How do we make sense of the 'deconstruction' phenomenon we're seeing right now?
In short, people's worlds are getting bigger and the Christian faith of their teenage years is staying the same size. So...something's gotta give. What happens when the Christian story we received when we were younger turns out to be too small--too small for the complexities of everyday life, too small for the complexities of our own hearts? We have two obvious options:
1. Shrink your world so it fits your simple teenage gospel and insist that every complexity you face from now on can be solved with that one simple formula. (Then go help the world become as enlightened as you are.)
OR...
2. Let your world keep growing and leave the gospel you once believed behind. It was naive, anyway, at best. At worst, false and repressive. You know better now. (Now go help the world become as enlightened as you are.)
OR MAYBE...
“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches."
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"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a seed falls into the earth and dies, it remains what it is; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."
VB Fellows is a faith-based leadership development and apprenticeship program for recent college grads in Virginia Beach, VA. This is our podcast.
[This episode was originally released on Ross's Mere Sanity podcast. You can find the transcript at MereSanity.com.]
How do we make sense of the 'deconstruction' phenomenon we're seeing right now?
In short, people's worlds are getting bigger and the Christian faith of their teenage years is staying the same size. So...something's gotta give. What happens when the Christian story we received when we were younger turns out to be too small--too small for the complexities of everyday life, too small for the complexities of our own hearts? We have two obvious options:
1. Shrink your world so it fits your simple teenage gospel and insist that every complexity you face from now on can be solved with that one simple formula. (Then go help the world become as enlightened as you are.)
OR...
2. Let your world keep growing and leave the gospel you once believed behind. It was naive, anyway, at best. At worst, false and repressive. You know better now. (Now go help the world become as enlightened as you are.)
OR MAYBE...
“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches."
+
"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a seed falls into the earth and dies, it remains what it is; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."
VB Fellows is a faith-based leadership development and apprenticeship program for recent college grads in Virginia Beach, VA. This is our podcast.
[This episode was originally released on Ross's Mere Sanity podcast. You can find the transcript at MereSanity.com.]