What Does Love Look Like? - Part II - Week 1

1. The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name
May your kingdom come, may your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our sins
As we forgive those who sin against us
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil
For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory
Forever and ever.
Amen.

4. vintagelawrence.com/what-does-love-look-like-2

5. FLASHING LIGHTS = DANGER!
1. Loss of Christendom influence
- Churches = competing brands
2. Problem of Christendom habits
- How we talk (”Christianese”)
- Assumed desire for ”church”
- Presumed respect for leaders
3. Tendency to make enemies
- Indistinguishable from the world

6. ANTAGONISM
The making of an enemy
by turning someone
into an “other”
(e.g. reducing someone to a
caricature, or intentional name
calling in order to reduce
another’s humanity and justify
our anger/bitterness/violence…)

7. ENEMY MAKING MACHINE
A social dynamic where we’re
always forced to take sides,
defining ourselves against
someone via a given position; our
identities get attached to this
position; our hearts/minds get
tethered to the position;
we defend ourselves at all costs,
perpetuating the machine…

8. THREE POSSIBLE OPTIONS
1. Defensive Posture
(Hunker In The Bunker)
2. Accommodating Posture
(Shift to Assimilate)
3. Welcoming Posture
(Listening/Discerning Together)
Together)

9. “Extracting beliefs from everyday life,
making them a banner to be waved,
creates enemies. It is the way the
enemy-making machine works. It is
the way ideology works… (Ironically),
banners, as a rule, tend to make us
passive toward actually living our faith.”
DAVID FITCH

10. e.g. “INERRANT BIBLE”
- A priori conviction that
moves beyond “distinctive”
to become a “banner”
- Has very little impact on how
we actually live day-to-day
- Has major impact on what
its strongest advocates think
about those who disagree…

11. “You could say that ‘beliefs – practices =
(almost always) ideology.’ Cultural theorists
have called these banners ‘master signifiers.’
Churches and leaders must learn how to
discern when distinctives become master
signifiers if we are ever to avoid getting
sucked into the enemy-making machine.”
DAVID FITCH

12. - “We don’t eat/drink ______...”
- “We only vote for candidates who are ____...”
- ”We only cheer for _____...”
- “We only use the _______ translation…”
- “We believe ______ interpretation is
THE interpretation…”
- “… And you should too, and if you don’t…”
EXAMPLES of “BANNERS”

13. WHAT ABOUT VINTAGE?
What ”distinctives” are we in
danger of allowing to become
“banners” if we’re not careful?
Are there “distinctives” that
you have allowed to become
“banners” in your own life?
How does that impact you/
others/us as a community?

15. The Jesus Creed
Hear O’ Israel
the LORD our God,
the LORD is one;
You shall love the LORD your God
with all your heart, will all your soul,
with all your mind, and with all your strength,
and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment
greater than these.
Amen.