No Argument Zone

I am officially declaring this blog a no argument zone.

My goal is to share my best thoughts, deepest prayers, purest love for Christ and his people, for the Church and its mission--in service of my determination to be the best pastor to the folk under my charge (and whoever might happen by here).

I will not debate, will delete argumentative comments.

I will share as I can my reading of Scripture, but in a spirit of humility and love: working out my own salvation with fear and trembling; working to count others as better than myself; doing nothing from selfish conceit...

I take a cue from Jack Lemon, whose priest character in Mass Appeal: "I have baptized you, counseled you, married and buried you; but I have never really cared enough to risk losing you" (his defrocked associate had chided him: "there has to be something more important than what your congregation think of you").

I too believe that "we must be allowed the freedom to shape this thing that has shaped us," and indeed I believe Scripture not only grants that freedom but in fact demands it. When the truth is not spoken, people are kept silent, inactive.

As Richard Hayes said, "Scriptural imagination is the faculty that enables us to see the world through the lenses of the Bible’s images and stories—and to be transformed by what we see. To exercise scriptural imagination does not mean living in a fantasy world where we ignore the daily realities around us; rather, it is to have our eyes opened to recognize that the story Scripture tells is the true story of the world. To look at the world through scriptural lenses is to have our vision corrected so that our illusions are stripped away and we see the world as it really is: created by a loving God but fallen into disobedience and alienation. Through the lenses of Scripture, we also see this real world redeemed and transformed by Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. With our vision thus corrected, we can join Paul in discerning “that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). Additionally, scriptural imagination enables us to inhabit the story that Scripture tells. We read the Bible not just to find devotional tidbits, “illustrations” of something we already knew on other grounds, or general principles to shape our lives. Instead, we read it to learn the unfolding story in which we too are characters, and to understand the role we are called to play in it." (Duke Divinity Magazine, Spring, 2013)

Those who are in Charlotte are invited to come to our church on February 5, 2020, at 9:45 or 6:45, for a presentation as to the biblical/theological background to the impending "divorce" in our denomination.

On Sunday, February 9, after church we will have a congregational meeting to discuss he administrative side of the question. Again, you are welcome to attend (lunch will be served but you have to make a reservation).