BASIC Action Ohana Group

With yesterday’s posting, I thought I had better clarify some of my beliefs. The great thing about the Internet is that it never forgets. The bad thing about the Internet is that it never forgets. So, here I am, placing this out here.

What do I believe? I believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I believe the Bible is the inspired and authoritative Word of God. I believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, His sinless life, and miracles. I believe in His atoning death, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return in power and glory. I believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.

That’s the pretty much the core of my beliefs. I could expand on these basic beliefs of mine a bit more, like the fact the the bible totally terrifies me because I believe all of it, or that Jesus, at the very least, loves me enough to die for me and be there for me when life gets tough. I could also throw in stuff about grace, where we get 2nd, 3rd, 4th,…, nth chances, yes I was a math major. I know grace makes people uncomfortable, since anyone can take advantage of it, but isn’t that the cool thing about grace and mercy?

As I stated, I could expand upon the core, but as I write these things down, God just keeps on amazing me and forcing me to move beyond my limited ideas of who He is. So, thankfully, this will continue to be an on going thing. As I continue to put God in a box, hopefully the box that I am placing Him in next will be bigger than the last. And these core beliefs will continue to help me build a bigger box. Which begs the question, what other basic beliefs would help in the quest to build a bigger box?

Yesterday, our Ohana group began a dialog about what we want from our Ohana group and what would it look like. So, if I may indulge, I want to share some thoughts and perspective on what I had wanted to go to next.

Before I begin, I want to introduce you to a bit of my background. For the last 5 years, I have begun to develop a love/hate relationship with evangelicalism. I love my roots, I love the commitment to people, I love the commitment to fresh forms, and I love the passion for Jesus. I still hold to most of the central tenants of classical evangelicalism. However, as I look around, I have begun to hate what evangelicalism has started to become; a members only exclusive group more interested in defining who’s in and out than in engaging culture and loving the world with the love of Jesus. I have become repulsed by the black-and-whiteness of calcifying evangelical theology and the complete removal of mystery from worship and the life of the believer.

So, with that, here were my desires. I was looking for something contemplative and honest and exploratory and intimate. I wanted a place where honesty about questions and doubts were seen as more valuable to a spiritual journey than answers and resolve. This would have been a place where all voices were welcomed. I had wanted a place that is not dominated by people like me, strong leader types with quick opinions, but with people who instead complimented me, thus bringing some necessary balance to my normal proclivities.

But as I write this, I see some concerns. My first concern was that the longing that was birthed by the group this last Sunday could easily get steamrolled by people with louder voices. I love to hear those in the inverted spaces, where their voice is truly equal or more heard than mine. I hope that their desires and suggestions in this group continues to be patiently, humbly, and quietly listened to.

My second concern is that our group continues to be a place where theology and practice comes together, where we will arise from our individual and collective discernment, and not from a static, external source. I’m worried that we will use yesterday’s dialog as a system or a way to do community rather than us evolving the community out of our collective voices. I just want to be careful about anything that would define our dialogs rather than inform.

After yesterday’s conversation, I wonder if this is even realistic? Even if it is do able, I wonder if this should be something that a group provides? Should we, as a group just do one thing well, and join other groups that will help fill our other needs?