Is the idea of the Trinity just some outmoded bunkum, an insistence that people believe "three impossible things before breakfast"? Wouldn't it make more sense to think about God as one thing, rather than with all this theological nonsense? These are all good questions - some of which I daresay I'll have a bash at answering, and some I will ignore, this coming Tuesday (2/6/20) at Cafechurch. Hit us up for a Zoom link - and there is some limited space available in housegroups for those who never want to Zoom ever again in their entire lives.
One of the big theological questions is this: Why did Jesus have to die? It's related to another: why does God allow bad things to happen? Where is God in the midst of suffering? At the intersection of Holy Week, the week leading up to Easter, and the Coronavirus epidemic, these questions are more timely than ever.
We will meet via Zoom. If you want to be part of it, email Alister at info [at] cafechurch.org and he will send you a link!
This is the next in our series of sessions inspired by Marty Sampson's excellent questions. You can find the series home page here. This session was led by Matt, an who is a UCA Candidate for Minister of the Word and Sacrament.
For many people who have moved out of formative experiences in conservative Christian traditions a relationship with the bible can very quickly become … complicated. Many conservative Christian traditions hold very strong views on what the bible is, and how the bible should be interpreted.
This is the next in our series of sessions inspired by Marty Sampson's excellent questions. You can find the series home page here. This session was led by Andrew, an elder at Cafechurch.
The Hell Question
Hell.
It can have a devastating impact on how people think about the character of God. People rightfully walk away from Christianity because of it. Though they don't always have to—I hope Marty doesn't.
When I glibly thought "I know, we'll spend an evening talking about God!" I hadn't really quite reckoned with what a complex topic it is. I blame CPE brain. So it was a bit of a dense evening, but makes some basic theological and philosophical points that could usefully be made before talking much about God at all. And it drew out some good questions, which we will use for future evenigs. So, on the whole, it was a good evening.
A week or so ago at vicar school we were asked to summarize the gospel in a sentence. I thought this was such an interesting exercise that I decided to inflict it on Cafechurch people.
It's hard to explain something as simple as soccer in a few minutes. How much harder to summarize the Gospel! In this presentation we watch a cool dude with a traditional message, and then think about the pros and cons of both his presentation, and the theology underlying it.
This slideshow is part of our journey of trying to understand what
it means to be a Christian in our culture. We start here with the Enlightenment,
and explore a little bit about its history and continuing significance. It also
looks a bit at some of the limitations of the ideas, and concludes with C.S. Lewis's
famous idea about Christianity as true myth.
