Can I share something with you? Something you can keep to yourself? Well I’m considering radically changing our house church, and restarting, or rebooting if you will. I’ve heard that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. So it’s time to make changes. Since leaving my Charismatic group I’ve accelerated my deconstruction and I think it’s been hard on those that were/are with me. But there is no turning back for me I’m convinced that what I’ve been taught is incorrect and not reflective of Jesus Christ.
I’m committed to truly knowing Jesus even if it cost me everything. Part of this journey is letting go of ways that have been ingrained in me as to how church should be, how often, what days. In some ways I feel lost, but in my lostness, in my wilderness, it’s there that I always seem to hear God’s voice. It’s there that I find my way back home. So embrace the feeling of being lost it’s a good place to be.
Since leaving my Charismatic group I’ve rejected the following:
- a retributive god
- all hierarchy (within the body of Christ that views one as higher, better, greater than another)
- all forms of control
- all forms of power
- all forms of manipulation
- all forms of sin management
- all forms of legalism
- all forms of ignorance
- all forms of success
- all forms of exclusion
I firmly believe that in the body of Christ we are all equal, and the only great one is Jesus (and he defined greatness by becoming human, powerless, and a servant). Yes I still believe that those that claim to follow Christ should gather together at the Table of the Lord where every one is equal and to bare each others burdens. That is what I think church is and should be.
I don’t know where you are at in your journey but know this, where ever you are I’ll always be your friend. For the record Yes I believe that God heals, and that the Holy Spirit moves in our presence, and brings about restoration in our lives. Yes I still believe in the gifts of the Spirit, I have no intentions to abandon my Charismatic roots (although I’ve never been anything like the crazies or extreme, that doesn’t mean that I don’t hold those views).
Please keep me in your prayers as I truly value you and those that dare to come along with me on this Path that I have set. You are here because you are a seeker, like the wise men looking for the God that will bring peace on earth. We’ve been lead to him, so now lets live like him and continue his work of bringing peace on earth.
May Christ be with you and your family,
Robert
the Spirit in his theology quite misses Paul’s own concerns and emphases…My ultimate concern, for myself and for the contemporary church, is to persuade that we would do well to return to our biblical roots on this matter, if the church is going to count for anything at all in the new millennium that lies just around the corner. – Gordon Fee, God’s Empowering Presence, pg 13
On The Path 