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Recently I did a series of posts on Salvation, you can read the introduction to the series here. This post is a follow on to that series.
Many Christians see Salvation as a line in the sand. It is the tool by which WE decided who is in and who is out. I remember the first time I attended the Salvation Army. Upon saying that I had enjoyed the Junior Soldiers lesson and wished to come back the first question was "are you saved?" It would be unfair not to mention that to be a Junior Soldier one had to be 'saved' and you had to be a Junior Soldier to attend the Junior Soldier classes.
It is a question we ask people, usually very subtly, when they enter our faith communities. Usually the question is asked to work out whether they belong in the church, therefore they are just church shopping, or whether they are 'unsaved', therefore we need to 'save' them. Salvation is therefore used as a fence. You are either in or out.
Hirsch and Frost, in their book The shaping of things to come, suggest that this understanding is called a bounded set. The group of people are defined by the boundary. They suggest that a missional church should be a centred set. That is that we should be defined by what is in the centre, God. People are not in or out. They are rather moving towards or away from the centre.
This however upsets our clear definitions. What about the person close to the centre but who is heading away from the centre? Or the person a long distance from the centre but beginning to move in?
Understanding the difference between the bounded and centred set is imperative for overcoming a sense of salvation as a line in the sand. The mission of the church is no longer about 'getting people across the line.' It is instead about journeying with people as they head towards, or away from, the centre.
What do you think?
I love this image of Salvation, it resonates with me because it is more realistic and more accurate. It puts everyone in the picture those who are considered "saved" and those who we might think are not. It is inclusive of those who oncemay have been cast out, while remaining fluid for those who claim to be in! It's an ongoing jounery, which is how I understand faith (the adjective).
ReplyDeleteIt keeps God as the centre of salvation but makes it harder for us to define it in our terms, only God can make the decision about whether we're saved.
Melissa