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Do You Embrace Everything God is Doing?

Here’s a quick thought on something I’ve been mulling about for the last 24 hours.

There is a deep, rich and varied tradition of spirituality within the Christian church. And with all of them, you can trace them all back to within one hundred years of the start of the church. Here’s a quick snapshot (stolen from Richard Foster):

  • Holiness
  • Contemplative
  • Evangelical
  • Social Justice
  • Incarnational
  • Charismatic

My general observation is this: The healthiest churches I’ve seen embrace ALL of these streams and develop spiritual practices that embody each of these streams that are culturally appropriate for their context. For instance, while you may not be a swinging-from-the-chandelier-charismatic, there are practices of this tradition that can and should be integrated into the life blood of your community.

My other observation is this: When churches are struggling with connecting to the Lord, to themself/family or to those outside of the Kingdom, it’s often because they have jettisoned one of these streams.

Often times we reject the gift because of the packaging. We have misconceptions about the best version of these streams and decided to reject the whole of it. I mean, this is proper “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” kind of stuff!

I think, just maybe, God is calling us to live in the tension.

I wonder what stream God is calling us to learn at this current moment in time?