Topic and New Meeting Time??

For our next Tuesday (Sept. 12) I wanted to suggest at least a beginning point for our discussion(and I heartily welcome other suggestions!!) – that we ask ourselves what needs to be looked at in our own congregational life, or practice of faith. In other words, we are often being prompted by others to ask questions and theologically reflect on the gospel, attractional versus incarnational ideas, evangelism, church “leadership”, institutionalism versus organic life, and a host of other subjects. What would we identify as areas needing attention and fresh inquiry in our own congregational life? Maybe we could start our discussion here.

Also, a suggestion has been made to include a evening cohort meeting – and a little informal discussion brought up the idea of maybe the second Tuesday of the month being a morning meeting, and the fourth Tuesday an evening conversation. Ideas? Suggestions?

Peace,

Greg Newton

the gist of the conversation . . .

Good, messy conversation today about Christians being prophetic rather than a chaplain to the culture or a sponsor of other institutions. We wrestled with ideas of engagement, dialogue on political/social matters, and the role Christians are to take in boldly living out a kingdom of God reality and ethic against the backdrop of the way our cultural context is working.

Realistically we feel a tension between having some partisan implications whenever one becomes engaged (i.e. votes for anyone) while maintaining the ability to critique our society in light of God. Can say we tried to discover a way other than non-participation on one hand, and adaptation to our society's status quo on the other.

General agreement that the old dictum of "don't talk about football or politics" is not possible for those seeking to live in the Kingdom of God.