I've been sitting down with an assortment of different people and bouncing off them the idea of a new church community based out near Mernda.
Being a nerd, I've put together a keynote presentation with about six slides and as we've sat in cafes around Mernda, Yarrambat or Doreen quaffing our coffees and chatting I've gone through the points on my presentation! Am I a nerd or what?
Three of the points in my presentation seemed to particularly resonate with people:
1. We want to engage life-giving conversation around meaning and identity: We want Haven to be a safe space for those thinking about or deconstructing elements of their faith and working through what they believe.
Our grandparents lived in the certain and confident (western) world of scientific modernity. Their great-grandparents lived in the late stages of Christendom. For them, there definitely was a God, the scriptures were 100% certain and propositional truth was evident to all. Black was always black and white was white -- But our world has rapidly changed.
We live now in a post-modern world. Traditional institutions are mistrusted and often seen as unhelpful. The idea of immutable ethical and religious truth is no longer assumed. Also, in a smaller, mobile, internet world, a multiverse of cultures, religions, ethnicities and lifestyles swirl around us.
And in a social-media, fake-news, Dunning-Kruger world, uncertainty is greater than ever. The big questions of identity and meaning and belonging are as real and as challenging as ever.
Anxiety is at an all time high, so is loneliness. That's why, for example, post-colonial theory, critical-race theory, gender theory, green-politics, and identity politics have emerged. On the other hand, fundamentalism in all it’s forms is also re-emerging as a bastion of safety in uncertain times.
For many who have been raised in church circles and have always just assumed the beliefs and traditions handed down, this raises existential questions. Some will engage those questions, find satisfying answers and continue on content. For (many) others, their parents’ church and faith lenses no longer provide an adequate understanding of the world. Before these lie the tasks of deconstructing and reconstructing a meaningful worldview. I think, too often, this happens in isolation. There is the fear of being judged or rejected by significant others. Sometimes there are no few or safe spaces in which to express doubt or ask hard questions.
So it becomes important to discuss what authentic and satisfying worldviews might look like and how we can we construct a biblical faith-based framework for living ethically and lovingly in such a multiverse of cultures?
How do we live consistently with our beliefs whilst also understanding and respecting those who view life through different lenses? Haven is to be a space where we can have those conversations together over as many strong coffees as are needed!
This strikes such a chord! So many people have questions but don't know how to express them. What often happens is we go to church for the music and friendship, but we live bifurcated lives: There's our Sunday life and our weekdays life; there's our emotional/spiritual life and there's our reasoning mind, and the two remain disconnected or in conflict.
In a centred-set church it is recognized that we are each on a journey. The closer one gets to the centre (Christ), the more one’s understanding and actions are shaped by Jesus. Each individual has the freedom to navigate kairos (ah!ha!) moments that might require change.
There’s not a set of gate-keeper rules or a fixed boundary, as is in a bounded set. No one is considered unworthy of belonging. In a centred set model of community, people of all backgrounds and beliefs will be welcomed at the table to join in the conversation.
It's a filter that asks not: ‘Are they in or out?’ but ‘Are they able to move towards the centre?’
