We started our discussion this week by having everybody share those previous experiences that led them to where they are now, and what they're hopeful for looking down the road. Many of us discussed previous church experiences with the word "conservative" or "fundamental", and other fun, happy, weighty words. Regarding hope, many of us have hope for our group, or what it represents. Hope that what we've let go can and will be replaced with something more beautiful.
Adam brought up Shane's discussion on the word "repent" in Jesus for President. That word can carry many different meanings and emotions, but Shane suggests that originally it was used as "change your mind". So we discussed the idea of going down a path, saying sorry (repenting), and then doing it again.
To round this out, Ron suggested that we watch "The Gods Aren't Angry" by Rob Bell. Here is a small clip,but it seems the full version is only available on dvd at, yeah, you guessed it, www.thegodsarentangry.com. Ron, did you have another resource for this? Anybody else?
So that was what I got in brief. We're going to keep trucking on our discussion of the book next week, particularly as it deals with the year of jubilee, apparent Old Testament socialism, and crop circles. ...What?
4 comments:
Hey y'all, I own this dvd, so maybe if we all wanted to spend a rockin' night together...
oops, yeah, we forgot to say that we have a copy as well!
I don't know about anyone else, but I am really excited about continuing our discussion of "Jesus for President" this week.
The book has been really awesome, but it feels like we've been pussyfooting around our discussion of it and really haven't given it the attention it deserves.
The whole idea of Jesus stepping into our world, declaring JUBILEE, and sticking it to the man is REALLY AWESOME!!!!
I am finding myself sharing so much of the content of our current book, 'Jesus for President' in conversation with others I hang out with periodically over coffee or lunch...( usually at the Liberty Market...wink) It's interesting to me how often the opportunity has presented itself to offer an alternative 'world view' or challenge the current perspective and status quo. (You all know I hate doing that!)
One thing that Brian McLaren suggests in his book, "Everything Must Change" is to begin to reorient ourselves to the gospel narratives which have been altered, glossed over or largely forgotten in the modern era. He encourages us to examine and replace some of the useless or harmful stories we have culturally absorbed over the centuries...with more accurate 'framing' stories concerning our past, present and our future...
I believe that Shane Claiborne does an amazing job of presenting us with these new perspectives and conversations...making the Kingdom of God and the Way of Jesus so much more alive and yet subversive than I have ever experienced...I love talking about this stuff right now. I am much more excited about sharing these concepts (when appropriate) and the dialogues that develop as a response, than the 'other’ more traditional perspectives I have lived under and felt stuck with for so long.
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