Call for papers – Winter 2015
Hey everyone, what do you want to read and discuss here? Anyone have an idea for an article to submit? If not, then you will have to listen to Ben, Joe and myself spew the venom of poisonous attacks that we learned from being trained by Chris (I am kidding!) Still this blog will continue as is until more people submit articles. This is the time to add your voice here!
Here are some ideas so far:
- Forests list of topics
- Joe’s Roland paper and the responses he got
- The James and Rebecca Kim open letter series
- The 50th Anniversary blue book lectures
Thoughts? What do our silent readers want to read?
#2 – Joe’s Roland paper. But all the topics are good. May I suggest bite size pieces so as not to inundate us with a sense of helplessness, because there seems to be multiple separate yet related issues (such as Forest’s question about MBF regarding turning one spouse against the other), that has either been forgotten, buried, side-stepped, ignored, denied, or a combination of the above.
#2. I would like to see more of the leaders’ own words exposed.
Here are several ideas I’ve been mulling over, but haven’t been able to invest in putting an article together:
-Joy in worship (especially on Sundays). Visiting different churches since leaving UBF has left me with a bad impression about going to church. There is so much talk about people being in storms, being broken, addicted, etc., and while we are definitely in need of help, it’s not what I want to hear all the time. I want to celebrate with joy the victory and power of the Lord Jesus, his kingdom, his coming, his people and his salvation.
-Discovering Christianity after leaving UBF. I was told “Don’t lose your faith!” But my faith was intertwined with UBFism and the “God of UBF” in ways I hadn’t been aware of before. Leaving has been exciting and I’ve learned many new and wonderful things I’d like to share. I’m glad to lose that other faith behind.
-Approaching and learning from scripture according to the apostolic teachings. Another aspect of teaching in churches I’ve seen in UBF and in local churches outside UBF is teaching the Bible without Jesus as the center and without the basis of the apostolic teachings. Sunday messages largely use scriptures to teach moral lessons and encourage people, but not from the place where Christ is the cornerstone built on the foundation of the apostles. (for example, using Psalm 1 to teach people to just read the Bible daily–i.e., using the words “the Law” and the “bible” synonymously and erroneously).
-Fellowship. Not with a text (and having all other social relations tied to how I interact with said person or group tied to a text), but fellowship that is described in 1 John 1:1-4, for example. This also strongly influences what I am hoping to find in a local church, a communal interaction the body of Christ, where the person and Spirit of Christ is what binds us, not just a text. I often ask myself, what would Jesus do in the world today? If the church is his body, what should it be doing (together and in the world)? It’s not just sitting for 40 minutes listening to the same teacher/star pastor every week. Also related to 2 Corinthians 3-4 which talk about the move from text to person, from law to spirit.
-N. T. Wright’s “How God Became King” largely influential to me to learn of Jesus in the gospels and the kingdom he spoke about.
-The grace found in exposing and confronting what is broken or sinful in the church (evidenced in the Pauline epistles, all which confronted contemporary, real problems, but which led to revelations of the grace of God in Jesus and so healing and growth for the churches). We should not avoid issues or dismiss them, as many experienced in UBF for decades under excuses of being works of Satan, discouraging, negative, dishonorable, ungodly, and so on.
-Being “earthbound.” That is, not using the message of the gospel to create a fantasy of fleeing from the world and condemning the world, but how scripture speaks of a new earth (as well as new heaven), God coming to earth and dwelling with his people (not people fleeing the earth), and from that caring for and showing compassion to the world. (The message of condemning the world and having a hope of being in heaven one day is another message I’m sad to hear from local churches too often)
Charles, I really look forward to these articles. The things you are describing are precisely what I have been wrestling with over the last few years.
I’m finding Jeff Clarke’s writings helpful and enlightening. He touches of many of these issues. http://www.jeffkclarke.com/