What Do I Believe?

Why Do I Believe It?

Where Do Those Beliefs Come From?

Are Those Answers Good Enough?

Far too many of us have never really thought about the answers to those questions.  We don't realize that we typically believe what we have been told, or read, from a very limited set of personal experiences.  We then assume that is what is "right", and that our beliefs aren't influenced by our culture, time, history, and language.

The faith of Jesus and the Apostles transcends culture, but too often, it is expressed in ways that make our cultural expression "right", and other expressions "wrong".  There are layers of culture that interfere with our understanding of God and his message to people - time, wealth, education, intercultural exposure, ethnicity, and the history of our nation, region, and community.  If we aren't deliberate about it, we never even realize how those corruptions of the true message of the love of God are interfering with our growth and how we communicate to others.  Also, when we find our cultural associations with the message of Jesus ring hollow, we believe the faith itself is false - when those cultural concepts were never part of it in the first place.

These projects are aimed toward helping people see the need for answering the four questions, and helping them get started on answers.