Teri+Butcher+and+Sydney+Milligan+-+Connection

Although a lot of what Barna and Stott presented seemed to be common knowledge and simply reaffirming of beliefs we as contemporary Christians already hold, there were several epiphanies the writings gave us in regards to interaction among different faith cultures and how we should engage in being dynamic disciples of Christ in order to foster a "living church". One of these revelations was in how Jewish society and relationship is typically more centered in shared cultural experience than it is on mutual religious belief. Moreover, Stott's portrayal of how small groups are indispensable and invaluable in regards to participation in fellowship and cultivating a dynamic faith community was something we had never really considered the value of before. We learned from Stott that an essential aspect of righteous living and doing God's kingdom work involves cooperation and engagement in intimate settings of fellow, respected believers. This has helped us obtain a more profound understanding of how we as Christians are to function in today's society by showing us that being a disciple and living for Christ must involve appreciating the differences of other faith cultures and engaging with them intimately.


 * This is a link to renowned funny man Adam Sandler's "The Hannukah Song", which demonstrates well the idea of Judaism being more deeply rooted in/preoccupied with relationship on the basis of similar cultural experience rather than shared religious belief

http://youtu.be/d1sf5yqZX-k

Throughout the work, there was not much we found that we disagreed with. It was felt that the depiction of the different pantheistic faiths in Barna's book was a little skewed and did not accurately depict the particular nuances of that faith. From the way it discusses their lack of belief in absolute moral truth to how it contends their faith experience is mostly lonely/"solitary", it was apparent the relation of pantheists and their faith identity was not entirely truthful. Outside of this, there is nothing that stands out as particularly disagreeable.




 * These are personal pictures (from Facebook) of Sydney's friend Aric Jain's devout Hindu family, showing a realistic portrayal of pantheistic individuals and their true faith/culture

In regards to a relevant biblical perspective on how through Stott and Barna we have been able to interpret our impacting the world as having to involve acceptance of diverse faith culture and intimate fellowship, the Bible offers many examples of the essentiality of these ideas in effective righteous living. In Genesis 2:18, the importance of intimate cooperation and relationship is demonstrated in God's declaration "It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for you." Additionally, Romans 12:9-10 portrays to us the importance of engaging with diverse individuals and faith cultures in a spirit of loving, holy fellowship in its statement "Love one another with brotherly affection.Outdo one another in showing honor." This particular understanding gained through these verses that support how we feel we must impact society challenges and inspires our faith by showing us how intimate and diverse fellowship in complete respect of all God's beloved children is essential to faithful Christian life.

Also reflecting upon the Evangelical Manifesto and each one of it's contended beliefs/theses we discussed in class, there was not much that surprised us or presented itself as particular disagreeable or offensive. All of the particular ideas we presented were ones we agreed and supported were essential to Christianity and righteous living as a disciple of the Almighty. There was nothing we observed or learned from the Evangelical Manifesto that, in our minds, didn't fit or accurately describe what were essential aspects/principles to leading an effective holy evangelical Christian life. One particular item, however, that did stand out to us and impact our perception of how we're to be Salt and Light in the current world is was the expression in regards to the Seventh belief that we as followers of Christ are all called to "... love Christ's family through fellowship". This has definitely impacted how we are able to interpret our specific calling and duty in regards to being salt and light, as this contention has made it apparent to us that compassionate, wholesome, tolerant fellowship with all of God's people is critical in being an effective true evangelical Christian and doing his work as one ventures our into contemporary society. We have been able to gather that it is our obligation and a necessity that we must engage in dynamic, critical fellowship fully-accepting and promoting of everyone of God's special and beloved creatures as we go forth in ministering and being elements of Christian salt and light in today's world; and how without this, we cannot truly fulfill our evangelical mission/calling. One specific verse that provides us an appropriate and informed biblical outlook on this issue is 1 John 1:7 that reads "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another ...". With this verse, we are made to understand that how we are to fellowship and necessarily be engaged in living in the fullness and righteousness of God, attempting to reflect his glory and holiness in all we do, in order to be able to participate with each other in dynamic Christ-like fellowship. We are impacted with this verse and its depiction in how it allows us to come to the greater understanding of how God is intending for us to accomplish being Christian salt and light via fellowship that completely appreciates, accepts, and supports all fellow humanity. We see that, in being salt and light and cultivating dynamic, loving community fellowship with one another that we must walk together in the light in ways that are completely respectful and supportive of all God's beloved people.

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