Liberal Christianity

Lesson 5: Personal Spirituality and Practice

Evangelism, conversion, acceptance and being “Born Again.”

Jesus's most touchable or perceivable impact is in what happens in our lives when we adopt his lessons on life about knocking and asking; on faith and trust. When one decides to try to live according to Jesus's example and teachings, the results will be palpably experiential.

Trying merely to evoke a psychological sense of sinfulness, guilt and inadequacy that is then countered by promises of forgiveness based on acceptance of a specified orthodoxy is an evangelism far short of the mark.

Specific spiritual experiences do not have as their primary purpose a function of promoting faith. In the church of my childhood I was taught that any spiritual experience was a “faith promoting experience” intended by God as personal verification to me that I belonged to the only true church on the face of the earth.

However, over my lifetime I came to understand that epiphany, illumination and flashes of inspiration lead to a greater sense and awareness of prompting and guidance – not in the manner of a human puppet who assumes that he only moves because God pulls the strings – but in a manner of coming to know and understand that the kingdom of God is within.

Exercises:

1. So long as we Christians view the Bible and use the Bible in a manner driven primarily by concerns about moral behavior, we remain in a one-down competition with ideas and philosophies that do in fact elevate the concept of doing the right things for the right reasons.

a. If someone approaches you to explain about how sinful you are and what to do about it, how would your respond?

b. Do you think that seeking to become “born again” is all that’s necessary to solve life’s problems?

2. The enduring power of religion is not as a social club. Rather, it lies in the realm of the needs for meaning and purpose in living. The venue in life that seems to require endurance is more in the perceptive realm of mind and spirit and is not better countered by an approach of moralizing and exhortation to conscious believing with strict conformity to tradition and doctrine.

When our non-physiological internal hungers flare up, the void to be filled is not satisfied by lasagna, a hot bath or a good night’s sleep. These hungers generate not a weakness in body, but a powerful uneasiness or restlessness with life.

Often we think we are just worried about things, wanting things we don’t have, dissatisfied with work, with marriage, with friends, our community, the economy or even our favorite pro team that’s never going to win a championship.

a. Christianity ought to hold out the possibility to the internally restless that there is something available that fills the void – something more than just Sunday worship, potluck suppers, and clichéd generalities around believing.

If someone’s marriage is in trouble, is it wise to focus purely on religious devotion while leaving the marriage problem on the back burner where Jesus will take care of it because of personal righteousness? Elaborate please.

b. What is it we fear we lose if we look for reasons other than obedience and the hope of God’s reward as reasons for making wise choices?

c. “ So long as we do not allow anyone to convince us that we must look like them to be spiritually valid, we will have ownership of our values. Only as we own our values will we will have proprietorship.” How would you restate this quotation?

d. There are some who behave in a manner that says "if you do not accept Jesus in the context in which I believe then you are not a true Christian." Do you believe it is possible to be a practicing Christian in more than a prescribed formulaic way? Elaborate.

4. No one can give you an identical spiritual testimony in a sense of converting you to their way of thinking. It's not about getting you to see things their way, but about encouraging you to blend spiritual exploration with critical thinking that does not rely merely on logic and facts, but also on internal feeling.

It is your internal feeling that reflects whether spiritual-mindedness is part of how you view and interact with life and whatever "reality/the real world" is to you.

a. Coincidence and Serendipity: Is it possible that God would lead someone to you to help you or for you to help them in some way?

b. Have you ever felt that way about someone you have met or an event that happened in your life?

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