Just Not Fitting In
Posted by Steve - September 2, 2009
One of the side-effects of stepping out of the customary way of practicing Christianity, and exploring life in Christ outside of the institution, is a feeling of uncertainty as to where one actually fits in. For many of us, we were so accustomed to wearing certain labels, being “members” of certain organizations, and being identified as part of a certain group, that we aren’t necessarily sure what it means to simply be “in Christ” without all the other layers piled on.
In this “here is where we are” from-the-heart episode, Ray and Steve talk openly about their feelings of not fitting in. We’re willing to bet that many of our listeners have similar feelings if they have been involved in a similar journey as we have. Feel free to share your story below in the comments.
Beyond the Box is the podcast of Raborn Johnson and Steve Sensenig. We have been encouraging each other in the journey outside the bounds of institutional religion for several years now and share many of our candid thoughts and questions in our podcast.
September 3rd, 2009 at 10:04 am
Awesome! Awesome! Show! I understand not fitting in with those who are involved in one christian faith or another. I have tried to discuss many things in the bible or just asked questions and have seen their eyes glaze over. Most don’t even know what is in the very book they are suppose to be taught from. And most don’t question what they are taught. I have a friend who owns a small IS computer service company and he had a job at a church that has a program that tracked its members and how often they attended and how much they have Tithed. If a member has missed church or failed to tith the required amount they send a letter or a bill telling them to step up attendence or their tithing based upon their activity in the church. And its my understanding that a number of churches have gotten together to create a unified belief where Muslim , Jewish and christian faith are actually one faith. As a Chinese saying goes; may we live in intresting times.
September 13th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
My husband and I have enjoyed listening to you on the podcast.
We are currently enjoying discovering Jesus outside of the traditional church. I know that the main stream church has at times clouded my thinking of Jesus.
I must say I wasn’t sure what to think about what I heard tonight.
I even went to your webite to read your short list of what you do believe:) I was thrown back about Jesus and what if he wasn’t God.
I know you believe He is and it is important to believe that about him.
So, did we misunderstand you?
I am sorry if I did, maybe you could explain it to me.
I agree so much about not fitting in and how what church I belong to makes people feel safe around me:) I have even used that as a way to “measure” people:) Still working on that:)
Thank you…
September 15th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Hi Sandy,
Thanks so much for listening. It is so easy to “measure” people isn’t it? I still find myself falling into that trap. But, by the grace of God, He is teaching us how to stop judging anyone “according to the flesh”.
Rather that respond in a comment, Steve wanted to address your initial question at the beginning of our newest episode. We just recorded it and hopefully can get it up on the site in the next couple of days. We would love to interact with you more on this topic if you would like. I know that I am interested in talking more about this topic in our newest series that we are starting this week on different theories of the atonement. This series will probably be a 4-6 week series dealing with the meaning of the phrase “Jesus died for our sins”. Hopefully some more clarification can be given on this during that series. Thanks again for listening and interacting with us
September 16th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Sounds good. Thanks for getting back to me. I love to talk about everything. And this is why I enjoy Beyond The box and Wayne..
I look forward to hearing your responce.
September 18th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Definitely can relate to not fitting in, probably because I’m still not really sure what I believe at times and feel uncomfortable committing myself to a certain point of view.
November 30th, 2009 at 3:24 am
A friend told me about your podcast last week. I began listening to this podcast first. The crazy thing is that I am finding myself in the middle of a big ol’ stinking mess surrounding a statement of faith in a homeschool group.
Our homeschool group does not require the members to sign but the leadership is required to sign. The leadership is now kicking around the idea to make it a requirement of the membership.
I’m making some noise on my blog about this and your podcast was very timely!
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:00 am
Kimber,
Thanks for stopping by!
I’m looking forward to reading your blogposts about this.
My first question is this–who gets to decide what is in this statement of faith? Is this something that you guys are goint to hammer out in community or does the leadership decide it? Have they given any reasons for why they want to require members to sign? What is the end goal? Or as Steve likes to say “What does that buy us?”
December 3rd, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Although I was recently told that there was no ’secret spearhead effort’ at instituting that the SoF be signed by our members (currently only those in leadership have to sign), I do know that there is a subversive portion of the group who would not be opposed to this happening. There is already a SoF in our bylaws, so that would be the one that would have to be signed. And there is an article in the bylaws that state that the leadership can amend the bylaws by a certain majority.
The end goal? We have a bit of diversity in our group, those who practice Judaism, Roman Catholics as well as a couple of us who won’t be labled. I was actually nominated to run for a leadership position last year, but declined. If I were elected, I would have to sign this SoF, and will not do so ‘on principle’… but I also have other reasons.
I have blogged about it recently and got some backlash from the leadership already. ::rolls eyes::