It's been a busy time but I thought I'd share a couple of observations on two events that i was involved in last week. I dipped into the conference of RUN last week, leading a couple of seminars on Islam and was really impressed with the people that they had gathered there. Despite the rash that came over me as I walked into the atrium of what was ostensibly a mega-church, there was a real generosity and welcome in tone to all of the input, to the hosts and the delegates as a whole.RUN have clearly done a great job in connecting with a mainstream evangelical/charismatic constituency and provided a network that pushes the boat out on thinking and practice into that constituency. The keynote speakers Gerard Kelly and Brian McLaren were their usual impressive selves, basically orienting the church around a vision of integral mission: a church that makes a difference in every area of society. Gerard was especially strong in reminding us that this transformation begins at home and we dare not neglect our worship and community (in whatever package this is manifest!) in pursuit of this mission of God's.
The previous day I'd hosted Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat for a BLAH seminar on Romans. Following their glorious commentary on Colossians, they shared some thoughts on this seminal book for the Reformation, salvation by grace and the evangelical gospel. It was hugely challenging to hear their perspectives on the epistle as a radical tract for community against the empire and dismissing any simplistic view that Romans is all about individual salvation. I've linked to one of the targums that they read, on Romans 13, which gives you a flavour. Their material is the best of biblical exegesis: rooted in historical context, demanding a journey into the text from the listener and applied to some of the real issues of today.
I wasn't entirely convinced by everything that they had to say, but they do clearly have a significant contribution for us as a church in the West. There is a danger of a gospel reduced to the political and becoming severed from the life of worship and tradition in some of their emphases, and perhaps an overly counter-cultural model that fails to pastor and affirm what is "established". I wonder, juxtaposing the two days, whether there are two streams that need to feed off each other. A clear-thinking, politically relevant church married to spiritual passion. In a context of interfaith division, I have the sneaky feeling that sometimes the hardest, most unbridgeable barriers are between Christian evangelicals and liberals......Can we hear God speak to us across those borders, let alone across the borders between religions?
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