How do we speak about God?

As a pastor over the past thirty years, what I’ve seen again and again is people who want to live lives of meaning and peace and significance and joy—people who have a compelling sense that their spirituality is in some vital and yet mysterious way central to who they are—but who can’t find meaning in the dominant conceptions, perceptions, and understandings of God they’ve encountered.

In fact, those conceptions aren’t just failing them but are actually causing harm. How do we speak about God?

We’re engaged more than ever by the possibilities of soul and spirit, and by the nagging suspicion that all of this may not be a grand accident after all; but God, an increasing number of people are asking—what does God have to do with that?

We need to listen to what lies embedded in peoples  questions: where is the spiritual pulse?

Faith or intellect?

Belief or reason?

Miracles or logic?

God or science?

How we think about God is directly connected with how we think about the world we’re living in.

And we might ask what kind of world do we want to live in?

How do we speak about God?

We’re an exotic blend of

awesome

and

pathetic,

extraordinary

and

lame,

big

and

small.

How do we use who and what we are to speak about God ?

(with thanks to my group in the Windsor Clergy consultation : 8-18 July)            and to be continued…………..