{"id":84,"date":"2006-12-04T13:42:00","date_gmt":"2006-12-04T13:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brianmashburn.net\/?p=84"},"modified":"2006-12-04T13:42:00","modified_gmt":"2006-12-04T13:42:00","slug":"secret-life-feedback-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/?p=84","title":{"rendered":"Secret Life Feedback #7"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is another piece of feedback I received from my blog\/email entitled “My Secret Life of Discipleship.” I’m only attaching one, because it has become special to me. For the following reasons:<\/span><\/span><\/span>
<\/span><\/span><\/span>
1) My essay made him feel judged and unaccepted. And he was fearful it made others that he loves feel judged and unaccepted, too (including our Church of Christ heritage).<\/span><\/span><\/span>
2) His response made me feel judged and unaccepted. And I was fearful it would make others that I love feel judged and unaccepted, too (including many who want to stay in the Church of Christ heritage without being bound to certain beliefs unnecessarily).<\/span><\/span><\/span>
4) We both want the same things, but couldn’t recognize it in each other without connecting relationally, speaking courageously and listening graciously.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
5) So…it represents what I want to happen for all of us. <\/span>We came together, found our common ground in Christ, and then addressed our meanings, motives, differences, and perceptions in an agreed upon safety. We didn’t have to “win an argument” or “prove a point”. We didn’t have to agree upon every thing we dealt with (although we may have both been surprised at how much agreement we found). We told the truth with a healthy expectation that when Christ says, “the truth will set you free,” that it may actually do so.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
<\/span><\/span>
“[I wonder if] b<\/span>ecause of a bad experience in a church (in your past), some type of baggage, wound, or otherwise, you have developed an agenda to change your now present church, or split it trying. <\/span>Although I didn\u2019t want to believe it, there is a secret (your words) <\/span>inner circle, an elite group, that have all been wounded as well, that have taken it upon themselves to either a) make other members conform to their ideas, or b) run them off. Is this letter promoting unity or division? <\/span>Does it bring generations together or separate them even further? <\/span><\/span>I resent the implication of higher understanding. My grandfather was a gospel preacher for over 60<\/u><\/b> years. <\/span>He shared that gospel with thousands of people and converted hundreds to Christ. <\/span>He worked with several churches over the course of his ministry. <\/span>I assure you, he did not get along with everybody. <\/span>He did not agree with everybody. <\/span>He ministered through tragedies, discord, and church splits. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>I have never disagreed with the restoration of discipleship, becoming more like Christ, or any of your other teachings. <\/span>The only thing I have ever questioned is the motives behind the teaching. <\/span>If it is, in fact, because we want and need a deeper relationship with the Son and the Father, and the Spirit, I am completely sold out to it. <\/span>However, if the motives behind the teachings stem from a rebellious spirit against the church of the past,<\/span> <\/span>I will have to stand up and speak against it.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> This letter makes me question your motives. <\/span>And I don\u2019t want to!!!! <\/span>I want to be more like Christ. <\/span>I want to show that to my sons. <\/span>I want to be filled with the Spirit. <\/span><\/b><\/span>I have no bad experiences growing up in the church. <\/span><\/span>I have no wounds that I have had to overcome. <\/span>I fondly remember people who, although they were not perfect, they loved one another and loved other people. <\/span>They loved me and wanted to see me grow in Spirit and in Truth. <\/span>I would never<\/b> defend the past mistakes of the church, but I have no<\/b> interest in beating up grave stones! But this letter leads me to feel distrusted and not fellowshipped by your \u201cgroup\u201d, whoever that may be.” — 30ish brother, life-long member of the Church of Christ<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is another piece of feedback I received from my blog\/email entitled “My Secret Life of Discipleship.” I’m only attaching one, because it has become special to me. For the following reasons:1) My essay made him feel judged and unaccepted. And he was fearful it made others that he loves feel judged and unaccepted, too […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pO6nf-1m","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}