Dr. Dana Wimmer
I would like us to consider what it means to be Christian Disciples at Waterloo First. One’s first response might be that it is always the same for all Christians. For those who have had any theological discussion with Christians from other traditions and sometimes within our tradition, you know that there are many perspectives on what it means to be a disciple. Secondly, if we are all the same, why choose Waterloo First as your faith home? We should offer something special. I believe we do have some special strengths. However, we continue to need to delineate those strengths in ways that all of us can share enthusiastically. My purpose in this space will be to define that vision from a practical and theological perspective. I invite you to comment either on facebook or to my email. My preference would be to have comments on facebook where others can participate in the conversation.
The Gospel of John calls us to be a light. Part of being a light is to see and help others see clearly what God’s people are called to be. Waterloo First has already begun to create a space as a place where learning about our faith can be open ended and growing. We have created an atmosphere that steps out of the paradigm of learning faith as a memorization of dogma. In its place we have created opportunities to explore faith perspective options.
These options recognize that our relationship with God varies with the life story each of bring to that relationship. Our goal then as a church community is not to give people the one explanation of how God works in our lives, but instead to offer alternative descriptions of spiritual experiences to help people connect the faith story with their unique story. This is the groundwork that is already laid in our Faith Exploration events. Last year we expanded the opportunity from one weekend by adding two a lecture series over the course of the year.
Others options being explored include: wellness events that will offer tools to create healthy minds, bodies and souls; book studies with roots in Biblical and theological themes; worship at alternative sites where progressive worship models can be experienced.
More importantly than any set event, is a commitment to be the church where people can explore balancing their life with faith without a set faith prescription.
My invitation in this first conversation is to ask you to suggest learning experiences. What topics would you like to explore? What settings would you participate in?
Next week I invite you to share a look at sin. Do we begin as sinful broken creatures or as children of God growing toward maturity?
