God creates everything out of nothing. And everything which God is to use, he first reduces to nothing. - Soren Kierkegaard In the previous article, we explored three interconnected themes. The first is that emerging generations find value in the ancient. Therefore, in seeking to connect with contemporary seekers, the church should not be driven by
The Lord’s Supper is no longer a supper; it has become the Savior’s Snacklet or the Nazarene’s Nibble. - Jeremy Myers In 2014, the Barna Study group conducted a survey study focused on identifying the kind of worship spaces that Millennial generations found most attractive or meaningful.[1] The study was focused mostly on aesthetics but also
Every institution that we trust lies to us. - Dave Chapelle In the previous article, we touched on the nature of inclusivity and exclusivity in the church. We saw that the church can be passively exclusive while imagining itself actively inclusive by nurturing structures, cultures, and systems that are designed for one kind of demographic. In Adven
There can be no great love without exclusivity. - Carol Grace In the previous article, we explored how an experiential approach to baptism—one that emphasizes its romantic and metamorphic roots—is necessary for the secular man’s discipleship journey. The one-dimensional approach that often suffices for those who are brought up in church must
We have in Christ what we have lost in Adam. - John Calvin Baptism is one of the most remarkable and profound rituals of church life. It emerges in scripture as part of the nexus of sin, salvation, and the new humanity birthed in the second Adam. Properly understood, its themes maneuver like tendrils through the Old Testament narrative, full
“Autonomy and independence involve taking care of yourself—not doing things that diminish you.” - David Schnarch In the previous article, I introduced a simple approach to the doctrine of Christian unity as the one doctrine among all the others which—while often ignored in an academic or apologetic sense—happens to be the one Jesus declared would g
In the previous article, I introduced three concepts that have helped me reformulate my approach to remnant theology without settling for the historic sectarian approach nor our modern reactionary “just get rid of the whole thing” trend. Those three ideas I referred to as the, Axiomatic Permanence and Ethereal Essence of Ideas Necessary Cohe
A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. Ideas have endurance without death. — John F. Kennedy In the previous article, we closed off by moving from the concept of church to the concept of the remnant. During that transition, I took for granted the acceptability of a theological construct like the remnant. However, the
The reason most people don't go to church is because they've already been. – Mark Twain Before moving on from the concept and practice of church, there is one more angle I must encroach upon which would be imprudent to ignore. The angle that I speak of is the contemporary overarching motion of the church which, while transcending Adventism itself,
We must cultivate our garden. – Voltaire For decades, church leaders have been attempting to unravel the complex reasons why young people leave church. In recent years, the task to understand why the church fails to retain millennials or reach emerging, post-church culture has also amplified. And now, new reports are indicating that unlike o
