Questions that Need to be Addressed More than they Need to be Answered

My previous entry did not resolve itself. That was my full intention. Where does that resolution happen? Usually an answer is given that points to religion (in this I'm including Christianity)...however, that's not the answer I'm going to embrace here.

Tonight I went to hear Donald Miller, the author of two good and somewhat profound books (Blue like Jazz and Searching for God Knows What), speak...and he did. This post isin't necessarily about that however (allthough I will address some of his posts in other entries because many of them oddly parallel conclusions that I am begining to reach about the concepts behind...in general...the religious aspects of "Christiantity"). I read the second book on the plane back from Seattle, and it helped being together many of the countless mind boggling thoughts that went though my head on that trip. So no disservice meant to Mr. Miller...he was a good speaker and I have plenty to say about topics that he specifically addressess in a future post (and in those posts I will make more of an effort to shorten any parenthetical references which have tended to run a little long in this entry).

My focus for this entry is something that gained much of my attention at Gregory Plaza this evening, before Don Miller spoke. It was a huge board, set up along the sidewalk, a board with large words written in English in with many different colored pens and markers, by very different people.

The board had four sections. Written across each section was a question. Four total. They are four questions that I believe are crucial to evaluating the entire process of Christian interaction with the world that we have been made to interact with.

Evaluation, whether the subject is theology, politics, evangelism tactics, or even styles of corporate worship, is something that I feel is greatly feared by the christian community. God forbid (pun mostly intended) that we find that we've been wrong about something. The absence of evaluation and critical examinations of the "church" lends it to methods of religious action that are archaic, ineffective, and most importiantly, equally as spiritually unfullfilling as the things that I mentioned in the previous entry. Each of the four questions highlights the general theme of subjects that I hopefully will devote entire entries to.