Welcome to jPOD n CommUnity!
as i seek to increase in a biblical understanding of the Beloved Community through blogging i want to encourage you to join me in both meaningful conversation and proclamation! i trust this blog will facilitate authentic conversation that will lead to the proclamation of the Gospel of Christ and His impact in every sphere of community. Why conversation and proclamation? give me your thoughts...
we'll blog around this conversation in my next post.
love being n the Beloved Community,
jPOD
2 comments:
Ok...I'll bite buddy.
proclaim - to declare publicly, typically insistently, proudly, or defiantly and in either speech or writing; to praise or glorify openly or publicly
conversation - an oral exchange of sentiments, observations, opinions, or ideas
I think proclamation and conversation go hand in hand when it comes to telling the world about Christ.
Just last weekend, I saw a large froup of people on the corners of a busy intersection shouting, waving bibles, and holding up signs with scripture.
That may be proclamation, but that's not what the world is looking for. The world is looking for proof, that requires more than proclamation.
That's where conversation comes in. Conversation requires closeness. Through conversation, we not only have an opportunity to proclaim Christ, but because we must be close to those with whom we converse, we make ourselves a little more vulnerable and allow them to see whether we walk what we talk. That's exactly the proof the world is looking for.
We have to be close to be real. We have to be real to be heard.
In Christ Alone,
John
john,
i appreciate your thoughtfulness. you seem to have your finger on the pulse (or at least i agree with you).
with concerns of being relevant in our times, some of us have engaged in meaningful conversation with others. yet we've failed to proclaim (to declare, announce, herald) the Truth that satisfies the soul both now in throughout all eternity!
in contrast, others are proclaiming (in some cases, YELLING) truth so inappropriately that they are not being heard at all. we don't have the liberty to pick 'either/or'. both conversation and proclamation are needed. i suggest the most impacting way to carry out conversation and proclamation is within community where truth and love will be our greatest apologists for the Faith.
Today we can learn much from men like Francis Shaeffer. Shaeffer with his wife, Edith, founded L'Abri (French for "the Shelter") via there home. The Shaeffers lived out this powerful example of community through their commitment to meaningful relationships built around geniune love and care for the "stranger", authentic conversations about life, working and serving together WHILE truth was discussed and proclaimed. Within such an environment, FS would seek to reasonably pursued young men and women to trust Christ and Him alone (you gotta read True Spirituality by FS). Yet as intellectual as FS was, he realized that mere intellect could not bring about life transformation... that would only be done with and through the Spirit of God as He (the Spirit) illumined one's mind and heart to see and believe what the Scriptures revealed about Christ.
Oh that we would offer this type of community to people today!
love being n the Beloved Community,
jPOD
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