“Your Turn” Summary

I am trying to summarize and synthesize some of the reoccurring themes in the sychroblog responses. Here is my rudimentary attempt. You may also want to check out the updated list of participants.

Holdover Issues

• Frustration. It is a time of frustration for some who are still in the church system.
• Abuse. It has been an on-going struggle to recover from abuse or addiction in relation to the church system.
• Confusion. It has been a confusing season of life and it is still full of unknowns.
• Performance. It is challenging to grow past a performance oriented mentality as we have been programmed to think of following Christ in terms of an activity check list.
• Community. It has been a hard to figure out how to do church in this new chapter of life as we don’t want to go back to the old system, but understand the value of community and mutual mission.
• Children. It is a time of concern about what to do about our children concerning church.
• Caution. It is too early for some people to get immersed in some dream about what God is doing and their role.

New Discoveries

• Rest. People are learning that it is O.K. to rest.
• Freedom. Several people mentioned a new freedom to experience God, often in the “ordinary.”
• Grace. Some of us are going a lot deeper in our personal understanding of grace.
• Identity. Some people are finding that their crisis lead to their uncovering their God-given identity.
• Relearning. Many of us are relearning some basis stuff about following God.
• Simplicity. People are enjoying a simpler life with time to experience God, and invest in their families
• Art. Some are growing in their love for creative self expression.
• Messiness. We are being reminded that all ministry is relational and messy.

I can’t help but be encouraged when I look over the second list. I think God is up to some cool stuff and that our painful journeys will be used for his glory and our good!!

Please feel free to comment or add to the list. Thank you all for your participation!