Next Meeting: Friday, January 11

Mark your calendars for the next meeting:

Friday, January 11, 8:00 PM, at Bennigan’s (4926 Dressler Rd N. W., Canton, OH 44718) near Westfield Mall – Belden Village.

TOPIC ANNOUNCEMENT (posted by Jared):

Let’s change gears a bit and talk about something a little more practical: what are some of the terms that you hear used in/by our churches that you wish were not used, and what (if anything) would you substitute for them? I got this idea from this post on Out of Ur, which referenced this Christian Standard article, which was about how churches use the word “excellence.” Since I work for a state institution of higher education I get to hear the word “excellence” all the time, and I know it’s kicked around a lot in the business world too. But should churches adopt this word? I agreed pretty strongly with both writers that they should not. Follow the links above and then think about this and other words that we use, and hopefully that will be enough to get a conversation started.

Meeting this Friday, December 14

The next cohort meeting will be this Friday at Bennigans (4926 Dressler Rd N. W., Canton, OH 44718) near Westfield Mall – Belden Village at 8:00 PM. I will call and reserve a table for a large party of at least 12!!

The topic to discuss in light of the season of Advent:

How does the incarnation speak into a postmodern world?

Jesus, the literal “God with Us” (or “Emmanuel”) in the flesh, has revealed God to us by his life, death, and resurrection. Paul tells us that Jesus “is the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15); John was in awe of this, saying, “no one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only Son, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known” (John 1:18).

Jesus was the incarnation of God—making God known. He was “the truth” in person. If that is the case, and if his “Spirit of truth” indwells today’s “body of Christ,” then that must mean that the Church is in some way today’s “incarnation of God”—meant to make God known. “Emmanuel Apologetics” is the authentic display of the incarnation of God in the flesh—the Holy Spirit indwelling his people today.

“Truth,” it seems to me, is not merely some reasoned argument, “Truth,” according to the Bible, is embodied in the flesh—it is only “Truth” when it is incarnate. Jesus was the “Truth” because he was there in front of them, in the flesh, making God known. Today’s local Christian faith communities display “Truth” not in merely having rational arguments, but by yielding to the Holy Spirit and authentically making God known.

Whereas modernist Christian apologetics sought to renounce non-Christian worldviews, religions, and ideas by way of rational argument, postmodern apologetics may seek to live as the incarnation of God to the people around us so that they can genuinely say of our Christian communities, “Now that is God with us.”

Let’s explore the implications of Christ’s incarnation and then the role of Christian community as the continuation of that incarnation. Let’s talk about how we can be what Jesus was as his “body.”