Distractions to the message

OK, I planned on writing a short post this month about the state of evangelicalism in North America, then a few key individuals died… John MacArthur, Hulk Hogan, Ozzy Osbourne, to name a few.

Spiderman was a big deal in my early years, and then again later on, but I digress. The others were all key to my life and formative thinking in both identity and faith as a young man. And then the big one, James Dobson. I lost track of what I would like to say at that point, just too much material to cover. They both formed a rigid religious mindset for me and challenged the norm created by this mindset, all at the same time.

So, here you go. My message for some time has been that Jesus people need to show they know Jesus, and that means a centralized (center set) way of faith. That opposes a building more gates and walls that are based on -isms and moral safeguards (bound set). This has been a developing mindset for me, a literal metanoia (change of mind/heart), for a number of years. It has meant hard conversations, good study, and a lamenting the past. It has also been freeing, especially when I get to talk to others about how they walk in their faith. I often refer to it as kingdom thinking, but I know that does not fit in all contexts. What my challenge often becomes when discussing faith with others: Begin and end with Jesus.

I am not too excited about dogmatic statements of faith, but this one struck my a short while ago. It is not dogmatic, rather it starts the conversation closer to the middle. It was shared by friends of the Parish Collective (www.parishcollective.org), a group which has been instrumental in my growth over the past 10 years or so. (Shoutout to my cousin Dwight Friesen!)

Have a look at this version of evangelical thinking: https://www.evangelicalconfession2024.com/

So, what about what I was originally going to talk about this month? And what about all those dead people I mentioned? Well, they are dead, but not gone. When I went through a time of brokenness, mental and spiritual, there were a lot of things/people/ideas I knew I was confronting in the process. Old strongholds (old faith term), rigid thinking, masks that did not fit. I still confront disciples of old voices, still have moments of old thinking, and still have remorse for the impact these things had on my life and teaching.

One of my favourite restoration stories is with my own children. Apologies for terrible expressions of discipline called love, strange household standards that tried to wash the uniqueness out of their souls, and of course, not showing them fully what living in freedom actually looked like. That is a hard road, but good Lord has it been good.

What’s the message? Taking a short walk through my past posts shows me that I have already said it. A few times. If love does not resonate through all we say, then we are only adding to the distractions. So, if you haven’t read it already, here is your opportunity, a reminder to say what we meant to say:

What we meant to say