{"id":20866,"date":"2019-01-18T16:58:22","date_gmt":"2019-01-19T00:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=20866"},"modified":"2019-01-18T16:58:22","modified_gmt":"2019-01-19T00:58:22","slug":"gods-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/gods-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"God’s initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cYou\u2019re so secular\u201d, has been seen in the Christian world as an insult and a comment that is spoken out of anger or frustration with a particular stance on a hot topic. Charles Taylor1 and James Smith2 in their books helps us understand that maybe the proper response to someone that calls me secular should be, \u201cthanks, and so are you.\u201d This idea that the world has shifted and secular thinking can mean the ability to journey for truth using questions and doubts.<\/p>\n

James Smith writes,\u201cThe difference between our modern, \u201csecular\u201d age and past ages is not necessarily the catalogue of available\"\"<\/a> beliefs but rather the default assumptions about what is believable.\u201d3 I was recently at a meeting where there were representatives from 61 countries. Many of these people were steeped in traditional church settings and experiences. When they found out where I was living, they had many questions. The problem was the questions presupposed a context or understanding that I considered wrong. I was asked repeatedly if I pastored, what was the building like that we worked in or how many staff members, size of congregations and things that are not relevant where we live. When also talking about how we build relationships, one person asked, \u201chow many times do I need to talk with someone before I can share the Gospel or invite them to a Bible study?” Some of my favorites were when our local Chinese would say to me, \u201cI don\u2019t understand the question they are asking\u201d because it was coming from a totally different christian cultural context. I do not fault these questioners for they come not from always a different country but rather a different foundational culture. I think understanding a changing world requires a minister to be ready for our contexts to be changing as well.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cSo the world is not carved up into \u201cbelievers\u201d and \u201csecular\u201d rational knowers. It\u2019s a complicated array of different sorts of believers.\u201d4 As a product of the secularism myself I find freedom in a world that has the ability to doubt and question some of the things we are taught. The journey to discover Christ in our own context makes Him more real rather than the opposite. \u201cTaylor\u2019s account of the secular is often an illuminating lens through which to see changes within religious communities, not just the expansion of the areligious.\u201d5 These changes can allow those looking for authenticity in their lives can find hope that the Christian world is open to their questions and challenges.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Humans love change only when we are in control of it. This is also true within the Christian Church. Taylor writes repeatedly that we can not go back in time and live in a place we are comfortable or a time that everyone thinks like we do, looks like we do and acts like we do.6\u00a0 In an interview with James Smith he said that there is a necessity for \u201cpastors to be ethnographers… if Taylor is right, this shouldn\u2019t be seen as a battle. Instead we should recognize all the \u201cpersistent longings for transcendence that characterize our secular age. To proclaim the Gospel in such a context is not a matter of guarding some fortress; it\u2019s an opportunity to invite our neighbors to meet the One they didn\u2019t even realize they\u2019d been longing for.\u201d7 This resonated with me that all those in ministry, even within their own home countries, should take stock of the culture they live in. True ethnographers find ways not to impose their own ideas rather to understand the culture they are focused on. In our world, we often assume we understand the contexts and even the questions that those in our realm of influence have. The church could look very different if we as leaders could take the time to study and know the communities that we are placed in. I believe even with my context, I am guilty of assumptions about what we are doing and often forget to simply listen to the common questions being asked.<\/p>\n

Taylor writes,<\/p>\n

\u201cOur sin is our resistance to going along with God’s initiative in making suffering reparative. We are deeply drawn\"\"<\/a> towards God, but we also sense how following him will dislocate and transform beyond recognition the forms which have made life tolerable for us. We often react with fear, dismay, hostility. We are at war with ourselves, and responding differently to this inner conflict, we end up at war with each other. So it is undoubtedly true that the result of sin is much suffering. But this is by no means distributed according to desert. Many who are relatively innocent are swept up in this suffering, and some of the worse offenders get off lightly. The proper response to all this is not retrospective book-keeping, but making ourselves capable of responding to God’s initiative.”<\/em> 8<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Seeing some of our traditions as somewhat masking our own secularization limits our understanding of the world we live in. When we recognize that we are not the gate keepers to truth and God can handle doubts, questions and even journeys that are not traditional we are free to see all people as seeking the truth.<\/p>\n

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1 Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007<\/p>\n

2 Smith, James K. A.. How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition. 3 smith 19<\/p>\n

4 https:\/\/www.thegospelcoalition.org\/blogs\/justin-taylor\/an-interview-with-james-k-a-smith-on-how-not- to-be-secular-and-how-to-read-charles-taylor\/<\/p>\n

5Smith, James K. A.. How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.88<\/p>\n

6 Smith, 11
\n7 https:\/\/www.thegospelcoalition.org\/blogs\/justin-taylor\/an-interview-with-james-k-a-smith-on-how-not-to-be-secular-and-how-to-read-charles-taylor\/ accessed January 18, 2019<\/p>\n

8Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007. 655<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou\u2019re so secular\u201d, has been seen in the Christian world as an insult and a comment that is spoken out of anger or frustration with a particular stance on a hot topic. Charles Taylor1 and James Smith2 in their books helps us understand that maybe the proper response to someone that calls me secular should […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[824],"class_list":["post-20866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-taylorsmith","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20866"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20871,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20866\/revisions\/20871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}