Back to the Future: Trailer
In the last entry of this series, I talked about how there was, perhaps, an origin of ultimate beauty, just like a potential perfect justice, perfect rightness that seems to be filtered into our world, as if through coloured glass. This is an analogy that I like, but it's not original to me, since obviously Paul talked about it a couple thousand years ago when they said, "For now we see through a glass, darkly" (1 Cor 13:12). It is from this that I think we are also talking about the very X of very X concept of God.
And so let's put beauty on the back burner for a bit, because I am starting to see how it might be almost synonymous in origin and function as other abstract but ultimate things, like justice, too, and I think that this thought experiment has become more important to answering some questions about the future of the church. That said, please give me some grace on that statement. I haven't suddenly become a megalomaniac. I'm not saying that my own ideas are going to solve every problem, or that my own original musings, because I saw some pretty leaves, were the first of some cosmic domino cascade-- what I mean is that this discernment process fits well with discernment of value, theophany, and Spiritual work in this world that I think will be keys to exploring at least some facets of future-thinking required to be able to step into the future of the church that we already see forming but as yet seem unprepared for.
I hope that makes sense.
So, here is what I think I will try to ponder over the next week or so:
1- Where is the line between the lens that protects us from being destroyed by looking directly at the face of God, vs the lens that might have its own picture that draws us away or into idolatry?
2- What are the positives and negatives of self-led spirituality, and what does it mean for the institutional church if there was a sudden influx of new believers who were drawn to the church for Christ's sake, but had no regard for abstract or cultural entanglements/traditions? What do we have to offer them, if anything?
3- What could a future look like?
We shall call it... Back to the Future I, II, and III. And dearest reader-- Surely you are not waiting for an invitation! Who else would I possibly call to accompany me, but you!
