I got this exercise from Richard Mouw's book Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport that I am reading right now. What would you write?
I am a human being.
I am a Christian because I think it is the best way for me to be human.
I am a Protestant because I think it is the best way for me to be a Christian.
I am a Calvinist because I think it is the best way for me to be a Protestant.
I am Emergent because I think it is the best way for me to be a Calvinist.
Let me give some explanation.
I am a Christian because I believe that Jesus is God's son, come to earth to live the ideal human life and to rescue me from my less-than-ideal life. In the long line of those who have entrusted their lives to Jesus and sought to live for him in community with one another, I identify myself with Protestants since things like the sufficiency God's grace and the Bible resonate with me. Within Protestantism, I call myself a Calvinist because I am drawn to a theological presuposition of a big God who comes after me and calls me into a future he has designed. My Calvinism causes me to take my culture seriously, and so I am seeking to be Emergent, attempting to connect what I believe in a creative way to the world in which I live - as a human being.
I used to think that being a Baptist was the best way for me to be a Calvinist. And even more specifically than that, I thought that being a Regular Baptist was the best way for me to be a Baptist. But what I found was that I could not be the best Calvinist, Protestant, Christian, or human being that way. Creativity was stifled. Grace was hard to come by. Truth was too contained. Now I am someone different than I used to be.
How about you?
3 comments:
Pretty much, what you said.
Honestly, I'm not sure how I trickle down into the historical movements. I've gleaned some good things from Calvinism, evangelicalism, and restorationism, but none quite hit home for me. I guess post-evangelical or post-something comes closest for me, though, which really boils down to the emerging movement.
I know it would be naïve, but how refreshing would it be to simply say your a Christian and not be misinterpreted.
well I would say I am still a baptist because I believe they can change, I am not a regular baptist, though, I am grateful to have grown up independent, but sometimes that can be worse.
I think that the way you communicate why is great! I think a grave mistake many baptists have made, being proud and saying that being baptist is the only way, in which I would not agree. I agree with those reasons why you are not a baptist, and maybe I am insane to try to change the baptist name, but that is a desire that God has given me, atleast to attempt where I am.
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