faithmaps

i've been blessed to come across a great blog by stephen shields. it has sparked some email conversations between he and i which have led me to a concept/site referred to as faithmaps.

faithmaps are briefly described by stephen using 3 suggestions.

1 - "A faithmap...does not detail every particular."
2 - "A faithmap highlights known reference points on the terrain"
3 - "a faithmap is designed to be used while going somewhere."

the reason why this is so intriguing to me is rooted in my disappointment with the systematic theology which i was trained in during college and seminary. my frustration with systematic theology is...i felt like systematic theology didn't know what to do with the tensions i found in the bible. as bell put it in his intro to velvit elvis, the systematic theology i was trained in seemed more like a brick wall with mis-shaped bricks in weird places. and if these 'questionable' bricks were pulled out, my whole wall would fall down. or as mclaren speaks about, a puzzle that seems to have pieces that don't fit, so i hid them or 'forced' them to fit with systematic theology.

as i dig into the concept of faithmaps, i am interested to see if this aligns more with my heart and head as i emmerse myself in the scriptures. hope this helps you too!