Comments on: The No Pants Gospel

By: lukedalach

lukedalach — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 18:13:47 +0000

Good summary, Chris. I also really was impacted by the idea that it’s the authority of God
that’s behind our authority of the scriptures debates. Is God speaking
and do we put ourselves under our good Father? I think that Bill brought that out early on and Mandy at the end. Only thought…perhaps there is a bit of hyperbole?…I’m not sure that Scot is on a tirade or if Bill is radically re-envisioning :). Good to see you last week!

By: ChrisMorton82

ChrisMorton82 — Sat, 01 Mar 2014 00:37:42 +0000

AreRjr I think Scot is primarily concerned about people using the word “kingdom” differently than Jesus did. Are those decisive moments helpful? Encouraging? Inspiring? Sure. But are they what Jesus meant when he said “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand?” I’m not convinced.

For me, the problem is when people try to manufacture a moment (through showmanship or emotional manipulation) because they like the result. Powerful and redemptive moments can and should happen, but they are not the goal.

Kingdom means a lot of things but at it’s root, it means “the dome under which God is king.” We should strive to have a kingdom LIFE, not moments.

By: jimcmartini

jimcmartini — Fri, 28 Feb 2014 21:12:06 +0000

Pope Francis weighs in on this very topic in Joy of the Gospel paragraph 89
Isolation, which is a version of immanentism, can find expression in a false autonomy which has no place for God. But in the realm of religion it can also take the form of a spiritual consumerism tailored to one’s own unhealthy individualism. The return to the sacred and the quest for spirituality which mark our own time are ambiguous phenomena. Today, our challenge is not so much atheism as the need to respond adequately to many people’s thirst for God, lest they try to satisfy it with alienating solutions or with a disembodied Jesus who demands nothing of us with regard to others. Unless these people find in the Church a spirituality which can offer healing and liberation, and fill them with life and peace, while at the same time summoning them to fraternal communion and missionary fruitfulness, they will end up by being taken in by solutions which neither make life truly human nor give glory to God.

By: AreRjr

AreRjr — Fri, 28 Feb 2014 20:56:51 +0000

“Pleated pants use the church to manufacture experiences”???….actually I see people involved in what you might call Kingdom Moments as building more health into the body of Christ…being a people of reconciliation reflects God well and is at the very heart of God…whether it’s God to man or man to man bridge building, I do find it living in the center of God’s will to be freeing people to serve God….Just my thoughts/comments to add to this discussion

By: MAGuyton

MAGuyton — Fri, 28 Feb 2014 20:29:47 +0000

Nice summary!