Preparing for Discussion - Religion: Spirituality is Not Enough

In the first session of Animate: Faith, Brian McLaren, describes faith as a boat with travelers on a quest to experience God...the God, who is the sea and the wind and the source of the whole quest itself. He describes our beliefs as the planks that hold the boat together and theology as the necessary maintenance of the ship. He is careful to point out that theology/maintenance is NOT the point, the point is the quest, the journey, the experience of and with God.

Lillian Daniel addresses the "issue," if you will, of other travelers on the ship, on the quest...of the travelers that have come before us and those that will come after us, the "great cloud of witnesses" from Hebrews 12. These travelers have formed the planks of our beliefs that hold our boat together...or, in Lillian Daniel's flower plant/analogy, these travelers formed the roots of tradition, our faith. It's roots that hold the plant together, planks that hold the ship together. Without these things, we have a pretty bouquet of wilting flowers with no roots.

How does that analogy sit with you? Do you think of church tradition in this way? In what ways do church traditions nurture your faith? Have you gathered things from other traditions that have made your journey more meaningful?

What do you think of when you hear the word "religion?" Do you tend to think of yourself as religious? What other words and images come to mind when you think of religion? What comes to mind when you hear the word "spirituality." Have you been one of those people who describes themselves as, "spiritual but not religious?"

Our journal books include a Venn diagram with spiritual people on one side, religious people on the other, and people who are both spiritual and religious in the middle. Where do you fit? Where do you think Jesus fits?  Consider these verses from the gospel of Luke:

Luke 9:1-6
Luke 11:1-4
Luke 11:37-44
Luke 13:22-30
Luke 14:1-6
Luke 17:11-19
Luke 18:9-17
Luke 21:1-6
Luke 24:13-35

(Link to Book of Luke: here Use the arrows at the top - above the chapter heading - to skip from chapter to chapter.)