Tonight I'll try to write a little more about what Dallas Willard has had to say over the last 2 days, but I don't think it's going to be easy.
I went to Dallas' critical concerns course last year. I can't remember what he called it then, but it was some of the same stuff. Last year the idea that stuck out for me was the notion that we as Christians simply do not believe what we say we believe. This year he has called it The Great Omission from the Great Commission - and How to Fix It. Here's what the outline said:
"The Great Omission from the Great Commission is the phrase, "teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:20). The fact is, teaching people to obey all that Jesus commanded does not even appear on the mental horizon of contemporary Christianity. This course concentrates on the historical, practical, and theological sources of this amazing fact."
This tied right in with my recent struggles and rants regarding the differences between a believer and a disciple. He used the word "Christian" instead of "believer", which drives the point home even more forcefully. Our faith community, inspired greatly by Dallas' writings, has been looking at exactly this issue.
Here are some of my unedited notes:
+ We are talking about graduate from a weak Gospel of Sin Management to one of Discipleship.
+ We're not talking about legalism - If we take the teachings of Jesus and try to make laws out of them, we will make Him look like a fool. Legalism is a demonic form of spirituality. When it gets going there's no end to what it can do.
Don't teach people to keep the law, teach them to be the type of person who would keep the law.
+ We need to get to the point where we know its right not because Jesus said so, but because we can see the goodness in it.
+ The teachings of Jesus make it possible for every heart to become what it knows it should be.
+ We are never ceasing spiritual beings with an eternal destiny in God's great universe. Our lives as spiritual beings are completed only by living in and from the Kingdom/the government of the Heavens (Matt 4:17). If we have all this in mind, then learning to do as He taught becomes very different. It's when we come to understand who we are in God.
That's enough for now. I'm sorry I haven't processed it more.
And I haven't even talked about Jim Wallis' presentation this afternoon!