Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Dialogue in the Church of God

Those of you who subscribe to my blog may be surprised to see a post actually appear!

Without making any excuses, life has been extremely busy over the past few months. Blogging has taken a back seat to other priorities in my life and ministry. Not that I haven't had anything to write, just not the time to formulate them on the computer.

There are a number of important issues and matters confronting the Church of God at this time and I want this blog to be one voice encouraging constructive dialogue. Certainly, my blog is far from being that "important", but it is part of a new medium that can stimulate discussion and invigorate our relationships.

Yet, despite the challenges facing us, I am more and more convinced that we struggle with dialogue. We are a very diverse group of people and increasingly do always not share uniform convictions and perspectives. This is making it difficult for us to resolve some of our current challenges, and threatens to fracture us, even when one of our core beliefs is centered on unity.

More so than ever we need to be intentional about our interactions and discussions. Face-to-face communication is still the best, but we also need to find ways to hear each other across geographic, demographic, and even theological divides. Electronic communications such as blogs, Facebook and online groups (such as ChoGtalk) are new tools that can contribute to this dialogue.

I am personally committed to continuing this blog for this purpose, and look forward to sharing some thoughts that have been developing and accumulating in recent months. Also, for shorter bursts of inspiration and insanity I invite you to follow my ChogBlog Twitter feed.

May the dialogue continue!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Nice to have you back. We're listening.

I'd like to be a part of the solution. I'm a new pastor who recently moved from Arizona to Alabama to pastor my first church. I've only been a part of the Church of God for about 4 years but fell in love with the movement when I researched it's doctrine and history.

See ya around the blog.

Larry