The great state of Tex-afornia

The Great Experiential Debate

Yesterday we had a debate in class about experiential elements of today's church. Some people believe that having people experience God (through prayer exercises etc...) are diluting the Gospel and making experience more important than scripture. Some of you, I'm sure, didn't even know this debate existed. Reading the word of God is not the only way to take in the word of God. In our current world experience IS worldview. What a person experiences becomes what they believe. Why don't we use that to our advantage and use scripture to create experiences that point people to Christ. Thus, their experiences (of God through Biblical means) becomes their worldview.

Yes, scripture needs to be a guide, but Jesus' disciples didn't read Jesus' words, they heard them. They saw the illustrations and tasted when Jesus made water into wine. In fact, most Christians in History have NOT had a personal copy of the scriptures and they did just fine. I am not advocating throwing the Bible out, but I am saying that we can take in God's word through other means than reading it.

Try taking a passage of scripture and rewriting it without using written words.

Take a hike with a large rock to symbolize your sin. After carrying it with you for a while drop it and relate that experience with letting God have the weight of your sin.

There are plenty ways to take in God's word. Here is an experiential prayer website. Check it out.

posted by Kevin @ 11:22 AM