Tuesday, May 15, 2012

The Emerging Christian Way


Ch. 12 – Christian Education and the Imaginative Spirit

1.  Susan Burt is genuinely excited about her subject: “We are being motivated by a new story, an emerging vision that embraces search and meaning, not certainty.”  “As a result, our focus has shifted from the afterlife, to an emphasis on transformed lives, communities, and world in this life, through relationship with God and each other.”  She identifies the Christian community as the most effective context for Christian education.  Compared to my own conservative religious upbringing in rural Minnesota, I have seen and experienced this shift of focus.  Please share your own observations/experiences.

2.  Burt emphasizes the role and urgency of imagination in this process.  I was intrigued with Alan Jones’ quote, “The work of imagination is serious business because through it we build or destroy the world.”  And Carol Wehrheim says, “It is our imagination that propels us toward the God of all creation.”  Review Wehrheim’s five bullet points on page 204.  Briefly share one or two examples in your life where imagination was applied to these areas and led to some kind of personal transformation.

3.  Burt further develops her thesis, “The Power of the Imagination – to Build or to Destroy,” with biblical examples on page 209.  Let’s go with her questions here on page 211:
  • So how might we provide spaces and opportunities to encourage such imagination, passion, and compassion?
  • In what places are these gifts honored and nurtured in our Christian education practices?
  • What do we need in order to foster “Christ-given imagination?”
  • What changes for us personally, and in the world at large, when we imagine all people as truly valued neighbors, rather than as rivals or strangers, or “lesser than…?”

4.  Burt notes, “It is in the question, in the not-knowing, that learning occurs.  Remember also that questions do not necessarily need answers, and it is important that we create environments where questions and doubts can be openly and respectfully asked and explored.”  “It is not the answers but the questions that will lead to new discoveries, creative imagining, and transformed lives.”  Where do you encounter such environments and with whom do you share this common search?  What compels you to participate and share in this journey of imagining and learning?

5.  Burt’s mantra reminds her, daily, to let go, to suspend, and to be open to transformation: “Let go of preconceived notions and prejudices.  Expect surprises, expect miracles.”  Review her suggested applications of this on pages 215-216.  How have these, or other applications, provided freedom of imagination?

6.  “When we exercise our imaginative spirit, we move the biblical story out of literalism, factuality, certainly, and fixed answers, and into the unknown.  The story is born anew – a liberating, healing story, revealing deep truths, and an invitation to ‘discern God’s message for this time.’”  I couldn’t have said it more eloquently!  But it doesn’t stop there…she concludes: “Transformation-centered Christianity propels us into transformative acts of love, compassion, and justice.” 

In other words, personal transformation has a purpose and goal that always extend beyond us, into whatever communities we encounter.  What are those groups you are touching right now?  How are you engaged in such transformation in the various relationships and lives around you?

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