Believe Differently

A comment from Deb got me thinking about why I have put this site together. She cheekily suggested that I ought to get out more and that interacting with people on a website did not necessarily count! Well I agree, nothing substitutes for authentic Christian fellowship and this site is certainly not about doing that. Her comment though, did get me thinking as to what it is about.

It is my hope that this site will create a space for conversation about God and God related matters – which by my understanding does not leave much out! But more than that, I hope it will draw together people with very different perspectives and outlook.

Engaging with Christians of different traditions – and people of different faiths – has brought home to me just how limited my understanding of God is. I have found it a truly positive, and faith challenging but affirming, experience to meet others who share my passion for Christ but work out their faith from a totally different perspective.  What’s more, it has given a fresh dynamic to a faith which was, in my case, becoming stale and stagnant.

God has become exciting again for me. Listening to him speak to me through others very different to myself has challenged presumptions, shocked, surprised and even scared me at times. In short, it has brought my faith back to life. God has become interesting again. And surely this is how our experience of him (her) should be?

Remember how it was when you first became a Christian, when everything was all new? If your experience was anything like mine, all of your preconceived presumptions of him (her) were undoubtedly challenged and I suspect, he (she) blew your mind! Well, why should that stop being our experience of God? I do not think it should. In my opinion, God should daily challenge our horizons.

When was the last time you changed your mind on something you believed about God? I would, perhaps, suggest that that was the last time you truly engaged with him.

For me, I have come to realize that I have a tendency, no matter how hard I try to resist it, to keep constructing, what amounts to, my own conceptual idol and image of God fabricated using my own theologies, beliefs and ideas. The only sure way I have found to dismantle it is through dialog and conversation - either directly or indirectly through literature (which is why I am a bit of book addict) - with those who think very differently about him (her). It is my hope that this site will stimulate more of that type of conversation.

This will only work though, if you guys pitch in. I know it is early days but site stats indicate that way more people visit this site than comment (don’t worry you are anonymous I can only get numbers not names). No pressure, please keep visiting, but I would love for you to share your views and opinions. None of us have God sussed but we all have something to share.

With that in mind, and based on feedback, the site has been upgraded to include, at the bottom of the page, a list of links to all the latest comments posted. Some people had told me that they wanted to comment on posts but felt that they had missed their chance as the post had now moved to the end of the list and become out of date. This new functionality should help resurrect conversations on old posts. Also, I keep a close monitor on new posts and I will definitely bring our attention back to anything interesting posted on earlier conversations.

So please, keep visiting but also share your thoughts. Good old Saint Paul writes that:

[Whenever we come together,] each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. [And that...] all things should be done for [our] edification.1

Surely this is also true when we assemble together using this new media - although, I do understand sharing a tongue might be a touch tricky!

See Also: Theology to the People!; Let’s have your comments!

1. 1 Cor 14:26[NASB] [↩]