Eastertide 2024 at FCCBC: The Future's Threshold

The landscape of faith in the Western world has shifted dramatically in the last 50 years. Long past are the days of compulsory church attendance.

Many churches have already closed, their properties transitioned, and their people sent on pilgrimage—and many more are to come.

Many seekers in this world are disconnected from the faith communities that once nurtured their faith and identity.

And many more have been taken in by a twisted version of “Christianity” which mistakes the way of superiority and power for the way of the cross. 

Rightly, many are deconstructing their faith entirely, seeking to reimagine it for another generation. For us, the way forward seems daunting and bewildering.

Yet, we are still here. Christ is still risen. And we still have a priceless gift to offer this world.

What does this moment ask of us as a community seeking to embody God’s love on earth?

In a June 2023 article in The Christian Century entitled “Deconstructed, reimagined faith,” Theologian Peter Choi identifies five movements that are happening in the religious climate as Christ followers and sincere seekers are moving into the next era of faith. 

Choi writes, “Each shift signals an important step in reimagining faith—via deconstruction—for another generation.”

These movements are just some the ways that folks are taking apart and reimagining their faith, across diverse cultural positions and with different reasons for deconstruction, toward a more honest, more embodied, and more salient expression of faith for the 21st century and beyond. 

As we continue to sink into the mystery of resurrection during this Eastertide, we will explore these five movements and what they might mean for us as we move into the next act of our life together.

• April 14th: From superiority to mutuality (Exodus 2.11-25)

• April 21st: From triumphalism to lament (Micah 3.5-12)

• April 28th: From morality to dignity (Luke 13.10-17)

• May 5th: From rhetoric to embodiment (James 2.14-18)

• May 12th: From certainty to mystery (1 Corinthians 13.8-13)