City United Reformed Church, Cardiff

A Moment with our Ministers

Author Sarah Bessey, writes, ‘Anyone who gets to the end of their life with the exact same beliefs and opinions as they had at the beginning is doing it wrong.’ This is a striking quote and may seem quite bold, even rigid, reading it on this page.
But let’s stop for a minute and think about our faith. Do you believe the same way you did at 10, 25, 40, 65? Would you describe God in the same way as when you were growing up in Sunday School or heard Bible stories in school?
Probably not.
Certainly, both of us have experiences of being nurtured in faith in fairly traditional Christian contexts. David has a Southern Baptist heritage. Martha was nurtured by InterVarsity leadership–the same as Christian Union in the UK universities. Our teachers, though full of gifts, taught about faith from a particular perspective that didn’t encourage a lot of questions. Their expectations were that we would follow in that tradition. It seemed to surprise some who knew us that we did not continue on those paths. We asked lots of questions of the Bible and of faith traditions.
Neither of us would describe our faith or our beliefs in the same way we would have 40 years ago, though we can certainly see God’s hand at work in our reflections from our 20’s. We can see God guiding us to where we are now in our theologies and beliefs. Both of us have had many people tell us they don’t believe in God because
God ‘allowed’ something hurtful to happen in their lives. They seemed to see God as a magic puppeteer who controlled the strings on everything. When God didn’t seem to control something in their life in the way they hoped God would, they walked away rather than reexamining their beliefs to find the flaws and grow in their relationship with God.
What about you? Has life thrown experiences at you which have caused you to rethink what you believe about God? In effect, you have had to be your own theologians–taking your experiences and what you have learned about God to create a relationship and thought process that helps you understand God in your life and from your worldview.

Having said all that, perhaps Sarah Bessey is right. We all have opportunities to grow our faith, re-examine our beliefs, and develop our relationships with God. We can do this at Theology on Tap, by reading Christian books, by having conversations with people who think differently than we do, by subscribing to podcasts, or simply by listening on a Sunday morning during worship.
One of the joys of faith is God’s presence with us as the ‘Ground of Our Being.’ (Paul Tillich) This implies God is a constant, even as our understanding of God changes and develops. May you be blessed with the abiding presence of God and with opportunities and conversations that enable you to grow and develop your faith–whatever age or stage you are.

Peace, Martha and David