Tried With Fire

I finally started reading  Strong and Weak by Andy Crouch this morning. I had gotten the book on the strength of this podcast interview . His concept of authority and vulnerability is intriguing. Based on the following grid, he argues that we need both. If both are absent or one trait is taken away, we can no longer flourish . Yes, it's a popular buzzword, but think of it as simply being able to fully live as image-bearers of God. pg. 27 Flourishing is NOT : -  the perfect life as seen on TV commercials. - health. - growth. - affluence. - gentrification. Flourishing IS : - a description of a community , not just the property of an individual. (I found this aspect very interesting.) - the presence of true authority, which is the capacity for meaningful action  and a gift given by God to his image bearers. "The sorrow of the whole human story is not that we have authority, it is the way we have misused and neglected authority." (pp. 35, 39) - the p...

To begin, please read this post -  Presxit: The Church of the Normal .  This is so good that I don't want to take away from it by trying to paraphrase what the author wrote so well. However in case you didn't click the link, in a nutshell he is calling the church to greater empathy. Not at the expense of orthodoxy but perhaps a better way to "deploy our orthodoxy." If every presbytery asked every ministerial candidate what it means to love the people of God and how that would play out in their ministry, and if every pastor and every session committed themselves to creating a culture of nurturing, accepting, and accommodating diversity in their congregation, then it would open the way for truer understanding of ourselves and others by leading us behind the generalities of norms and expectations. It would lead us to encounter individuals on their own terms, as they’d have themselves be known. Creating such a culture starts with active empathizing, and it starts wit...