In A Fresh Perspective, dig into topics central to the Christian experience in fresh ways, and (re)discover a faith you can love.

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What’s the Issue Anyway?

When was your last ____________ experience?

Spiritual disconnection, dissatisfaction and deconstruction are the fruit of a Christianity that no longer:

o Exists in the ____________ middle

o Holds the ____________ tensions of both/and that make up reality

o Invites people to ____________ instead of leading people to certainty

o Balances the ____________ of God and Jesus

o Forms an alternative set of loyalties to ____________, ____________ and ____________

o Gives people a sense of belonging to a sacred world of ____________

o ____________ hearts with radical grace and union with the Divine

o ____________ the Gospel in a manner that provides a cosmic and positive vision, where the soul can live safely.

o Allows the individual to ____________ the corporate body to a deeper faithfulness to Jesus We are in a painful ____________ shift within Christianity.

What Wisdom does Scripture offer us?

Jesus knew the ____________ of a paradigm shift. (Mt 9:17, Lk 5:33-35, Mt 5:17)

Don’t Miss This!

Paradigm shifts are necessary for a faith tradition to ____________ history.

Spiritual dissatisfaction, disconnection and deconstruction can become a __________ __________.

How can I live this in my everyday, normal life?

A ____________ ____________ has been emerging over the past 100 years in Christianity.

This fresh perspective is a way of seeing the Bible (and the Christian tradition as a whole) as ____________, ____________, and ____________

This fresh perspective is a way of seeing the Christian life as a life of ____________ and ____________.

Neither paradigm is ____________ Christian Tradition.

How does this make me a better person and the world a better place?

A fresh perspective offers us the opportunity to (re)discover a faith we can ____________ and ____________ with confident hope.

What is God inviting you into today?

1. Sign me up for the 6:30pm Thursday Night Fresh Perspective Conversation Group with Ryan beginning April 27th.
2. Send me information about the online group and other Fresh Perspective Conversation Groups available.
3. I would like to invite a few friends and facilitate my own Fresh Perspective Conversation Group.
4. Send me the link for Marcus Borg’s book “The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith”

Thought provoking questions:

1. Think of a time in your life when you came to a realization you knew would reshape your life. What emotions were you feeling in those moments? Was it a sudden realization or did it come over time?
2. Have you ever had a realization that a belief you were taught and believed was no longer serving you well in your relationship with God and in loving your neighbor? What did you do?
3. When you think of Jesus, do you think of a man who had to learn and grow and change his mind about what it meant to be a faithful Jew or do you think of a superhuman who just knew everything about God? Why? Is it hard for you to imagine Jesus having to go through a paradigm shift? Why or why not?
4. Do you resonate with the need for a fresh perspective or does your current faith paradigm sustain your encounter with God? If you don’t feel the need for a fresh perspective, do you think it’s worth understanding why some might need one? What will be difficult about creating space for others to “be Christian” differently than you?
5. What would be the marks of a faith that you could love? What current value or interpretation within your Christian paradigm most hinders your encounter with the sacred?

For Further Reading

1. The Wisdom Pattern by Richard Rohr
2. The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith by Marcus Borg