About 1 - Strategy
January 28, 2024 (various word edits)
About - 1 Strategy
The About series is an optional website position statement. For a description of the About series, go to the end of the article.
Introduction
Many factors shape the content of websites, including this one. God inspires people; people do works, people consecrate the works, and we trust that God will work through them. The Holy Ghost’s presence can empower each believer and the church. Without His presence, Christianity would be weak. All world religions continue because humankind has an innate capability for the supernatural, the spiritual, the eternal part of us. When people exercise their capacity for the supernatural, they don’t always comply with the best that can be found. Largely, we look where our parents did. This website offers distinctly Christian ideas that the reader may find helpful for resolving challenges in the Christian faith. Challenges that defy resolution from one perspective - - may not from another.
Context informs perspective, so the About series serves as a framework or context for the perspectives presented. The content in the About section of the website is not essential for profiting from the core content. The purpose of this website is to provide or remind believers of alternative perspectives. The alternative perspectives are from other mainstream belief sets, widely accepted to contain the essentials of being Christian, although those churches may state them differently.
Context and Perspective
Context
We all have a set of biases. Many factors shape this. Among those are our personal history, how we spend our time, and exposure to teachers and friends. Combined, these form a concept environment, each person’s context.
Context informs perspective. Our belief environment is the context from which our perspectives are informed. This guides many activities, such as how we practice the faith and how to understand religious rituals. Several factors create our opinions of Christianity and the rest of life. The factors create a frame of reference. The challenge will be to open new solution paths through alternative Christian perspectives while failing to meet the requirements for proselytizing. [Filters play a role in keeping us from an experience of Christianity through a perspective that is not our own. This requires a full article to lay a foundation and more writings to illustrate. The foundational article is done, but that will not be posted for some time.]
We believe that some periods of spiritual dryness, where God is silent and seems distant, can be lessened and vanquished by shifting to a different context. This same reasoning applies to conflicts between faith beliefs and life experience.
The frame of reference provides a context for understanding. The frame of reference also plays a role in interpreting scripture. Within the community of generally accepted church denominations, there are some competing teachings where if one is true, the other cannot be true (at the same time). Each person’s context supports a perspective where one set of beliefs is more correct than alternatives.
A context can be a thought space for one or more perspectives. Here is a simple illustration, one context, and one perspective. You are told about a warm room where an ice cube sits on a table. From your perspective, you predict that the ice cube will turn to water over time. You used awareness of context, room temperature, and ice melting point to make the prediction.
In the same way, when we are trying to understand someone else’s point of view, it is helpful to know something about their frame of reference (context). This includes their experiences, their beliefs, and their values. When we understand someone else’s context, we can better understand their beliefs from their perspective and appreciate their point of view. Hopefully, promoting unity in spirit for the body of Christ, the church.
Perspective
Context informs perspective. Restating, context provides the environment in which perspectives exist. One person’s perspective is different than another person’s. The result is that each person has an opinion with some unique elements. This website may be of value for solving certain types of problems by approaching them from a different perspective. It may be of value to the reader to temporarily assume a slightly different context.
Sometimes, opinions are formed from how we interpret observations. Observation, analysis, and prediction take place from a perspective. Perspective exists in a context (frame of reference), a thought space.
To illustrate, imagine someone in a small room with a person holding a ball. For nearly all of life experience, when the person releases the ball, it falls to the floor. However, when they release the ball this time, it floats. One way to explain this is to assume the small room is an elevator accelerating downward at the same rate as gravity. 1
For another example, we will contrast the context of a puppy and a cat. Imagine that your best friend gave you a puppy. Puppies have lots of energy; they love to run and play. Puppies make people happy. From the puppy’s perspective, the whole world is their playground, and everyone wants to run and play. The puppy sees a cat, and his first thought is, let’s play chase. The cat sees an awkward, clumsy dog about her size running at her. From the cat’s perspective, this stranger behaves like a predator on the attack, and she thinks, I am the prey. The puppy sees the cat standing her ground, back hunched, hair bristling. He becomes confused and abruptly stops. The cat2 saw a creature charging at her and prepared to defend herself, which, from the cat’s perspective, discouraged the attacker, scaring the predator so that he aborted the attack. Each animal seems to only know of or understand its perspective.
Consider making a dedicated effort to understand life, sin, the Bible, and salvation from another Christian perspective. Enduring perspectives endure for a reason. You may discover that Christian belief sets you had dismissed have value in some circumstances. Some problems that exist from one perspective do not from another one. Experimenting privately with these may help you solve a problem in the faith.
Summary
On this website are ideas that may be from a different Christian perspective than what you presently hold. Every context supports at least one perspective. Some problems exist in one perspective but not in another. When you have more than one perspective available, it is like having two gages, one for wind speed and the other for the number of friends you have. Some data points exist in one spectrum but not the other. This is like some types of problems Christians work through in the faith.
Sometimes, sincerely contemplating a second perspective is uncomfortable, although it is intended to be temporary for our purposes. But it may be how you solve some problems in the faith. Some types of problems require surgery of the heart to restore spiritual health. It will hurt. The fundamental purpose of this website is not for those who are satisfied with their spirituality but for believers who know they are going in a direction away from Christianity. Perhaps there is surgery of the heart we might call circumcision of the heart.
Conclusion
Regardless of anything else, we must depend on a God who makes a difference in humankind’s lives.
The “About” Article Series is Optional Content
Each church participant has a different role, so you must decide whether the About series interests you. Some challenges in the faith existing in one perspective do not exist in another, or there is a straightforward solution when viewed differently. The About series does not contain core content for which this website exists. Consider these articles as optional, providing context for this website.
The context is predominantly protestant with a hope to be compatible with Catholic perspectives.
About 1 - Strategy
This website exists to help Christians who are struggling in matters of faith or whose faith has become a mediocre experience. The article About 1 - Strategy, explains the website’s approach.
About 2 - Intersection
A Venn diagram has circles where parts overlap, defining the region of intersection of two or more parts. This website exists at the intersection of several conditions. These include the availability of help, the availability of the author or authors, and other time factors, along with insight into human strengths, frailties, weaknesses, and more.
About 3 - Analysis
This website approaches Christianity from the belief that Christianity is real, for today, and makes a difference in people’s lives. Therefore, most Christianity can be codified as a set of tenets (assertions) that pass some test of reason.
About 4 - Error
This is a brief statement on Christian cults, and Cult group social dynamics.