{"id":35157,"date":"2024-01-23T08:45:29","date_gmt":"2024-01-23T16:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=35157"},"modified":"2024-01-23T08:45:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T16:45:29","slug":"suffering-in-the-liminal-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/suffering-in-the-liminal-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Suffering in the Liminal Space"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ll be honest. The idea this week regarding threshold concepts was itself a threshold for me. It took me a while to wrap my head around the concepts of thresholds and liminality presented. Yet, when I made the idea a bit more abstract and took it away from the educational examples that were given, I was able to comprehend it a bit more. In his TEDx Talk, Dr. Coven suggests that we have \u201clost the essence of discovery. We have lost the browse.\u201d[1]<\/a> I began to think through the process everyone goes through as they come to know Christ and seek to image him more. I realized that there are threshold concepts that must be grasped in our walk with Jesus.<\/p>\n

I lived on the south coast of Kenya for five years. As I reflect on my experience in Kenya, I have realized that I was in a state of liminality for much of the time. It was a prolonged stage and left me in a state of uncertainty.[2]<\/a> I had grown up in a church that heavily favored knowledge, via doctrine and theology, over experience. This goes along with what Land suggests as, \u201cA discursive shift has occurred over the last three decades from a language of education to that of \u2018the student experience.\u2019”[3]<\/a> I am not suggesting that doctrine or theology are irrelevant or that experience is superior. Experience can become very flimsy and individually focused. What I am saying is that I lacked the experience to go along with the knowledge I had been given and when the knowledge did not line up with my experience I was left in a state of prolonged liminality.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

Growing up I understood that Christians might suffer for the name of Jesus. I understood that Christians in history had suffered and that there are still some notable martyrs in our present day. Yet, Christians around me did not really suffer. Our version of suffering was what I would consider just a part of living in a sinful world where cancer, accidents and sin affect us all, Christian, or not. Many trite Christian phrases make their way onto a cheap Hobby Lobby sign and then hang on our decorated walls. The problem is that they are often taken out of context and seemingly written by those who have never really suffered for the name of Jesus.<\/p>\n

When people would hear of our suffering, the easy Christian answers would almost always end with, \u201cWell, you know how the Bible ends, Jesus wins in the end.\u201d What I had never truly understood was that God the Father allowed his Son to suffer and that he would allow us to suffer for his name as well. My theology lacked the experience and raw emotion of suffering. As our family suffered in a variety of ways, I kept asking God why he was allowing it? We had traveled across the world to share his good news, why was he allowing us to feel so defeated and allowing us to endure so much if he truly is in control. If God is in control, and I believe He is, then he was allowing our suffering. He knew what we were going through, and he allowed it to continue.<\/p>\n

It was a threshold concept to understand that we were called to serve along the coast of Kenya, as Christ\u2019s ambassadors simply for the sake of suffering for his name among a people group who had no knowledge of Jesus the suffering servant. Once properly understood, our worldview changed, our understanding of suffering changed, and our view of God changed. This was the same threshold concept that those among whom we were a witness also would go through when they decided to start following Jesus. It was my experience and knowledge that allowed me the opportunity to share what being a Christ follower really means.<\/p>\n

It is this worldview shift that is necessary as people from other religions grow to a deeper understanding of Christ. I find that I often discuss Christ with those who are already in a state of liminality and trying to make sense of the lessons they have been learning. I find that this is where the idea of coaching and asking good questions intersects with helping seekers overcome the threshold concept that is holding them back. Camacho writes, “As coaching leaders, our role is to help them focus on the weightier issues of their lives: their identity, their calling, their character and their design”.[5]<\/a> Asking Spirit led questions and coaching others to find their identity in Christ can help them overcome those thresholds.<\/p>\n

It has been a few years now since I lived in Kenya. When asked what we did I simply will often say we went to suffer for the name of Jesus. I see it so clearly now and don\u2019t understand why it was such a hard concept for me to grasp at first. I guess that is the beauty of persevering through the liminality and overcoming the threshold.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Breaking Through: Threshold Concepts as a Key to Understanding | Robert Coven | TEDx Cary Academy<\/em>, 2018, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=GCPYSKSFky4.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Jan H.F. Meyer and Ray Land, Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding: Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge<\/em> (London: Routledge, 2006), 22, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.4324\/9780203966273.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ray Land, Jan Meyer, and Michael T Flanagan, Threshold Concepts in Practice<\/em>, 1st ed. 2016., Educational Futures, Rethinking Theory and Practice (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2016), https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/978-94-6300-512-8. XIV.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Meyer and Land, Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding<\/em>, 16.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Tom Camacho, Mining for Gold: Developing Kingdom Leaders through Coaching<\/em>, First published (Nottingham: IVP, 2019), 28.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ll be honest. The idea this week regarding threshold concepts was itself a threshold for me. It took me a while to wrap my head around the concepts of thresholds and liminality presented. Yet, when I made the idea a bit more abstract and took it away from the educational examples that were given, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":205,"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":[3009],"class_list":["post-35157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp03-meyerandland","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35157","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\/205"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35157"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35158,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35157\/revisions\/35158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}