This is part two of our three-part series on Fitch’s upcoming book: The Church of Us vs. Them.
We talk about our first concerts, “making a decision for Christ,” and how to reimagine salvation in terms of witness and presence.
The contemporary church has used markers like lifestyle practices (no drinking, no dancing, etc) or issues stances (human sexuality, women in ministry, etc) to be an indicator of salvation. How do we move beyond this “enemy making machine”?
Also, find us at the Missio Alliance gathering in a few months: www.missioalliance.org/gatherings/aw…thering-2019/
Missio Alliance Comment Policy
The Missio Alliance Writing Collectives exist as a ministry of writing to resource theological practitioners for mission. From our Leading Voices to our regular Writing Team and those invited to publish with us as Community Voices, we are creating a space for thoughtful engagement of critical issues and questions facing the North American Church in God’s mission. This sort of thoughtful engagement is something that we seek to engender not only in our publishing, but in conversations that unfold as a result in the comment section of our articles.
Unfortunately, because of the relational distance introduced by online communication, “thoughtful engagement” and “comment sections” seldom go hand in hand. At the same time, censorship of comments by those who disagree with points made by authors, whose anger or limited perspective taints their words, or who simply feel the need to express their own opinion on a topic without any meaningful engagement with the article or comment in question can mask an important window into the true state of Christian discourse. As such, Missio Alliance sets forth the following suggestions for those who wish to engage in conversation around our writing:
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One of our favorite tenants is that “an enemy is someone whose story we haven’t heard.” Very often disagreements and rants are the result of people talking past rather than to one another. Everyone’s perspective is intimately bound up with their own stories – their contexts and experiences. We encourage you to couch your comments in whatever aspect of your own story might help others understand where you are coming from.
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