Belief, Language and Action: The Dynamics of Discipleship
As I work on my book, I'm beginning to budget my time. The Friday Nudge and Weekly Essay will come together on one day of the week - Friday!
Friends, I’m sitting at my favourite used bookstore/coffee shop Black Squirrel Books. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that I’m in a place surrounded by books, surrounded by language and the way it shapes all of us, as I click ‘send’ on this week’s essay. You’ll see what I mean in a second…
This is the first week that your Friday Nudge and essay for paid subscribers come together in one post. This is to help me budget my time as I work on my book, develop a program to help people of faith with their eco-anxiety, and keep my Substack up and running. I hope it also serves as a way to keep your inbox or app slightly less cluttered - you can find this week’s inspiration and encouragement in one place a week, not two!
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Your Friday Nudge: Exploring Your Words to Describe God and the Natural World
This week in my essay I talk about how our belief, language and action work together for good - or not - in our Christian discipleship. It is the third part of my discipleship series in which I explore more fully what discipleship means in response to the climate and ecological crisis.
The words that we use to describe God, the natural world and ourselves have a direct impact upon our discipleship. There are the words that we think we use, and then there are the ones that are functioning below the level of our immediate consciousness…how close are those to one another? Your Friday Nudge this week is to take some time, ideally with a journal or notebook, and take some time to explore the following questions:
What names for God do you use? Have they changed over time? What does God look like?
If you were to describe the natural world to an alien (who understood your language), how would you do so? What is the relationship of the natural world to people? To God?
How would you describe your relationship with God and the natural world?
Once you have written these down, let them percolate over the next week. Do you need to add other words to the list? Scratch some off? Do they shift or change depending on the context? Doing this work can be part of your discipleship in action.
Want to understand more about this? Check out this week’s essay!
Weekly Essay: Belief, Language and Action: The Dynamics of Discipleship
How Discipleship Functions (Essay #3 in the series)
In the previous essay in this series, (you can read it here), I introduced you to a more nuanced understanding of Christian discipleship than you will find in a Google search or mainstream books on Amazon. The working definition that I am using to explore the idea of discipleship in response to the climate and ecological crisis is this:
Discipleship is faith lived out in action.
I pointed out that right action (rather than the ‘right belief’ of the popular definitions discussed in my first essay) is what is prioritized; right action is defined as action that is a faithful response to God’s call on our lives. While right action has implications for ethics, it goes far beyond ethics. Right action is about living in a way that brings transformation for ourselves and the world around us! Ultimately, discipleship is about living a life modelled on the cruciform way of Jesus, leaning toward the kingdom of God that is already and not yet here in its fullness.
The next step in understanding discipleship in the climate emergency is to learn about the dynamics of discipleship. The path from our beliefs to our actions is neither straightforward nor linear; we can say that something is important to us, like reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but then not act accordingly. How does discipleship function? What is going on in our minds and hearts that leads us – or takes us away from – the right action that God calls us to?
If you want to learn more about discipleship in a climate emergency, and especially about how your discipleship works, this is your chance! This series is available to paid subscribers. To upgrade your subscription, click here:
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