Finding Faith: A Search For What Makes Sense

I just started reading one of Brian McLaren's first books, Finding Faith. The book is for people who are searching for God, but find traditional Christian "apologetics" more an obstacle than a bridge. I will post more as I continue reading.

The Butterfly

On my routine drive to work today, I noticed an extraordinary amount of butterflies on the side of the highways. I thought about the beauty of nature and how the Bible says that nature tells the story of God and announces what His hands have made. Nature is a song of many parts but one theme and one verse: "God is."
I also pondered about the unique service at Lakewood on the first sunday of this year titled: The Year of the Butterfly: the year of metamorphosis, a time of rebirth.
Sam Sanders

Liminal Space

Liminal space is the place of inbetweenness, of insecurity. Liminal space is emptiness and nowhere, it is uncertainty and chaos,it is a place of discomfort and unrest.Liminality is a place of dying and rebirth, of metamorphosis, the place where the caterpillar spins its cocoon and disappears from view.Nothing good or creative emerges from business as usual. Much of the work of God is to get people into liminal space and to keep them there long enough so they can learn something essential.
This is the invitation of God, to move
- from comfort to insecurity
- from what we know to what we have yet to discover
- from what we are good at to what we might fail at
- from safety to a place of risk

The Road To The Cross

This was a very uplifting service for me. We discussed the failures of life and the failures of sin. Each person received a candle when they entered the sanctuary. The candles were brought to the cross; we brought our failures to Jesus. What a powerful image.
Sam Sanders

This act in the service was a profound invitation. Mark Shivers, a Ph.D. student at Vanderbilt and a personal friend of mine wrote:
"I am intentional about holistic invitations where our whole mind, heart and body are all involved in conversional acts. I think this connection is important and invitiation at its best gets at this..."
Sam Sanders