{"id":2772,"date":"2014-10-22T15:47:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-22T15:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=2772"},"modified":"2014-11-01T08:56:22","modified_gmt":"2014-11-01T08:56:22","slug":"my-christ-my-theology-the-third-millennium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/my-christ-my-theology-the-third-millennium\/","title":{"rendered":"My Christ, My Theology, the Third Millennium?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I like your Christ, I just don\u2019t think you understand your theology?<\/em> While being a loose spin-off of a famous quote of Mahatma Gandhi, after reading David F. Ford\u2019s book, Theology: A Very Short Introduction<\/em>, I am concerned about the church I know<\/em> and it\u2019s capacity to theologically engage the emerging culture and increasingly complex society in which we live.itisexam<\/a><\/p>\n

My, quite possibly sudden and heightened, concern could come from the anticipatory chapter that Ford concludes his book with, projecting the challenges of theology in the third millennium. Specifically Ford poses the question, How can theology be thoughtfully responsible in many spheres?<\/em>1 In posing this question, Ford makes a case for the complexity of our society and then states there will be a shortage of theologians<\/em> of sound theological conversation in our cultural landscape. Ford writes, . . . it is clear that the demand for theological thoughtfulness in engaging with the issues of society is always likely to outstrip the supply.<\/em>2<\/p>\n

Unfortunately my concern agrees and I find myself believing the Church, at least the one I know\u00a0<\/em>(sadly probably summarized as contemporary, missional, evangelical, multiplying, church growth churches with white male leaders who have nice looking wives and good families (yikes, is that what I sit in the middle of???)) is radically void of a Christ-centered, theological thoughtfulness that can engage the high demand of an intelligent, educated theological interested society.<\/p>\n

I have three main reasons for my concern based on my perceptions of what I will call most Christians<\/em>\u00a0and the church I know.<\/em> Again, I do have to qualify, most Christians<\/em>\u00a0probably means those attending the contemporary, missional, evangelical, multiplying, church growth churches I know<\/em>, but I am concerned that most Christians who have a personal faith in Christ do not have a basic theological framework beyond their story of personal transformation. Most Christians I know are grateful to Jesus as their personal savior and can hopefully articulate a personal story of their salvation, but their salvation appears to be a get out of jail card<\/em> and once they are out of jail they go on with their lives owned by materialism and consumerism.<\/p>\n

Secondly, I am concerned that most Christians who can articulate a basic theological framework have been taught<\/em>\u00a0one and have not developed their own theological conclusions from good thought, conversation and personal exploration. Knowing what you believe and knowing why you believe it are two very different realities. I feel like for those who have a theological framework they have been taught<\/em>\u00a0are trained to defend it defensively, versus being able to engage in a conversation the shares how they have derived the position they hold and clearly understand the questions that their position considers. I have witnessed too much teaching<\/em>\u00a0of what to think<\/em> about God, Jesus in the Bible, when compared to how much dialogue has taken place on How to think<\/em> about God, Jesus and the Bible. \u00a0I would call this kind of theological development brittle and is exactly what is setting us up for great trouble engaging the questions raised by and about the religions<\/em>3 in our world.<\/p>\n

And lastly, my third concern is that the predominant church model in North America that I witness, the one I have been referring to, and the predominant expectation for most Christians<\/em>\u00a0has positioned us in our current deficit and is setting us up for the even greater shortcoming we are going to experience in the third millennium. I am deeply afraid that we will find ourselves in the middle of a world that is interested in our Christ, but knows we don\u2019t understand our theology. I feel we will be living in a world that will write the Church off as it stays in search of the questions of meaning, truth, beauty, and practice raised in relation to religion to religions\u2026<\/em>4<\/p>\n

Obviously this leads me to deeply consider, What is a basic theological framework that a Christ-follower of today, going into tomorrow, would need to be able to engage society and the emerging culture that is moving a warp speed? Are there a set of questions that if we were equipped to consider, would allow us to dialogue with anyone in thoughtful conversation about religion and God? What does discipleship look like that develops thoughtful Christ-followers?\u201d Do we need to go back to catechism? Do we need to go back to the rabbinical model?<\/em><\/p>\n

In concluding, I feel while this post does reflect much of what I know<\/em>\u00a0and what I have witnessed<\/em>\u00a0about the church I know<\/em>\u00a0and most Christians I know<\/em>\u00a0-\u2013 I do believe the most operative word I have used is I<\/em>. More than a concern about the projection of and on the Church and most Christians, this writing is a reflection on me and my greatest concerns of faith as I think about my Christ and my understanding of my theology in the third millennium.
\n70-485 <\/a><\/p>\n

1. David Ford, Theology: a Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions), 2 ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 171.<\/p>\n

2. Ibid., p. 173<\/p>\n

3. Ibid,. p. 3<\/p>\n

4. Ibid,. p. 12<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I like your Christ, I just don\u2019t think you understand your theology? While being a loose spin-off of a famous quote of Mahatma Gandhi, after reading David F. Ford\u2019s book, Theology: A Very Short Introduction, I am concerned about the church I know and it\u2019s capacity to theologically engage the emerging culture and increasingly complex […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"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":[197],"class_list":["post-2772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ford","cohort-lgp5"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772","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\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2772"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3120,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772\/revisions\/3120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}