Comment Highlights for Week of June 5, 2011
As I mentioned in the first post in this series, I want to highlight some of the comments that have been left on my blog posts during the past week. Hopefully, this will give more visibility to some of the reasons that I love blogging – dialog and interaction.
First, this was a great comment by ToscaSac on my post “Raising missional homeschooled children“:
I stared off as a secular homeschooler. When I returned to faith we had plenty of unsaved connections in the local homeschooling world. I have never really connected with the Christian homeschoolers. They were usually big on curriculum and we were happily unschooling.
My goal was never to homeschool for isolation purposes. I know God wants us to be plugging in and rubbing shoulders with the culture. How else can we reach them?
We lost our apartment and had to move back home with my parents. Right across the street new neighbors moved in. Two lesbian moms with three or four little kids. They were younger than my daughter at the time but of course she was interested in connecting with them. The couple were delighted to have her come by.
I saw it as a big sign from God “This is your mission field, bloom and blossom where you are planted. You cannot pull away into insulated isolation.” At the same time a more radical alternative family had joined my homeschooling support group. The Christians turned tail and RAN. It was so sad.
My daughter and I befriended the family and they are serving God now six years later. I do not think it is because of us. I do know we were there to watch unlike the Christians who assumed it was contagious.
Art left several good comments this week. I’ll highlight this comment on Arthur’s guest post called “Guest Blogger: Adoption lived out in the church“:
For one thing, if we were having a long discussion over coffee (or beer), we might start by listing what we consider the barriers among the saints in our cities. I’d ask and consider further if what we initially come up with were the real barriers, or is there something deeper/hidden/different behind the facade? What REALLY divides us?
Personally, I’m not convinced theological issues are the real sticking point. They may be a tool, but they hardly seem the motivations for most (few can explain the positions they advocate adequately, nor have most thought through questions raised by these positions). They may be passionate about the issues, but they are not knowledgeable about them. It seems their fervor may have a different source.
As humans, we might also wonder why there are things that divide humanity, things like rascism, class, power, position, wealth and education. Frankly, the sources of these difficult issues may likely be the same root causes of division we will discover within the church, minus the veneer of god-speak to make our divisions and fightings and competitions seem noble.
Real solutions are likely to be profoundly harder to live out than they are to list. Society has aptly demonstrated they are not capable of solving the divisions that ravage people. For that matter, so have we Christians.
Scott (along with several other people) left great comments on my post “Please take anything from the refrigerator.” Here is Scott’s comment:
Refrigerator rights are something I think my pastor talked about in the past. I think for many people it is a sacred space, for whatever reason. Who you give (or don’t give) those rights to says a lot.
Along the same lines, we have friends that don’t knock. If the door is unlocked they are expected to just some in. We’re family and our home really is their home.
Finally, I was really encouraged by this comment from Aussie John on my post “Will you help me develop an ecclesiology FAQ?“:
How good it is to read one, who seeks to disciple others, making an admission such as that, suggesting that being a disciple of Christ, no matter what position in ministry, entails continual development, and even, dare I say it, changing ones mind on some matters, rather than having ones thoughts set in concrete which set hard soon after hearing the Good news.