{"id":29016,"date":"2022-10-07T13:48:24","date_gmt":"2022-10-07T20:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29016"},"modified":"2022-10-10T10:35:16","modified_gmt":"2022-10-10T17:35:16","slug":"threshold-of-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/threshold-of-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Threshold of Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou have to embrace your authority as a pastor.\u201d That was a common theme in my conversations as I prepared for ordination. I would meet with my mentor pastor and she would consistently tell me to embrace my authority, or more accurately, the identity of being a pastor. It was a threshold that I needed to move through if I was going to be able to step into the role of pastor. In many ways, I had to learn to embrace this identity before I could move on to other aspects of learning, all while this created a disorientation that I was resisting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These conversations came to mind as I considered the ideas of Meyer and Land in \u201cOvercoming Barriers to Student Understanding\u201d. The Idea of a \u201climinality\u201d and a \u201cportal\u201d to new understanding captures the existential experience of learning. Indeed, there are certain concepts that are disorienting enough that they seem unlikely to be true upon first examination, yet lead to a paradigm shift that can unlock new perspectives within learning.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The use of the Adam and Eve metaphor brought to mind potential threshold concepts within spiritual learning. I have personally experienced these in my own spiritual journey and have noticed these in the journey of others. These concepts also create substantial dissonance that people resist the information presented and choose not to enter into the liminal space of wrestling with the implications that the new information might have on previously held concepts and structures of spiritual thinking. Admittedly, as a pastor, I have hesitated to embark on certain conversations in anticipation of difficult conversations to follow, while knowing that certain paradigms need to be shifted to move a person further into their faith.<\/p>\n

This leads me to consider that suffering is a necessary spiritual threshold concept. The reality is that everyone suffers, and for many, the allure of faith is that it offers an escape from suffering, even though Jesus makes the opposite promise (John 16:33). The experience of suffering in the midst of faith is a necessary threshold concept when it does come to the person. It is an experience that cannot be given to the person, and one that they can only experience on their own. If the person enters into the liminality of wrestling with suffering and hope, their faith will become deeper and more personal in a way that can never be taught in concepts. The result of entering into this kind of threshold is a deeper prayer life, greater trust in God and ability to relate to those who have suffered in a similar manner.<\/p>\n

In addition to suffering, there are a number of other threshold concepts that may be discovered. Reflecting on my own experience, there are a number of other paradigm shifts in my own faith. Times in which new approaches shifting thinking to the point of disorientation and ultimately, to new categories of learning. A few in my own life are atonement theory and historical-critical approaches to scripture. Many more threshold concepts are undoubtably present in faith, just as in other disciplines of learning whether academic, spiritual or professional.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou have to embrace your authority as a pastor.\u201d That was a common theme in my conversations as I prepared for ordination. I would meet with my mentor pastor and she would consistently tell me to embrace my authority, or more accurately, the identity of being a pastor. It was a threshold that I needed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"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":[2347,1429],"class_list":["post-29016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp01","tag-meyer","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29016","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\/163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29016"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29017,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29016\/revisions\/29017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}