What I believe

// March 5th, 2009 // church, theology

Part of what we need to work towards at Westside is a statement of faith. I have been reluctant to work towards definitive statements for myself in the past because they are far too often used in a negative context to exclude rather than as a center of gravity to pull people together.

The problem is without that centering idea, it’s tough to give context to decisions and their impact in community.

So here’s the language I’ve been using for the past year or two in my own mind to understand Jesus.

Jesus is God, stepped into history (for me this is about the divinity of Jesus – it’s what makes sure my faith stays Christian and not just Jesus-based enlightenment)

To save us from ourselves (this is about sin, but trying to understand it not as a list of taboo actions or ideas but as worst tendencies inside me. It’s about the hard edge of Jesus teaching – you’re way is death)

To show us a new way to live (this is enlightenment for me. Jesus is not just religion, Christianity is not just mental ascent to ideological principles. The Jesus way is a new way to live and grow and become)

To dismantle the infrastructure we’ve built between ourselves and God (this is about religion. Jesus comes to help us step over it, to move from the life we’re living directly towards the life we were meant to live)

And invite into relationship with our creator (this is about experience for me. My faith is logical and rational but never completely defined by empirical evidence. There is, always will be, and must be, the personal non-transferable relationship that exists between myself and God)

Still needs work…

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