Christian retired person turned fiction writer whose faith journey has been wide ranging

[wiseracoon]

I am a retired man still married to my first bride. We are past our 40th anniversary. We have adult children and grandchildren.

I worked in the computer industry and my spouse worked as a nurse. We both were involved in farming while growing up. I have also spent some time working with a Christian camp, and for the United States Census Bureau.

Together my spouse and I have explored many faith traditions. We have connected for various lengths of time with several faith traditions and dug into several theological schools from many angles.

I'd like to connect with both like-minded Christians who share my concerns and also with other Christians and non-Christians with whom I can have friendly discussions.

In order to let you know a few of the topics with which I am currently wrestling so you might be able to tell if you fall into the category of like-minded, here are a few...

The differences between ekklesia and the current manifestations of church.

How should Christians be mobilized to advance the Kingdom of Jesus Christ as a united front?

How can Christian fellowship evolve in this new normal during and after covid? Can we break away from the forms which have persisted since Christian worship and fellowship began to be tied to edifices?

Can we do a better job following Paul's directions in Ephesians chapter 4? It is not the job of the prophets, teachers, evangelists, pastors, and apostles to build up the Body of Christ. It is their job to equip all of us to build up the Body of Christ. We are all meant to use our spiritual gifts for ministry to one another. The prophets, teachers, evangelists, pastors, and apostles are supposed to equip us to do our job, not do our job for us. (Sorry, I guess I started a rant there.)

The biggest challenges in my Christian life are prayer, doubt, and confusion.

I'm being intentionally vague in order to not broadcast to the world my identity. If individuals are interested in connecting with me on a more personal level, I might let my shields down a bit at that point.

My favorite topics of discussion are fiction writing and fiction in general. My current work in progress is a rehash and recombination of several of my many false starts.

Thanks for taking a moment to read this, my initial self-introduction.

 

[Mark Quayle]

I am a retired man still married to my first bride. We are past our 40th anniversary. We have adult children and grandchildren.

I worked in the computer industry and my spouse worked as a nurse. We both were involved in farming while growing up. I have also spent some time working with a Christian camp, and for the United States Census Bureau.

Together my spouse and I have explored many faith traditions. We have connected for various lengths of time with several faith traditions and dug into several theological schools from many angles.

I'd like to connect with both like-minded Christians who share my concerns and also with other Christians and non-Christians with whom I can have friendly discussions.

In order to let you know a few of the topics with which I am currently wrestling so you might be able to tell if you fall into the category of like-minded, here are a few...

The differences between ekklesia and the current manifestations of church.

How should Christians be mobilized to advance the Kingdom of Jesus Christ as a united front?

How can Christian fellowship evolve in this new normal during and after covid? Can we break away from the forms which have persisted since Christian worship and fellowship began to be tied to edifices?

Can we do a better job following Paul's directions in Ephesians chapter 4? It is not the job of the prophets, teachers, evangelists, pastors, and apostles to build up the Body of Christ. It is their job to equip all of us to build up the Body of Christ. We are all meant to use our spiritual gifts for ministry to one another. The prophets, teachers, evangelists, pastors, and apostles are supposed to equip us to do our job, not do our job for us. (Sorry, I guess I started a rant there.)

The biggest challenges in my Christian life are prayer, doubt, and confusion.

I'm being intentionally vague in order to not broadcast to the world my identity. If individuals are interested in connecting with me on a more personal level, I might let my shields down a bit at that point.

My favorite topics of discussion are fiction writing and fiction in general. My current work in progress is a rehash and recombination of several of my many false starts.

Thanks for taking a moment to read this, my initial self-introduction.

After reading the whole post, (not that I didn't have questions and comments to your several questions), my first question is what (or do you have one) is your current thinking on last days —do you hold to dispensationalism or what? Not that I want to categorize you, nor do I hold completely to any particular eschatology, but it makes a difference on how much into the other questions I want to get, with you.

(Just a little about me, I'm 65 and have been (according to my mother I accepted the Lord when I was 5 years old, and there was an immediate difference —I don't remember it); I was saying, I have been among Christians my whole life, as my parents were teachers at a foreign Bible institute and seminary, and I have been a serious Bible student ever since I got married at 21. My upbringing was Arminian-leaning doctrinally, on my mother's side, my father's side more non-declaring, non-confrontational Reformed. My father was an able Greek scholar, even an authority on it, you might say; both parents were involved in Spanish translations of the Bible.)

 

[pdudgeon]

Sounds very interesting!
I think that you have hit several nailed on the head in your initial offering here.
I would agree that "Equipping the Saints" seems to be falling woefully far behind what it should be now, considering the general reaction that I have seen to what is happening outside in the World.
If anyone should be able to recognize what is happening now, it should be Christians. But sadly, I haven't found very many of those that I know who are alert and aware.
Anyway, welcome to CF! We're glad that you are here.

 

[wiseracoon]

Sounds very interesting!
I think that you have hit several nailed on the head in your initial offering here.
I would agree that "Equipping the Saints" seems to be falling woefully far behind what it should be now, considering the general reaction that I have seen to what is happening outside in the World.
If anyone should be able to recognize what is happening now, it should be Christians. But sadly, I haven't found very many of those that I know who are alert and aware.
Anyway, welcome to CF! We're glad that you are here.

Thank you.

I supposed I could go read the forum's definition of traditional Catholic, but I'll take a little shortcut and just ask directly. Besides, hearing it from you directly will probably satisfy my curiosity a little more completely.

Your profile seems to indicate you are pegged as a traditional Catholic. Does that mean you are St. Pius Latin-style traditional Catholic who doesn't buy in with Vatican II? Or are you a person who tends to follow the Church's teaching from Vatican II in strictly orthodox manner?

I could site examples of how the whole Ephesians 4 discussion relates within a Catholic experience context.

I'm quite familiar with schools of thought within the Catholic Church over the last 30 years or more, the New Evangelization, Intentional Discipleship. We might be on a first-name basis with some of the same people (Sherry Weddell, for instance).

We could possibly have some interesting discussions.

 

[wiseracoon]

...first question is what (or do you have one) is your current thinking on last days —do you hold to dispensationalism or what? ...

Thank you.

I'll whip off a quick response here to let you know I'm paying attention.

It's great to find someone of my own age who might relate to my long faith experience, my history, life experience, and have some time to discuss since you probably aren't busy raising kids.

I grew up with The Late Great Planet Earth and I've read every one of the Left Behind books, including the prequels. I have also read several other books which fictionalize the end times.

So I guess I'm steeped in pre-millennial dispensationalism from at least that angle. I know there's more to that theology than end-time prophesy interpretation.

The thing is, I'm not totally banking on a pre-tribulation rapture. I won't be surprised if there is a rapture, and I won't be surprised if there isn't one. I also won't be surprised if a rapture occurs sometime during a tribulation.

My curse is I can see merit in positions on either side of an interpretation. I even see merit in the preterist positions, both full and partial. I don't know the schools of thought thoroughly but I've got a smattering of what they are about.

It gets tangled when you find a scholar who you find convincing on one issue and then find you disagree on others. An example is Dr. Michael S. Heiser. I find his views on the supernatural realms convincing but when I found he was a partial preterist, I had to study and think about if I could agree with him there. I'm still not sure.

There is much more to all of this that I don't know anything about than there is of the stuff I think I know something about. Let's learn together.

Wow. I really didn't mean to go so deep into it when I need to get some other stuff done right now.

I'll check back with y'all later.

 

[Mark Quayle]

My curse is I can see merit in positions on either side of an interpretation. I even see merit in the preterist positions, both full and partial. I don't know the schools of thought thoroughly but I've got a smattering of what they are about.

This I can identify with. In fact, the most trusted veteran scholar I know, (my dad), could have said the same thing, and he spent just about all his 'free' time (many, many hours per day) in study of the Bible.

 

[pdudgeon]

Thank you.

I supposed I could go read the forum's definition of traditional Catholic, but I'll take a little shortcut and just ask directly. Besides, hearing it from you directly will probably satisfy my curiosity a little more completely.

Your profile seems to indicate you are pegged as a traditional Catholic. Does that mean you are St. Pius Latin-style traditional Catholic who doesn't buy in with Vatican II? Or are you a person who tends to follow the Church's teaching from Vatican II in strictly orthodox manner?

I could site examples of how the whole Ephesians 4 discussion relates within a Catholic experience context.

I'm quite familiar with schools of thought within the Catholic Church over the last 30 years or more, the New Evangelization, Intentional Discipleship. We might be on a first-name basis with some of the same people (Sherry Weddell, for instance).

We could possibly have some interesting discussions.

Thanks for asking.
It means that I grew up just two blocks away from a traditional Catholic (Latin) church on one side, and two blocks away on the other side from a traditional Methodist Church on the other side.
It was an interesting experience because I could see where the Catholic Church had designated leadership positions built in for women, but could find none in the Methodist Church.

 

[pdudgeon]

It was amazing, because I had expected to find just the opposite!
It took me a long time to convert to the Catholic Church, but I made it.
It wasn't a traditional Catholic Church, but I hope one day to get to one again.

 

[wiseracoon]

It was amazing because I had expected to find just the opposite!
It took me a long time to convert to the Catholic Church, but I made it.
It wasn't a traditional Catholic Church, but I hope one day to get to one again.

To make a long story short, I will summarize that my spouse and I spent time in several different faith traditions through the first couple decades of our time together. I wanted to learn how to see things through Roman Catholic eyes and, after a few months, I convinced my spouse to join me in my exploration. We went through RCIA and have spent most of the time over the more two decades following as seriously practicing Catholics.

However, I must admit, due to some bumps in the road along the way, we got fed up with some things, probably not the ones you'd expect, and ventured to other faith traditions.

It's complicated. Our relationship with the Catholic Church is now a mixed bag.

My assessments of how the Catholic Church is now playing out are that of an insider, not as a non-Catholic outsider.

 

[Mark Quayle]

It was an interesting experience because I could see where the Catholic Church had designated leadership positions built in for women, but could find none in the Methodist Church.

haha! You ARE old!

 

[pdudgeon]

haha! You ARE old!

Honey, I'm not just old, I'm positively ancient!

 

[Joined2krist]

Hi wiseracoon, welcome to CF

 

[gym_class_hero]

Good morning Wise. God bless you. I was raised Catholic and am not a fan.

 

[wiseracoon]

Hi wiseracoon, welcome to CF

Thank you.

 

[wiseracoon]

Good morning Wise. God bless you. I was raised Catholic and am not a fan.

We, my spouse and I, grew up in non-Catholic faith traditions, but we found some of our best friends were Catholic. When we started digging into learning about the Catholic Church from the official Church documents, not from what Catholics or non-Catholics said, we found there was much to be admired about what the Church taught.

The cluster of problems contributing to us now not going back to mass now when covid is letting up a bit is this. The great initiatives like the New Evangelization and discipleship coming from great visionaries like Sherry Weddell are moving forward at glacial speed. I would love to be part of seeing Catholics being evangelized to vibrant relationships with JEsus, and discipled to become reproducing Christians, but I will be on my deathbed by the time my parish gets off its proverbial behind and actually implements anything. I can't wait.

There's some advice I have heard here and there. Find where God is working and go to work for Him wherever that is. Without parish hopping, it won't happen. The parish I am, the largest in my diocese, has switched pastors so often, every time the pastor does a restart and takes a few years to decide what he wants to do. The one there now is looking at retirement. He won't rock the boat.

Do you sense some frustration in what I've written?

There is weird stuff in the Catholic Church but there's also potential. There's weird stuff in every Christian group. If Christians are going to present a united front to advance the Kingdom of Christ, we need to get the Catholics on board. They are fully 50% of those who adhere to the Nicene Creed. We can't afford to write off half of Christianity and expect to accomplish the Great Commission.

 

[sunshineforJesus]

Hi and welcome here.

 

[wiseracoon]

Hi and welcome here.

Thank you.

 

[Deade]

Hello Wiseracoon, welcome to CF.

I hope you'll enjoy your stay here.

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[wiseracoon]

Hello Wiseracoon, welcome to CF.

I hope you'll enjoy your stay here.

Thank you.