Renovating my Faith

As a pseudo-existentialist I tend to think we are constantly in a state of becoming who we already are. Or to put it in a less postmodern way, we are by the sanctifying power of God becoming who God intended us to be and who we already are positionally before him in eternity. The past three years of Seminary have been a journey of growth and self discovery, as I become who I already am. During this time there have been 3 classes that have been extremely challenging and extremely beneficial in this journey. These three classes are Christian Theism, Postmodern Philosophy, and Current/Contemporary Theological Issues. The latter of the three being the most recent.

This journey with God has been a time of constantly "renovating my faith". These classes have challenged my biases, my assumptions, and my presuppositions regarding God, theology, resulting in a firmer conviction to God, with some beliefs being reaffirmed and some being altered. The most recent renovation that I am experiencing is unfolding my arms of acceptance.

In the past if I were asked if Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Open Theists, Homosexuals, Mainline Feminists, Fundamentalists...(the list could go on) who profess faith in Christ were Christians; I would have likely given some qualifying statement followed by an affirmation that they are. All of this was my way of saying, "Yes, but not really" or "Yes, but barely". This renovation that I am going through is changing my response. It's leading me to a place of Ecumenicalism. In this journey I am remaining committed to affirming the essence of the Gospel, which is "believe in the Lord, Jesus and you will be saved" and to pursuing an understanding of what it means to live in relationship with God. It is here that I, as well as many others, fight the tension between being Ecumenical and being Emergent.

Both Ecumenicalists and Emergentists recognize that there are many ways to interpret Scripture. The difference is the Emergentist would say, "I don't know, and you don't know, so let's not know together," while the Ecumenicalist would say, "There are things I'm not sure about, but here's what I'm sure about". The Emergentists are content to live in the dark for the sake of being able to hold hands with everyone. The Ecumenicalists maintain conviction to what they believe to be true, yet recognize those who disagree on issues not essential to salvation as family and co-labours for the Kingdom or in the mission of God.

The difficulty of being an Ecumenicalist is the necessity to dig beyond the surface and scrutinize one's own beliefs and put these beliefs through the fire, while attempting to understand the beliefs of others within their proper context. The "danger" that is always at the doorstep of the Ecumenalist is apathy. The weight of the difficulty makes slipping into apathy tempting. Apathy does not require one to evaluate or think about faith. It just requires one to be ambiguous or ambivalent regarding beliefs. Thus, an Ecumentalist must always be on guard of the "I don't know and you don't know, so let's not know together" attitude.