hey Everyone,
Thanks for your thoughts Trev. I appreciated hearing your journey.
So my journey.... wow. I didn't grow up in a Christian home, started going to youth in Gr 10/11 and really dedicated myself to following God there. I was a pretty black and white/traditional thinker at college and early in my ministry as a youth pastor, but something started happening to me about 3/4 years in (about 5 years ago). I don't really know how it happened, but I started thinking a lot more about postmodern thought, culture, etc, etc. I took a great postmodern class in college (with Draper) but it didn't mean much for me. For some reason it started to click in different ways these years later. Colin and I had a lot of great talks that also helped me work through these issues (Colin paid me $10 to say that, and hey, ten bucks is ten bucks). If anything, I've started to move away from a lot of the traditional church elements, some I'm happy about, some scare me a bit. I'm starting on a church plant from our church with the desire to attempt a re-creation of church.....well, not a re-creation, but an avenue to allow a new creative voice to draw what church could be. Not so much talking by 1 person from the front, but a community. Not so much leader driven, but community driven. Not so much inwardly focused, but focused on the world here and abroad.
A book that has really challenged me lately is "Pagan Christianity". More than anything it allowed me to dream and think further than before.
I guess I could sum this up by saying that I don't fit in the church as it exists, nor do I necessarily feel wanted, nor do I want to fit in. I don't view the Bible as most people do on a Sunday. Truth is vague, grey, and more circumstantial than people want to believe. I can't stand being in a place where there is so much criticism and nit-picking. This isn't the environment I want to live in. But this group isn't about being critical. I want to help, in some small way, bring a new era of relevance to the Church as I believe there is need and merit to its existence. Thanks for listening. Feel free to ask any questions.
Scott
4 comments:
i can tell i'm going to get in trouble here, since i don't like matrix movies and i'm all about nit-picking! yikes!
nice to (re)meet you scott and trevor.
Thanks for your story Scott. Some things I know from what John has relayed from his conversations with you, but other ideas were new to me.
We too struggle with how to fit into our church here. We have no options for church in a small town so it is either attend the one that we do have, or we don't go at all. It is a struggle and there are SOOO MANY things that I wish were different. I love the idea of a community church; everyone gets to share their gifts and ideas, and they each get to be involved. I don't know how the church got so messed up to believe that only a select few should ever be involved in "ministry".
Thanks for posting my friend, I'm very happy you're here. I'm especially interested to hear what you have to say when we start talking church (oh ya, it's a comin'). I had this long conversation with some other ppl in the TA room at MacDiv the other day about "trend" churches and being "post-modern" so I think it will be interesting to hear from you on some of those topics since you're right int he middle of it.
Hey Cletus. I have been meaning to just say hi specifically to you as it has been a while since we've talked and I do miss you! (sniff sniff) I always remember you as my favorite room-mate in the dorms at CBC (I had to qualify that because I also lived with potsie, pinto, and heimie who were my favorite room-mates I've ever had living off campus at CBC)
S.Healing
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