Well, it seems the firestorm ignited by Rob Bell’s Love Wins just won’t let up.  Now the Southern Baptist Convention has passed a resolution On The Reality of Hell (June, 2011), in which they reaffirm their belief in eternal conscious punishment for all “the unregenerate.”   My thanks to Rachel Held Evans for her highlighting of this resolution (of which I had not heard), and to Mason Slater for linking to Rachel’s post in the first place.  (Incidentally, follow that link to Rachel’s post…she makes an interesting argument that if the SBC is going to insist on the “Biblical foundation” of their doctrine of hell, they have to abandon their doctrine on the “Age of Accountability” which is nowhere in the Bible.  Not my subject today, but it’s a compelling argument IMO).

Anyway, since the SBC did us the favor of putting scripture references into the various clauses of their resolution, I figured this would be a good time to re-examine the New Testament survey on Hell that I did a few years back.  For those who have not already seen it, you can download a table of all the passages I found on hell and punishment, and have a look at my commentary on them.

Yesterday I saw one of the more impressive female posteriors I’ve observed in a while.  The lovely form was displayed to maximum effect in a skirt, the tightness and shortness of which would have earned an appreciative stare in any nightclub without a pole on the stage.  Only thing is, the owner of said glutes is too young to go into a nightclub, and the sighting was not Saturday night on the town, it was Sunday morning at church.

I know…coming from a guy in his late 40s this probably sounds icky in the extreme.  But, my younger sisters, may I have your leave to get personal here?  I’m writing to you in the hopes you will realize that what you wear matters more than you might think (and please understand, I’m addressing you as “younger sisters” not to convey any disrespect or sense of superiority, but rather my genuine, non-sexual fondness for many of you, my friends…I hope you understand).  First, a few disclaimers:

1.  Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image…thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them…

If you are like me there was a time you would have answered “get saved and go to heaven.” That, for me, was what I believed the central message of the bible, Jesus, and his Kingdom to be. I honestly thought my job after I “got saved” was to wait for death or the rapture and hopefully save some other souls along the way.

If you are also like me then you remember when you learned everything you thought was the central message of the bible, Jesus and his Kingdom, was actually distorted and far from reality. In case you haven’t experienced this, the only way I can describe it is with a movie analogy. That movie is the Matrix.

If you recall, and I hope you have seen the Matrix, when Neo is pulled out of the fabricated reality and brought into the truth, it is too much for him to handle and he throws up.

Very similarly when the reality hit me, I too felt like throwing up. It was a “Matrix” moment for me that resulted with an entirely new outlook on this world, my role within, and what it means to be a citizen of the Kingdom of God.

My good friend Kurt Willems just launched a funny post over at The Pangea Blog about reasons “You Might be an Evangelical Reject if…“  I got a good giggle out of the post and many of its follow-on comments, because I certainly have found myself in the “Evangelical Reject” camp with some regularity category myself.  But the post got me to thinking…what kind of church am I really part of?

That’s a question without a simple answer.  I attend Sunday worship services regularly at a local church where we have chosen to plug in as a family.  I enjoy the fellowship there on at least a superficial level; I sing with their praise singers, I participate in Sunday School discussions, and I am gradually developing friendships with a few folks that may, some day, go beyond casual conversation.  But while the conversation is ongoing and the door is not entirely shut (yet anyway), I probably cannot be a member there–or ever participate in a teaching or leadership capacity–precisely because my theology does not conform to the prototypical Evangelical statement of faith that is a condition of “membership.”

Nor have I found any real alternatives among other sorts of fellowships.  I don’t fit into the Catholic or high-church Protestant molds because my Anabaptist proclivities don’t mesh with notions of Apostolic Succession and the sacraments; I don’t fit into a mainline Protestant setting because I still hold a higher view of Scripture’s witness to (for example) such things as sexual ethics than many of them now countenance, and I find this same problem causes me to clash with the Anabaptist-descended Mennonites I’ve checked in with over the years.  While I’m too “liberal” for the “conservatives” among whom I now worship, I’ve found with equal certainty that I’m too “conservative” for the “liberals,” as well.

None of this prevents me from choosing a group with whom to worship.  I think regular assembly is important, not only for my own spiritual life, but for the example I choose to set for my wife and kids.  But it does seem to preclude the sort of spiritual give-and-take that is required for fellowship to go to the next level…and by this I mean the sort of relationship in which one can seriously, candidly, and respectfully engage with other brothers & sisters on important matters of faith and thought and practice, even when the discussants disagree.  It took me nine years to find anybody with whom I could pursue faith at that level in my last church, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised it’s not happening in the first year at a new place.

But what is weird, and the reason for the title of this post, is that what I have not found in person at the local church, I have found with some of you online.  The challenge of re-examining a scriptural passage, or critiquing a long-held doctrine, or daring to get serious about a point of discipleship…these things that ought to be part of anyone’s “church experience” are exactly what a few of you blogging partners have been for me.  In a paradoxical way, I find fellowship in these dialogs, with some of you whom I’ve never met face to face, to be far more vital to my own spiritual thinking than most interchanges I have with people who are breathing the same oxygen in the same room.  You are becoming, for me at least, the Church Virtual…invisible to me (except maybe on Skype), separated from me and from each other by hundreds or even thousands of miles, but a fellowship of great significance nonetheless.

Is this healthy?  In all honesty I’m not entirely sure.  It seems to me that true Scriptural fellowship ought to involve the breaking of bread, and prayer and worship and teaching, that happen in a decidedly physical, local context.  I hope and pray that one day I’ll be able to share those things with some of you.  But in the meantime, I thank you for your engagement.  It has, for me at least, been a true lifeline to staying engaged in the faith.  Peace and blessings be upon you!

Over the last year or so i’ve been experimenting with the different spirtiual disciplines. Practicing the Sabbath has been one of three that I have found to be an amazing addition to my life. The other two are fixed hour prayer and silence / solitude, which I will write about at a later time.

The book that I was turned on to as one of the best on the subject is Abraham Hescel’s “The Sabbath.” Before going further I want to share a few quotes from this book that stood out to me:

“It (Sabbath) is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world.”

“Last in creation, first in intention, the Sabbath is the end of the creation of heaven and earth.”

“For the Sabbath is joy, holiness, and rest; joy is part of this world; holiness and rest are something of the world to come.”

“Sabbath is not a date but an atmosphere”

“For the Sabbath is a day of harmony and peace, peace between man and man, peace within man, and peace with all things.”

“Rest on the Sabbath as if all your work were done; rest even from the thought of labor.”