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?

Faced with tragedy and trauma, we struggle with the “_________” question.

Our __________________ affects how we answer the “why?” questions.

Our worldviews determine what we are ________________ to believe about the world.

In Antiquity, their worldview determined what they were ________________ of believing aboutthe world.

The earliest followers were ________________ _______________ limited by the matrix of culture and their worldview.

A Fresh Perspective takes diverse atonement theories from antiquity __________________ without needing to take them ________________.

We have at least five atonement theories with _____________ in the writings of the earliest followers.

We have become people who _____________ Jesus instead of people who ________________ Jesus.

How about A Fresh Perspective on the Cross and Sin for my everyday, normal life?

A Fresh Perspective sees _________ as the persistent spiritual reality manifested in the continual escalation of human ________________ and ________________. (Genesis 4:6-7, 15, 23-24)

________________ is the power of darkness and its time had come. (Luke 22:50-53)

A Fresh Perspective understands that the cross ____________________ the darkness of violence. (Jn 12:31ff)

The Metaphor: Until we _________ ________________ what is destroying us we can’t heal. (Num 21:8-9)

Don’t Miss This!

A Fresh Perspective asks us to _________ at:

(1) the cross of _____________ until we see the _________ of human violence and injustice that is destroying (our) humanity.

(2) the cross of _____________ until we see that only compassion and forgiveness have the _____________ ______ _________ us from the evil of violence and injustice.

A Fresh Perspective honors the language of ________________ without needing ___________________.

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

A Fresh Perspective on the cross and sin invites us to ___________________ in the restoration and healing of the world through a __________________ life.

What is God inviting you into today?

1. Attend the Thursday night conversation group to talk with others about a Fresh Perspective on the Cross and Sin.
2. Take some time to literally look at a cross this week, seeing it as an instrument of violence, evil and injustice. Then, look at it, seeing it as an invitation to a way of peace that conquers violence and injustice through compassion and non-violence.
3. Re-read passages in the New Testament that speak of sin in the singular with an understanding of sin as escalatory violence found in Genesis 4.

Thought provoking questions:

1. What comes to mind when you see or think about a cross?
2. Have you gone through experiences in life that left you asking “Why?” Did you find any redemptive meaning or purpose in those experiences?
3. If you were raised with any form of Christian faith, what did it mean to you when you heard or what does it mean to you now when you hear, “Jesus died for your sins.”
4. Are you surprised that explanations for the meaning or significance of the cross are called “theories?” If you hold to a certain theory today, is it unsettling to you or freeing to you that this is only a theory and not a doctrine?
5. What are some ways that we can live a “cruciform” life at work? At home? At church?