ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL

Surprisingly, not many people seem to have thought about the wide range of ways in which people encounter God as their faith journey progresses.  That's probably partly due to the kind of insecurity that means that to make our choices look better, we have an inbuilt need to rubbish those of others.

 

Those who have written about the subject have generally not been writing to a charismatic audience though there are signs that may be changing.

 

So what are the pathways on which people encounter God?  Here goes even if making a list is the most certain way of leaving some out. 

• celebration 
• relationship
• words
• creation
• social action
• serving
• prayer

These are the ones that we explore--not because there aren't others but because some of the others demand a very different kind of church environment which doesn't blend well with our basic charismatic format. The most obvious of these are liturgy and the sacraments.  That's not to say that we don't recognize sacraments or do liturgy.  Baptism, breaking bread and laying on hands are intensely sacramental and sometimes we include liturgy in our events which are mainly taken up with expressive worship, relationships and the word.

 

One other notable omission is that of creativity.  Our guess is that this is because just for now we don't have many people for whom this is a central plank of their spiritual life.  In Dayspring's early days that was different with the arts playing a strong part in our spirituality.  Perhaps it will happen again.  (The photo is of Judy an artist who strongly influenced our life together until she died in 2002). 

 

Are there other pathways?  No doubt.  But to explore those we have identified click on the bulleted areas above.

 

To find out more about discovering your own pathway or how to explore untried routes, click here.

 

To comment or discuss Spiritual Pathways further click HERE.