In Search of Kingdom Living

What does it mean to be the Church today? June 29, 2007

(notes based on Prof Gordon T. Smith’s lecture 12 

1.  The church is a people (not a project)

• You cannot have the church without the ascended Christ
• Very easy for the church to be a religious club without a real time encounter with Christ. At the same time, can we experience Christ without the church? No – it is through the church.
• Faith has a fundamentally communal character, thus we speak of a social holiness
• We should be wearied of the church as a project to fix – they are distinctly a community of faith
• The spirit of God sustains the church – but how is it sustained?
• How does the Spirit of God sustain the church?
• It is through word and sacrament
• Mutuality – the deep mutuality becomes the forum/place where God’s gracious spirit is at work. Church is the fellowship of the spirit. We participate in each other’s lives (koinonia) (more…)

Conversion to Formation June 29, 2007

(notes based on Prof Gordon T. Smith’s lecture 10) 

Reading from 2 Peter:1-11

• Assumption is that while you may experience conversion as ‘being cleansed from passed sins’ (v. 9), but whole text assumes that having begun well, you will continue to live well
• Thus our justification (cleansed sins) is followed by sanctification – which is related by making our calling and election sure (v. 10) – justification must precede sanctification, however is sanctification essential?
• Sanctification is absolutely crucial (more…)

Sacramentalizing our Christian Experience – Why Baptism Matters June 28, 2007

(notes based on Prof Gordon T. Smith’s lecture 9)

The Meaning of Baptism (water)

• Ordained symbol, it’s Christ-ordained
• I participate in what this symbol re-presents, it’s not optional
• Vital ways in which we communicate and participate in the core values of our lives
• What does a symbol mean? – this is always an apt question
• What does baptism mean? At the very least 3 things:

   1. Baptism speaks to the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38)
   2. Baptism speaks to union with Christ (Romans 6)
   3. Baptism speaks to the grace of the Spirit, the charism of God (Acts 2:38, Titus 3:5)

• How crucial is this to the Christian conversion? (more…)

The Penitential – an Evangelical Perspective June 28, 2007

(based on Gordon T. Smith’s lecture 8 )

A. The Loss of Confession (and repentance) in Evangelical Circles
3 main reasons for losing this in our services and ministries

1. The Seeker-Service Orientation: from the Crystal Cathedral to Willow Creek
    This dimension of Christian piety (sin) is put to the side, may only be taught about later on. Argument is that talking about sin may not be helpful for the understanding of human predicament
2. Confession is a violation of the Gospel… a matter of theological conviction.
   If we confess our sin after become a Christian, then we violate the Gospel. So every time we confess our sins, we are nailing Christ to the Cross
3. Confession is not consistent with our experience of being victims.
    - Any sin we do is basically what we do because we have been sinned against
    - Thus every time we confess our sins we are legitimizing the people who have sinned against us (more…)

The Contours of a Christian Conversion June 27, 2007

(notes from Gordon T. Smith’s lecture 7)

Introduction: a reading… Acts 2:35-48

• We are asking the discernment question
• Not all religious experience is Christian
• Not all who profess they are Christian, ARE Christian – inauthentic religious experience is possible (more…)

Spiritual Autobiography and the Conversion Narrative June 27, 2007

(notes based on Prof Gordon T. Smith’s lecture 6)

Introduction

• We must practice critical reflection on religious experience
• Consider the spiritual practice of attentiveness – learning to notice (more…)

The Only Tragedy in Life – Conversion as a Good Beginning June 26, 2007

(notes based on Prof Gordon T. Smith’s lecture 5)

Read Graham Greene’s – The Power and the Glory

The Christian Life and Sanctification

• Paul’s autobiographical reflections in Colossians 1:24-29
• Focus on 1:28 – we may present everyone mature in Christ, goal of the church
• Now what does this look like? 
• Theology of sainthood reflects both maturity in Christ as GOAL, and figure out CONTENT. Good conversions leads to sainthood
• Conversion is a good beginning

The Need for a Compelling Theology of Sainthood and the Christian Life

• A consideration, the vision of the Christian life found in Colossians1: 1:14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
• Some contemporary visions of Christian maturity (Glen Scorgie):

1. Essence of the spiritual life is found in a mystical intimacy with God
2. The transformational… notably character formation and development
3. The vocation; the Christian life is about doing good, and particular about fulfilling a God-given purpose for being (a vocation)
    

• Question: could ‘wisdom’ encompass the biblical vision? As long as wisdom is understood Christologically?
• The Grace of humility and two vital and important qualifiers

C. Conversion, then, is a Good Beginning

• This evangelism:

1.  Needs to be radical… a thorough addressing of the phenomena of sin and spiritual sickness. (Webster on mortification and vivification)
2. Needs to be communal… we will not grow in holiness ‘alone’. The demands of the Christian life are great… and we need the support, encouragement and enabling of the community
3. It needs to bring one into dynamic mystical encounter with the transforming Christ (not merely an idea… an idea will not transform)
4. It needs to take account of the intellectual, moral, affective and volitional elements of the human person

Conversion – The History of an Idea June 26, 2007

(notes based on Prof Gordon T. Smith’s lecture 4) 

A. Conversion in the Early Church: the impact of St. Augustine

1. Augustine’s experience

• Impact through his Testimony/Conversion experience in Confessions
• Impact through mediating conversion through intentional formation – initiated practice for conversion, this emphasized intellectual conversion and moral conversion. He had to come to terms with the problem of evil
• His search for the answer of problem of evil led him to Manichaeism, then later on neo-platonism. Most significant Christian voice was his mom, and later Ambrose of Milan. He began reading scripture and one day felt a child’s voice say ‘take and read’ and read Romans. He got baptized and a number of years wrote the confessions.
• What drove his conversion was not the pursuit of truth or moral character. It was the yearning of the heart – he uses the image of finding home/rest in God. Conversion is not the triumph of reason or moral reform. It cannot happen without these though. They are like tracks that the train runs on, but what runs the train is yearning for God. No one can manipulate or choreograph a conversion
• For the early church, conversion was a journey/pilgrimmage – an intentional formation that took 2-3 years. Although it’s an individual experience, it took place in the liturgical church. (more…)

Waiting for God – The Conversion Experience and Spiritual Autobiography June 25, 2007

(notes based on Prof Gordon T. Smith’s lecture 3) 

Looking first at the book of Acts

• Closest to normative description of conversion is Acts 2:38
• After that, there are 5 little windows into conversion accounts, not full narratives
   ○ Acts 8:26-50 Ethiopian eunuch – Philip draws the Ethiopian to Jesus
   ○ Acts 9:1-19, Acts 22:6-16, Acts 6:12-18 Paul – Some debate about whether they are conversion or calling narratives, Smith says both
   ○ Acts 11, 15 Cornelius – Intertwine of Cornelius’ conversion as well as Peter as he came to see God shows no favoritism
   ○ Acts 16:14-15 Lydia
   ○ Acts 16:25-34 Jailer
  1) Luke is at pain in showing divine initiative and activity, includes preparation for work to come
  2) There is an openness, trying to make sense of things
  3) Preaching or instruction about Jesus, or points to Jesus
  4) There is a baptism, always – in some cases, not all, the baptism is linked to the experience of the spirit
  5) Joy is prominent theme/experience

Introduction: The intellectual vocation and the conversion experience. (more…)