I’ve got to write this one down. I had a conversation with someone who is loving Jacob’s Well and, judging from her experience with church and religion in the past ,this is surprising. I asked her what she liked so much and among other things she said, “It’s like practical Christianity.”
That stopped me for a moment. My old instincts took over and made me think that ‘practical’ was mundane, maybe even “works righteousness” oriented. Then my mind started flooding with Bible verses,
“…teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you…”
“…faith without works is dead…”
“…take up your cross and follow me…”
“…hear the word, accept it and bear fruit. Thirty, sixty and a hundredfold…”
We started Jacob’s Well to help people have a relationship with God that made a difference in their lives, that gave them traction. We believe God isn’t just a good idea and faith isn’t just a set of doctrines but a mode of life – relevant and valuable to us everyday.
I have been criticized for keeping praxis lock stepped with doctrine, but that’s part of being precarious. C’est le vie. If the alternative to ‘practical Christianity’ is ‘impractical Christianity’ count me in on practical!
Precarious Pastor 