CityView Magazine

faith H BY DAN ALGER We can celebrate what successes we see, call out the glaring mistakes we are making and most of all put out a call to stop just existing and really start living out a faith that makes a significant difference in this community. Don't Call It A Comeback Hello, friends. I took a little hi- atus, but I'm excited to be back writing for CityView again. Since it's been awhile since we've talked, let me quickly (re)introduce you to Engaging Christian Spirituality. In each issue of CityView we will look at a different topic surrounding the inter- action of Christ, his church and the cul- ture of the Fayetteville area. This is not, however, an inspirational column for the church newsletter written on a typewrit- er by a church secretary with a taupe pleated skirt, beads on her glasses and bun in her hair. It is not meant to stroke Christians or our Fayetteville churches with unthinking niceties or sappy sto- ries about footprints on the beach. Our purpose here is to really engage Chris- tianity in order to explore what a faith that is truly engaging looks like. We'll parse Christianity in our culture in an honest and sometimes difficult way — we 16 | November/December • 2011 can celebrate what successes we see, call out the glaring mistakes we are making and most of all put out a call to stop just existing and really start living out a faith that makes a significant dif- ference in this community. This column is written to challenge Christians in our area to a deeper faith, but also to offer a dialogue to those who are not Christians and are looking in from the outside. There are many folks in our community who have rejected Christ and/or his church, often times for very good reasons. If you fall into this camp, I say to you that I'm a Pastor and I reject a lot of the same things you are rejecting. You've seen our failures and our hypocrisy and, honestly, we owe you a pretty big apology for our overall inef- fectiveness at loving our city the way Je- sus calls us to. I'm sorry. Maybe together we can wave away some of the stank that has clouded the truth of Christ and at least consider what a revolutionary person Jesus is and see if there is any merit to his vision for this world. I'll answer your questions if you've got them as best I can. Send them to ecs@tcota.org. No topic is off limits — in the past we've discussed everything from racism, science, sex and music, to silly fish on the back of our cars. Write me and I'll get back with you. I believe that Jesus loves Fayetteville. I believe that Christians are called to healing her where she hurts, leading her where she's lost, bringing depth where she's shallow, and bringing life where she's dead. Jesus is in the business of transformation, so we should be as well. Maybe this column can be a small part of that revolution. I hope so. I'm excited to be back on this journey with you. CV Dan Alger is the Pastor of The Church of the Apostles in Hope Mills and can be reached at ecs@tcota.org.

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