Of God Talk and Figgy Pudding

For those reading Making Sense of the Christian Faith and are somewhere around the 1st chapter,

Thanks for participating in the conversation!  Here are 2 reasons that I am glad we are engaging in this conversation:   1.) figgy Pudding and  2.) the next generation.

First, figgy pudding.  Let me explain.  My professor David Lose (author of the book) tells a story that he thought was analogous to the place that many people are these day when it comes to many parts of our faith.  He was out Christmas caroling and came to the last song they were to sing.  “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” they sang.   You know the verse right?  You might even be singing it in your head right now.  You know the second verse too, right?  “So bring us some figgy pudding…so bring us some figgy pudding.”  As Dr. Lose was singing it he suddenly realized…. He had no idea what figgy pudding was.  There he was claiming it, belting it out and not knowing what it meant.  Isn’t that the way we are with parts of the Bible and parts of the Christian Faith?  We claim it is ours, maybe we even sing about it!  But do we really as much about it as we should?  I mean what really is the book of Hezekiah all about?  (There isn’t really a book of Hezekiah in the Bible)  So maybe we should be more engaged in the Biblical story and more engaged in the faith.   By the way, here is a picture of some figgy pudding…

And you thought it looked like Jello pudding… didn’t you?  I did.

Second,  We really do need to learn how to pass down our faith.  The Bible commands us too.  But do we really need to be commanded to pass down something that we cherish to the people who we love so much?  The trick is learning how to do it.  And learning how do it means learning it, then learning how to listen to the people who we want to pass it down to, and then learning how to talk about it with them. No easy process but well worth the effort.

So thank you for reading and may this reading engage us and challenge us to learn, grow, and share... and perhaps try out some figgy pudding the next time you get the chance.  

Making Sense of the Christian Faith- An Invitation

Hello to all!  I know it has been a while since I last wrote in my blog!  The reason I write today is because we are starting a new emphasis at Ascension.  Together, many of us will be reading and discussing David Lose's book:  Making Sense of the Christian Faith.  It is a book about the basics of Christian theology.

The reason I recommend this book is not necessarily because I think that everybody need to "brush up on the basics"  (though some of us do and that's o.k.!) but because there are a whole lot of people in our world, in our neighborhood, perhaps even in the same room who have questions about what we believe and why we believe it.  We should probably have a response for them- a response that might even help them make sense of this world and of life in general.

This is why Making Sense of the Christian Faith is such a great book.  It is a written in a simple question and answer style and it has great content.

So I invite you to join us.  Get the book and be a part of a small group (there are books, small group leader guides and discussion starter dvd's available in the church office) or come join us on Sunday mornings at Ascension.  We will meet in Founders Hall at 9:30.  I am also trying to put together a group of people at 11am as well.

I will also be sending out a blog about this once a week.  Please feel free to unsubscribe to this blog if you don't plan to be a part of this conversation.  You will not offend me at all and I would hate to thing that I am sending you emails that you would rather not read.

If you have any other questions please let me know by emailing me at pastortim@alcto.org.

Here is a short video Aidan and I made in preparation for the class: