Like so many young evangelical pastors I entered the Christian ministry full of preconceived beliefs about what it means to be a Christian. I was pretty confident in what I believed . . . quite certain in fact.
I believed passionately in the so-called “Rapture”, a future event in which true Christians are going to be snatched up from earth into the heavens.
I believed in hell, a postmortem place in which Christ-deniers would spend an eternity in conscious torment and that this punishment was well deserved and reflected how just and righteous God really is.
I believed that Christianity was the only true religion and that all other forms of faith were doomed to eternal destruction.
I believed that homosexuality was a deep and dark sin and that those within the LGBT community were also doomed and beyond the pale of God’s saving grace (unless they repented and ceased practicing their homosexuality).
I believed that any true Christian would embrace correct doctrine and those who differed from me on doctrinal issues were suspect. If a Christian author deviated from my own core beliefs he was removed from my bookshelf (consider the latest episode involving author Eugene Peterson).
I believed in Just War and unquestionably supported our nation’s wars: Romans 13 was important to me, at least in the way I interpreted it back in the day.
I believed in a male clergy only. Period. End of discussion.
I believed theological certainty was a badge of honor to be worn without apology.
I believed that all liberals were anathema and could not be trusted.
But something happened along the way.
Life happened.
The Spirit happened.
My personal experiences happened.
My circle of friends beyond my own native tribe happened.
An awareness of how the church believed in the past happened.
My old beliefs just didn’t make any sense to me any more, no matter how hard I tried to make them fit into my new life reality.
Now this isn’t to say that my journey of growth has been easy. Change is disruptive as well as dangerous. Any kind of personal change or growth is painful to some degree and in the Evangelical context it can be excruciatingly painful.
Perhaps the most painful dimension of growth is the loss of old friends and colleagues. When I moved my tribal affiliation to another denomination the response of my former tribal natives ranged from guarded understanding to outright rejection.
As I have grown older and as many of my views on certain social and theological issues began to shift I have sensed push back from many of my former colleagues and friends I once thought I could rely on no matter what.
But I press on and I welcome future shifts in my thinking on some of the most crucial issues of our time such as what it means to be prolife, economic justice, same sex marriage, the death penalty, patriotism, and war, to name just a few.
Salvation may be free but growth is expensive.
But I wouldn’t change a thing from where I sit at this moment. I have nothing for which to apologize or defend. I love where I have landed and expect to touch down in fresh and new places for the rest of my life.
Growth is crucial for any Christian. God does not expect us to freeze dry our belief systems in such a way that it becomes an idol we worship.
I am thankful for my former native tribe and for the way they introduced me to the Christian life and nurtured and supported me in the early days of my ministry.
Many of them, in my mind, are saints of whom I have very fond memories. But I just could not stay put. I was compelled by the Spirit to move to a new and different place.
This is called growth.
Growth is not a crime friends. It doesn’t mean that I am less of a Christian nor would you be if you were in my shoes. Don't be afraid of growth. Don’t be fearful of embracing different and newer ideas about what it means to be a Christian.
God is much bigger than all our beliefs and ideas of him combined.
He's much bigger than our tribal pens in which we place him.
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