Crossroads Church
A Fresh Perspective :: Part 01 :: The Enduring Tradition | Ryan Howell :: April 16, 2023
In A Fresh Perspective, dig into topics central to the Christian experience in fresh ways, and (re)discover a faith you can love.
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What’s the Issue Anyway?
When was your last ____________ experience?
Spiritual disconnection, dissatisfaction and deconstruction are the fruit of a Christianity that no longer:
o Exists in the ____________ middle
o Holds the ____________ tensions of both/and that make up reality
o Invites people to ____________ instead of leading people to certainty
o Balances the ____________ of God and Jesus
o Forms an alternative set of loyalties to ____________, ____________ and ____________
o Gives people a sense of belonging to a sacred world of ____________
o ____________ hearts with radical grace and union with the Divine
o ____________ the Gospel in a manner that provides a cosmic and positive vision, where the soul can live safely.
o Allows the individual to ____________ the corporate body to a deeper faithfulness to Jesus We are in a painful ____________ shift within Christianity.
What Wisdom does Scripture offer us?
Jesus knew the ____________ of a paradigm shift. (Mt 9:17, Lk 5:33-35, Mt 5:17)
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Paradigm shifts are necessary for a faith tradition to ____________ history.
Spiritual dissatisfaction, disconnection and deconstruction can become a __________ __________.
How can I live this in my everyday, normal life?
A ____________ ____________ has been emerging over the past 100 years in Christianity.
This fresh perspective is a way of seeing the Bible (and the Christian tradition as a whole) as ____________, ____________, and ____________
This fresh perspective is a way of seeing the Christian life as a life of ____________ and ____________.
Neither paradigm is ____________ Christian Tradition.
How does this make me a better person and the world a better place?
A fresh perspective offers us the opportunity to (re)discover a faith we can ____________ and ____________ with confident hope.
What is God inviting you into today?
- Sign me up for the 6:30pm Thursday Night Fresh Perspective Conversation Group with Ryan beginning April 27th.
- Send me information about the online group and other Fresh Perspective Conversation Groups available.
- I would like to invite a few friends and facilitate my own Fresh Perspective Conversation Group.
- Send me the link for Marcus Borg’s book “The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith”
Thought provoking questions:
- Think of a time in your life when you came to a realization you knew would reshape your life. What emotions were you feeling in those moments? Was it a sudden realization or did it come over time?
- Have you ever had a realization that a belief you were taught and believed was no longer serving you well in your relationship with God and in loving your neighbor? What did you do?
- When you think of Jesus, do you think of a man who had to learn and grow and change his mind about what it meant to be a faithful Jew or do you think of a superhuman who just knew everything about God? Why? Is it hard for you to imagine Jesus having to go through a paradigm shift? Why or why not?
- Do you resonate with the need for a fresh perspective or does your current faith paradigm sustain your encounter with God? If you don’t feel the need for a fresh perspective, do you think it’s worth understanding why some might need one? What will be difficult about creating space for others to “be Christian” differently than you?
- What would be the marks of a faith that you could love? What current value or interpretation within your Christian paradigm most hinders your encounter with the sacred?
For Further Reading
- The Wisdom Pattern by Richard Rohr
- The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith by Marcus Borg