…I’d be interested in knowing where you are at on your journey. So this is the interactive part of the blog experience…
In the comments, feel free to answer any or all of the following questions:
- Are you a Christ-follower, agnostic, atheist, pagan, or something else? How would you identify yourself? Alright, don’t be a wise guy: if you’re “something else”, say WHAT you are. Don’t leave us guessing. 🙂
- If you consider yourself a Christ-follower, what does “church” look like for you? Are you in an institutional setting, living room, meeting at a coffee shop, or somewhere in between?
- Do you feel like God speaks to you, or that you hear Him? How does He talk to you?
- Tying in with the previous question…other than the Bible, give some other avenue through which God speaks to you, or through which you seem to hear spiritual truth. (Examples: movies, other books, music, the wind in the trees…whatev.)
No judgment here–just curiosity. Where are you at?
Wayward Son
Musician. Composer. Recovering perfectionist. Minister-in-transition. Lover of puns. Hijacker of rock song references. Questioner of the status quo.
I'm not really a rebel. Just a sincere Christ-follower with a thirst for significance that gets me into trouble. My quest has taken me over the fence of institutional Christianity. Here are some of my random thoughts along the way. Read along, join in the conversation. Just be nice.
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1. I am a Jesus-follower
2. Church is wherever 2-3 are gathered to express the nature of God's Kingdom. Most recently I have been involved in a community that mostly meets in people's apartments and/or the common rooms of apartment complexes and the formats of the meetings are quite diverse.
3. Yes, God communicates to me in my spirit (by His Spirit) and through His Word.
4. In prayer I sometimes get a sense of what God is communicating to me. Sometime with words, phrases, and images. Other times just "knowing" something.
1. Christ-follower.
2. "Church" is an independent Christian church of the Restoration Movement; i.e., we take communion every Sunday.
3. Yes, God sometimes speaks to me. Or, maybe he frequently speaks to me and I sometimes hear him.
4. God has spoken to me primarily through the circumstances of my life. I have learned to recognize the subtle things God does that say, "Go this way." Sometimes I have heard God essentially whisper in my ear. I've had to learn that the difference between God's voice and the voice inside my head is that God's voice is always accompanied by calm and peace, while the voice in my head is usually accompanied by some anxiety.
1. Chrasmatic Christian
2. "Church"? at this time in my life (50ish) totally confused. I go to an institutional church
3. God does speak to me, I just fail to listen 🙁
A lot of movies and even TV shows sometimes. The movie that started made my heart cry for freedom, please don't laugh to hard, but is MAMA MIA!!!!! I started crying at the beginning and during dancing queen, I almost sobed. The beauty, the hearts desire for a whole family, even dancing unhibiilty, the beauty of the Greek Isle and How our choices touch so many, is some of the things that spoke to me.
thanks for asking.
Ok, I'll bite!
1) I consider myself a follower of Christ.
2) These days "church" is a lot like… well… anytime 2 or more are gathered together. Dinner parties … bbqs … coffee and pie… nothing set in time, or place. Maybe that will come later? But right now, we're just breathing in and breathing out.
3)I do believe that God speaks to me. how? dang… that ones not an easy question. "still small voice" … doesn't really convey what I'm thinking about this one. i mean, I don't hear him audibly if that's what you're wondering. But sometimes I do hear from Him through other people… … mostly it's just a spiritual "knowing" – connection with Him.
4)I do hear spiritual truth through music. And through a lot of the blog postings on this here interweb… when you've thought something and felt something but don't necessarily have the words to express it – then you stumble on someone's blog (like yours) and they are saying the exact thing that you were thinking or feeling – it's so encouraging hear that truth echoing in other lives.
First – I am a Christian. I don't find that the latest "appropriate" word is any more or less discriptive of what I am. (I am also a housewife)
I attend a local Baptist Church, although I am not a member. I was raised in a Nazarine church…with a bit of Lutheran when the gparents came to vist. I go to the church my husband feels the most comfortable at. That being said, it was definitly a collaborative decision. I enjoy the pastor, both as a speaker and a person.
God has spoken to me…mainly through other people, once very specifically through his word and once in an almost audible voice.
I have prayed for the gift of tongues…but although I have seen it,(only once in a believable fashion) I have not experienced any sort of BIG thing. (no road to Damascus for me) My relationship with Jesus has definitly been about comfort, that I have literally felt wrapped in his arms against his chest.
I wish that I could explain it better to non-believers.
I wandered away from Jesus during my 20's and came back rather gradually. I am annoyed by rules. (which makes the whole Baptist thing a bit odd)
I have wonderful conversations with my kids that leave me breathless…I worry that I might say something that causes them to turn away from God…I pray about that.
1. Christ-follower. Grew up in Canada's United Church, lapsed, my wife in my 30's, went Anglican/Episcopalian instead because, really, they had a better choir (we both sing), worked for a number of years as a lay employee at an Anglican parish. As such, working at church pretty much spoiled it for me – only those of us who have worked as lay or clergy can truly know what I mean.
I'm now nominally Anglican, but really, I don't get much out of attendance on Sundays, or for that matter, any other time. I go because my children hector me to take them – wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all say that?
Anyway, church now looks like a pick-and-choose kinda thing, instead of a full embrace of the institution.
I haven't heard or felt God in 12 years. I miss it. I yearn.
Heck, some days I'm not even sure I believe in God. But the teachings of Christ inspire and motivate me, and trying to live out those values makes my life more fufilling, even though I always fall short.
Since I don't heard/feel God speaking to me, I can't say much about where else I might find spiritual truth. However, when I look in the eyes of my wife or children and they smile and radiate love back to me as I love them, maybe I get close to it.
I think of myself often as a freelance Christian. I'm certainly not tied up in either a denomination or a creed/statement of faith anymore.
I am surprised, however, by how few of my kind – that is, burned out from a mainline denomination (RC, Episcopalian, Lutheran, Presbyterian etc) – seem to be congregating at such places as here and Communitas and the like.
I've babbled on far too long. Hope you get something out of what I said, Jeff.
1. I want to be a Christ follower. Most times, I fall so short. But I see it as a beautiful way to live. Many times I still label myself as an agnostic; my doubts are held together with my faith, in one hand. I guess that makes me a Christian agnostic or a agnostic Christian.
2. I don't know. There's the agnostic in me speaking out. I meet together regularly with a group of people who I have talked about being my church. However, their doubts are so loud, really in fact, that is all they seem to have and it has left me drowning sometimes. I want to be with the people of faith as well, I want to enter into the spiritual practices with a community of people. At this point, I would be happy if that were in a living room, a bookstore or an institutional church. But there is no way I will be traditional in my participation in a traditional church.
3. I do and it is just in the deepest part of my soul that speaks so loud that I can't ignore it. That sounds mystical but what can I say? I am drawn to the Christian mystics. Most of the time, these conversations happen in the van while I am driving. Many times, I have started the conversation with, "I don't even know if there is a God but if there is, here's what I want to say to you today" My soul vibrates with the reminder of things in my life that can't be explained except that there is God.
4. I love the spiritual practice of conversation. Other people reveal God to me. A lot of times that comes through relating stories, books, movies, music. There is no way that I can deny knowing God through creative expression. If I will ever pull back from the noise of endless information, I am usually rewarded with a deep sense of the presence of God.
Thanks, everyone, for your responses (and the thread is still open for anyone else who wants to chime in).
I'm foregoing personal responses to these comments because your thoughts, feelings and opinions are your own, and because I specifically inivited you to share them, I think the respectful thing to do is to let them all stand on their own merit.
That said, you've all given me lots to think about. I imagine I'll be revisiting this thread often, because there are lots of great seeds for future discussions here. Thanks so much for sharing!