[ i want more than just okay ]

Some random, not really connected thoughts.

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"The task of engaging the culture with the Christian gospel and so working to transform the world always includes three elements. First, we must speak truthfully about Jesus of Nazareth, and explain how it is what we discover who God is by looking at him. Second, we must do so in full engagement with the world of our own day, understanding its ebbs and flows, its fashions and follies, the places where it has got things gloriously right and the places where it has got things gloriously wrong. Third, we must be prepared to refute — that is, to give a reasoned rebuttal of, not simply to say we disagree with — popular misconceptions which leave people with muddled and misguided ideas about Jesus and the nature of Christian faith." -N.T. Wright

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I was talking to Jerry (our college minister) on the phone this afternoon, and he asked about Austin and the conference, and I said something like, "Jerry, those students are the best and the brightest; they're really going to change things."

I really came to appreciate the students at the conference -- their commitment to discernment and vocation, their understanding of their respective tradition and deep, real faith.

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Wright's understanding of an articulated faith is very cool. He was speaking last summer at Seattle Pacific University, elaborating on The Da Vinci Code.

I think his statements, in and out of context of the mania of The Da Vinci Code, are pretty sound. What do you think?

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Our culture wants to be engaged, and is looking for truth. We want more than lollipop, one-size-fits-all faith. We want to be stretched. To be urged to really think about who Jesus is claiming to be and how God is moving in this world.

To break down barriers -- social, economic, racial, circumstantial -- all barriers -- for the One who broke all standards, stepping into skin to live, die and be raised for us.

Truths. Understanding. Articulation. Not only to be 'in the world and not of it,' but to really grasp that Jesus was calling for radical faith in the midst of the here-and-now, and appeals for that today. Even in the United States, despite our tendency toward the 'gloriously wrong.'

It's powerful to me that God works despite that and amongst that, because really, everything doesn't boil down to us and our 'societal failures' or American individualism.

It's about God, and His power to redeem our gloriously wrong tendencies. The power that raised Jesus from the dead; the power that lives in each heart following Him today. The live-giving power that transcends and breaks through culture and engages people where they are.

-Jessie

SPU has Wright's full response online, which is worth a read, even if you're sick of Da Vinci Code stuff (I sort of am). Very, very cool.