Unworthiness / Vince Brackett (Chicago, IL)
From Dan: Hi Friends! I wanted to let you all know that Dave is on vacation this week and I am looking for guests posts. If you have something you've always wanted to say and haven't had the chance to do it yet, now's your opportunity! Send your thoughts and comments to dan@notreligious.org. With that said, I also wanted to give a big shout-out to Dave who over the past month managed to write the 150+ page manual "Culture Center Churches," and plan and execute a conference while running a large church. Well done, Dave. Enjoy your vacation.
Speaking of guest posts, here is a conversation starter from Vince Brackett:
I don't get this sense of a centrality of unworthiness from our discussions of Stage 4 faith... maybe because I'm not sure if we've ever talked about unworthiness.
Now, I have definitely had points in my life of faith when a sense of unworthiness and what Jesus ended up doing with that was extremely profound and life-giving. But, this may be because I was operating from a more Stage 2 worldview at that point. Of course, regardless of whether that was Stage 2 or Stage whatever, that experience with God meant something to me, so I'm not saying it's bunk or unimportant to me. BUT I'm wondering if, down the road, supposing there is some sort of Stage 4 revival of faith in the Secular West and there aren't a whole lot major Stage 2 approaches in the spotlight anymore, should we talk about that sense of "unworthiness"? Probably some past approaches at faith are guilty of putting too much centrality on "unworthiness" but, is it necessary to faith at all? What role does "unworthiness" play? I know Paul talks about this... does he have anything to say?
