Becoming

Paul writes – I’ve started reading Pete Rollins’ book How (Not) to Speak for God

I particularly like this quote (below). It rings true both for spiritual direction, and my limited experience of groups like Spirited Exchanges. It weaves together the necessary “humility” we need to embody as Christians, while also implicitly talking of the “space” that we need to gift to ourselves and others – space within which to become. Our expectations of self and others are often far too high; rather than “resting” in our becoming, rather than “trusting” in our becoming, and rather than “depending” in our becoming we box ourselves in and declare ourselves to “be” what we are only slowly, and often painfully becoming. We are not finished:

“…We need not look far to find that our religious communities , influenced as they are by the movement known as modernity, have tended to emphasise the idea of ‘being’ and ‘destination’: one becomes a Christian, joins a church and is saved. From this idea of destination flows our understanding of evangelism as a means of sharing our faith and encouraging others to embrace it for themselves. For those involved in the emerging conversation, this view distorts the deeper meaning of evangelism, for once we acknowledge that we [emphasise, mine] are becoming Christian, becoming Church and being saved, then the other can be seen as a possible instrument of our further conversion. Even a brief reflection upon the darkness in our own lives bears testimony to the fact that we need to be evangelized as much, if not more, than those around us…” (p. 6). 

Comments

[Mark Berry]

fabulous book! Pete is a real mystic I love the idea that God is unknowable not because God is Anonymous but because God is Hypernonymous! It's not that there isn't enough info but that there is so much thast we cannot possibly hold it all!

[bill]

Looks really good. I love that quote. This one's not available in the States until August. Oh, well.