible study community, and spicifically one of her comments that she made (repeated in the post A Square Peg Goes To Church) inspired the thought pattern that led to me last posts.

This comment from Mary spicifically led me to my last posts:

I realized last week, that my framing story for God, theology and the body of Christ is NOT the same as many of those in my church. I kinda figured that out a long time ago, but it really became explicit for me. That realization helped me at least articulate why I felt like the square peg.

It is a good glimpse at how some of our conversations go, and how we bring our own experiences into our group to share and discuss. We have come up with some amazing questions and thoughts!!! Check it out, it's worth the read.

Also her newest post: Pro-Life=Pro-Baby was a direct comment from her tonight.

I post these links, not only to link to some good thought-provoking material, but also because I am proud to be in a group that 1) thinks critically about their faith, 2) lives and learns within the questions, and 3) (most importantly) is a free place to share one's thoughts, struggles, and disagreements openly and freely with a group that practices love and encouragement.

It is proving to me a point that many confrontational Christians have disagreed with me, that UNITY IS NOT CONFORMITY... instead it is acting in love and respect towards one-another regardless of our differences. We all acknowledge that we are broken people doing our best to become fully human (in all that means), and/or to become the person into whom God is making each of us!

We (Christians in churches) spend a lot of time alienating people who feel like "square pegs" instead of listening and learning from each other. What we would realize is that there is a communication problem...different framing stories mean we are speaking different languages! More and more people are finding that their framing story is not matching up with that of the conventional framing story as presented by the modern Church. The next question that led to my post from this was, "how then do we move forward in love once the problem has been diagnosed?" And thus we get to where the framing story posts have led thus far.

We keep splitting, pushing, and running away, but I'm here to tell you that:

IT IS POSSIBLE PEOPLE! :)

And I'm grateful to be a part of where it is happening!

Thank you Metavista Bible Study Group!!!!