FAITH AS A WAY OF LIFE...

A THOUGHT FOR AN OVERLY-QUIET, OVERCAST SUNDAY: Have you heard the term "religionless Christianity". Simply explained, this is faith as a way of life, not as a system of beliefs and doctrines or institutional rites and rituals. Therein lies the challenge to contemporary Christian churches today to become more passionate about Jesus and his vision of personal and social transformation. Jesus himself explained that the reign of God was like a mustard plant—a fast-growing weed that invades well-cultivated and protected gardens and that spreads with chaotic growth. It is the uncontrolled spread of radical ideas like nonviolent resistance, distributive economic justice, radically inclusive community, and a situational ethics of compassion—that has the creative power to transform the world—and may even ultimately transform the church and the concept of religion in general. In spite of ourselves, the way we have done church in the past may be just that -- in the past! Will that be a good thing, or a bad thing? Time alone will tell!