Patrik Olterman Rodhe's Blog, page 17

Art is not carnal

This is a blog post that should not need to be written. Art and artistic expression has been part of the church since it’s inception. And while art often is a physical expression (but not always, for example poetry) it is not carnal as defined by the false dichotomy of carnal/spiritual or materialistic as in the equally false dichotomy material/spiritual.

Art is first and foremost an expression of creativity which is in itself one of gods primary attributes (creator), when we create art we co-...

Ministry is not a program

Ministry is an interesting word for many reasons, the most important reason is that it does not mean what most people assume it means. For me as a Swede it has double significance as it is one of the Christian buzzwords that do not exist in the Swedish language. The closest we get to the the word ministry is “tjänst” which just like the english counterpart means job in the common vernacular but the word actually means service or favour.

In the same way the english word ministry (which for evan...

Grace has no exceptions

Grace, it’s such a beautiful concept. Grace an (undeserved) gift freely given. We read in the scriptures that god loved us before we knew about god, before we saw god, before we had our first god experience.

God’s grace is scandalous, outrageous and completely free, for EVERYONE. There are NO exceptions! There are no conditions, nor rules to follow, no magic prayer to pray, no special ritual or spiritual hoops to jump through. You are loved! God’s grace is there for you, no matter who you are,...

Community is not a meeting

The holy grail of church planting in my opinion is the building of a community. The way we traditionally do this is by planning activities in our church buildings and we put on meetings. That is we create structured environments in which people can meet and greet. I am not saying there is anything wrong with community building activities and structured meetings that have a purpose. But once again we must not confuse the finger pointing to the moon for the moon itself.

The meeting, the activity...

The Bible is not a book of doctrines

Anyone who has seriously read their bible knows this is true. There are no clear doctrines found in the bible. If this was the case then all churches would adhere to the same set of doctrines but as we all know the universal Christian church has split into countless fractions all over tiny (or sometimes not so tiny) differences in

If there was a way to just read scripture and distill a simple teaching from it, it would have been done, and we would all be in agreement as to what the text actual...

Church is not an adress

In evangelical circles we keep saying this, Church is the people not the building, but do we really understand it? The word church comes from the german kirche which in turn comes from the greek word kurios meaning lord. So the word church means “those who belong to the lord”, well you could of course make it mean houses belonging to the lord but that would be rather stretching it. When Jesus proclaims to Peter “on this rock I will build my church”, he is actually not saying the word church,...

Christianity is not a checklist

It’s not! Ask yourself this, are you a Christian? If so, why are you a christian? Is it because you believe certain things? The right things? Is it because you do certain things? Or are you a Christian because there is a divine reality of love and you live or at least wish to live in it!

At the center Christianity states that: god is love and that we love, because god first loved us. This would lead us to a Christianity that fundamentally is about discovering divine love, living loved and lovi...

Jesus is not a religion

While one can assume that Jesus may have been a religious man, Jesus himself is not a religion. He did not come to start a religion, he did not found a church and he did not write a sacred text nor did he ask anyone else to do so.

I think if Jesus had intended for his teachings to be written down, he would have been much more clear: Listen guys, make sure you get this down correctly! Instead he said: “I am the way”, not I know the way and I can tell you about it, so you can believe it. There i...

God is not a belief system

It is a simple truth really: god is god. God is not what we believe of god. God is not our theology or our doctrines. Since the dawn of time humans have had various ideas, religions, doctrines, theologies about god. God has remained god all that time. I will not say that god is unchanging, because I believe that god is love and love is a relational term, any living relation involves anyone involved in the relation changing in response to the other. So have we changed in response to the divine...

What is Salvation?

I have been returning to thoughts about this the last couple of days in several conversations with friends. As an officer of the Salvation Army I think it is an important question that needs to be contemplated often.

For many people Salvation is a word that is not used much, it is an antiquated religious notion that has little bearing on everyday life. For me, however it is a central question, that occupies all that I do, every day.

Salvation as forgiveness of sin

Most people are familiar with S...