Welcome to our blog! Here's a place where we can raise questions, discuss, wrestle, and otherwise engage with ideas about what this "followers of Christ" thing is all about. So...join in!
This week, Jim, Megan, Kim and I talked a bit about the word "Christian" and about the impact of spiritual tradtions on a our daily lives. McLaren talks about the Abrahamic disciplines as a way to interrupt our daily routines. He suggests that the routine-breaking is necessary for us to "awaken" to the presence of God, and that the Abrahmic disciplines of prayer, fasting, keeping the Sabbath, the sacred meal, pilgrimage, observance of sacred seasons, and giving are all vehicles to help us do this.
The spiritual exercises for chapter 3 are quite interesting--in a very challenging sort of way. Here's the first one:
"Ponder the significance of Abraham as the partiarch of our planet's three great monotheistic faiths. Think of (or find) a friend of the other two Abrahamic faiths. Seek them out. Tell them about this chapter , and ask them about the role and significance of Abraham in their faith. Don't argue. Simply listen, learn, and seek to build common ground based on this shared source of inspiration."
At the end of chapter 4 is another exercise that I'm working on: "As an experiment, try avoiding the words Christian and Christianity for the next week or month or year (your choice). Instead, use the terms follower (or disciple) of Christ and the movement Jesus started. How would this change in terminology affect you? What problems would it cause? What insights might it produce?"
Did you try either of these exercises? Will you? Did you try another? What happened?
Share!
Beth
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