What exactly is a whole faith?
The assumption of this blog site is that too often the Christian faith we hear in church and try to live out is incomplete.
Much of what I write highlights just one area of theology and Christian life that lacks wholeness. Specifically, most Christians have not heard that God’s earth matters. Nor have we heard that how we treat God’s earth matters.
But the lack of wholeness in the Chrisitianity people encounter in churches goes beyond that. I believe there are other elements, even some at a fundamental level, that are missing in much of what we encounter at church.
And you can’t get more fundamental than how we define salvation and what it means to be a Christian.
That’s why I want to share a podcast interview that Carey Nieuwhof recently did with John Ortberg, the senior pastor of Menlo Church. Ortberg’s words riveted me. And I believe your heart and mind, too, will be struck by his insights. He delivers them with modesty, great clarity, and a pinch of good humor as well.
Just click on the podcast title below, and you should be good to go to listen to it through your computer. You can also search for the interview through whatever system you use to listen to podcasts.
Here’s just one Ortberg statement that gives you an idea of what he learned from a close look at the Bible and from Dallas Willard:
“Heaven isn’t so much about relocation as it is about transformation.”
What Ortberg shares helps me make sense of a number of verses and themes I see in the Bible. Acts 5:20 is just one example. In this verse, an angel is speaking to the apostles, and the angel says:
“Go stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people all about this new life.”
What is this new life that we can live now? What is the abundant life Jesus offered during his life and still offers today?
John Ortberg has helped me get a better sense of what that life is. He is helping us understand what a whole faith is. I’m profoundy grateful.
I hope you will be, too.
