the    sides

One of the challenges of the conference has been - what do you REALLY believe. And why? Because of mommy and daddy? Youth Pastor? Pastor? Teacher? The Bible? (Which always requires the follow-up question, where does it say that?) How much of your belief system/structure is there because you put it there after careful consideration and wrestling?

The not-so-surprising answer has been ‘not much.’ Also, ‘by coincidence’, I am reading Radical Reformission by Mark Driscoll.

So in our small groups at night - the questions are getting intenser by the night. Which, in my opinion, is good. Again, ‘by coincidence’, I’m reading the questions Driscoll has had to deal with it in his world and there are some that are eerily familiar:

Can I pierce any part of my body? What about tattoos?
Is it okay to have plastic surgery?
What about birth control? (my response: ‘what about it?’)
How can masturbation be a sin if the Bible never mentions it? (my response: ‘What about this?’)
Can a woman be a pastor? Would we look for a woman pastor? (my response: “That’s a great question for the elders!”)

Now the questions aren’t meant to be offensive but I realize that someone will take offense to them. And that’s a problem.

The tendency is to react to the question with emotive, manipulative answers/shame in order to garner the response we want or ‘deem righteous.’ The problem is most of us - those of us in authority/mentor roles - really haven’t struggled with the questions with a Bible in our hands and hearts. We wrestle with the questions with images of our favorite teacher, mom, dad, or role model in our minds.

It’s hard enough to think and search the scriptures for answers (or hints of answers) without our own sense of ‘morality’ clouding the picture.

Pray for us as we try to walk humbly through our questions to the Source. He may or may not answer, but the journey to Him is worth the taking.