Saturday 24 May 2014

A New Vision part 1



A New Vision

a)      Believing, b) Behaving, c)Belonging

Diana Butler-Bass offers a new vision in her book which includes
three key areas of awareness of who God is. These are believing, behaving and belonging. This reflection will focus on the first one- believing.
a)      Believing
What do I believe? Is doctrine important to me or should it be? These are questions which invite discussion but all demand intellectual answers about things that cannot be comprehended entirely by the mind. These answers in the past have divided families and neighbours and caused diversity amongst people and church institutions. Yet what should one ask about believing in God? Maybe the question really needing to be asked is “How do you believe?”
 How asks a hands on deeper knowledge of the thing being asked, Asking how weaves our lives with the information as we receive, review, reflect and act upon what we sought. It is a question of meaning and purpose that pushes people into a deeper engagement in the world, rather than memorizing facts. It is a shift from about to experience of. How enables an emerging spiritual question one of experience and connection.
            How does one believe and others understand your believing? It is through experiential religion where sharing of stories and rituals enable other people to participate in a sense of the divine as you first experienced it. But it is even more than this—for it also involves the heart integrating ideas and thoughts.
            How do you express your belief in God? Is it in personal statements of faith, or in the way of personalizing a creed of faith? What does this mean as we share together with others in a church setting? How do you share your belief?
Question To Consider:

How do you believe what you do? What happened for you to have these thoughts and ideas about God? Do you share it?

 PRAYER

Loving  God we praise you for how you reveal yourself to us. We believe, help us in our unbelief and enable us to know you.Amen.

Diana Butler-Bass Christianity after Religion: the end of church and the birth of a new spiritual awakening. .New York Harper2012 (chapter4)

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