Tag Archives: doubt
Who Comes to NRCC: The Religious Deconstructionist
Recently, the man in our community who helps people find us on the web asked me for help. To help him design Google campaigns, he wanted me to define the people for whom NRCC is a fit. “Who comes here and stays,” he asked. “What kind of people find NRCC good for their souls?” So for an hour or so, he asked me questions and feverishly typed out what I said. Together we came up with four personae (plural for “persona…” who knew?) who find Life at NRCC…
The Community Seeker
The Religious Deconstructor (and it’s companion the Religious Constructor)
The Disillusioned Church Veteran
The Wilderness Wanderer
These are precious people, and this lesson will help us understand each other, and help us help one another move forward on our journeys. Continue reading
A Talk With a Precious 12-Year Old Little Girl
This week I (Doug) had an appointment with one of the 12 year old girls in our community. Her mom brought her by to talk about question she has about God. She’d just been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease and was asking a variation of an ancient trouble spot for Christians: How can God be completely good, and have created a world with such horrendous pain and evil? Continue reading
Two Views of People (Part 2)
There is an old-time hymn titled, “This World is Not My Home.” The sentiment behind the hymn, and behind a common Christian view of humanity, is that we (ie the followers of Jesus) are resident aliens on this earth. We’re just waiting to get snatched away to our true home in heaven.
In this message we examine the problems with this view of things. If we’re resident aliens on the earth, it’s proving pretty difficult for us to be very good citizens here. Continue reading
Two Views of People (Part 1)
We’re doing a series of lessons called “Two Views.” The last lesson we looked at Two Views of God. This week, and for the next couple of weeks, we’ll look at Two Views of People, and after that, Two Views of Jesus.
In these introductory remarks before we begin our second installment, we talk about why we’d poke people’s settled religious views in the eye. Why irritate people over settled religious convictions? The reason is expediency. Our Christian spirituality has grown quite ill over the last few generations, and unless we go back and question our fundamental assumptions about following Jesus, we may never discern where we went wrong. Continue reading
Two Views of God (part 1)
How we think about God profoundly affects how we think of the Christian journey. Today we examine the God of Requirements and Rewards, and the God of Love and Justice. Continue reading
Posted in Two Views...
Tagged dark night, doubt, fear, justice, Love, nature of God, Rethinking Religion
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