Why Am I Here?

James Fowler once wrote a book titled 'Stages of Faith.' In it he described the fact that human development leads us through six distinct religious beleif stages. In a nutshell they are:

1. Projective - where we project our own fears and imagination outward on the universe

2. Mythic Literal - where we focus on certain stories as right, and begin black and white thought

3. Synthetic - where values are so deep that we think everyone in every place should have them

4. Reflective - where we begin to think deeply about how it all affects me

5. Conjunctive - where we finally see it is all relative and everyone else is probably right too

6. Universal - This is Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha and the rest - everyone is light and power

Now, I try very hard to live in stage five. There are days when I slip back to one and have to start all over; but hey... we all have days like that. But I was getting to something... why am I here? I have watched with fascination as blogs become active ways to comunicate ideas and truth be told - I want in. But I want in with a purpose. I studied modern systematic theology under Dr Doug Hall in Montreal. I also studied historical theology under Dr Ed Furcha in Montreal. If you don't know these two names, buy some books; no seriously -think Tillichian theology redone for North America and attribute the entire Protestant Reformation to that most novel, but undersold of thinkers, Ulrich Zwingli and you have them.

I also have spent some 13 years working as an Ordained Minister for the United Church. And frankly, when you put it all together - I am tired of the reputation that Christians have in the world and tired of getting judged as just another member of the lunatic fringe. Most Christians - especially those of us who believe in the world, are the type of people who would fit stage five above. we integrate our faith beleifs into our daily living - we look for example of grace in the midst of the reality of the world - and we certainly don't check our brains at the door when we start to pray.

But all the people on the outside see is what my friends laughingly call the "Jeeeezus Weeeejus" crowd; those who pray "Jesus, we just want to thank you that you didn't make us like everyone else..." I want you to see something different! I want you to see ministers who question everything and still manage to believe in something better. I want you to see people who think about God and read Stephen Hawking. And I want to openly challenge all those people who tell me that because I am confident God loves everybody I am going to hell...

But enough with the small talk - let's get on with the show...