A reflection on The Post Evangelical, pages 76-77 and 78-79.

He’s right, you know. This is my world, and this is, in a nutshell, why I don’t feel comfortable with much of the evangelical church any more. I’m sick of people telling me the “right” behaviors (or rather, a list of things not to do). For faith to work for me, it needs to be experiential, authentic, progressive (making me a better person). I do crave spiritual direction, but I want it to look like mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, influencing me by lifestyle and immersion how to live a life of fulness and make (my own) wise decisions – not like a lecturer or a boss telling me what to do.

Jesus didn’t really tell people what their actions should look like. He changed their worldview, their perception of reality, and the actions inevitably followed. Thus the word “repent” – in the Greek it means “to change one’s mind.” So Jesus called people to repentance, but not (directly) to a change of actions, but to a change of mindset.