United With God

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Dave Henderson

Well-Known Member
On January 1st I began a national, grassroots campaign called United With God, joyfully proclaiming God in our lives, the world and the United Church of Canada. United with God affirms the absolute necessity of God's loving presence in the life-changing work for personal spiritual transformation and social justice carried out by our church and our people in the world. We acknowledge this United Church of ours defines the nature of the triune God in many different ways, yet we come together in essential agreement and love as a community of faith to celebrate the existence of God. The only goal of United With God is to proclaim God, celebrate Jesus and welcome the Holy Spirit in our lives, the world and the United Church of Canada. Our website is unitedwithgod.org Our Facebook page is simply United With God. United With God is a celebration of God in the world and in our United Church. “Grateful for God’s loving action, we cannot keep from singing.” United Church Song of Faith 2006
 
Welcome to WonderCafe2 Dave. I'll wait until I have more time to check into this before I comment.
 
It's just so backwards to me to *proclaim* the existence of something before you can *demonstrate* its existence.

Why shoot yourself in the foot like that?
 
Backwardness is a good step on the recall of what's turned around from what's past, or a pest to others!

Some call it po' whett'n at the edge factor ...
 
Hi Chansen, I know, proclaiming God without being able to empirically prove Her existence is foolish and backward. Just call me one of those backwards Christians! ;-)
 
Dave Henderson said:
Hi Chansen, I know, proclaiming God without being able to empirically prove Her existence is foolish and backward. Just call me one of those backwards Christians! ;-)
Click to expand...

Some of us like that archaic recall ... drawing on all the past literary devices used to hide love in face of expanding hate and insane actions mistaken for passions ...

One must always look over the shoulder ... there may a down falling intellect as info in the ditching ... plunge or immersion effect? Perhaps we can reference Dante!
 
Dave Henderson said:
Hi Chansen, I know, proclaiming God without being able to empirically prove Her existence is foolish and backward. Just call me one of those backwards Christians! ;-)
Click to expand...
I get that you're proud of that, but understand that to a growing part of the population, it's not something to brag about.

I understand there is good to be done, but why put it in the name of something that undermines your credibility from the start?
 
Is God wise as well as passionate to a fall (fallacy)?

There's an enigma for the rising stars like trump cards with great winds ... intern al-ized. They heat on compression; basic thermodynamics ... like Galileo's commentary ... better buried in verse when conversing with staid characters ... well stuck on opinion-ism? Dis as socialism works for me as I stand a' part on look on ... from my field ... out-there they say!
 
God is where I wrestle with returning to the UCCan when I consider doing so. While I'm not a hardcore atheist, more of an agnostic, I certainly do not believe in a personal deity, just in a general sense of my relationship to a "Divine Cosmos", filled with wonder and power but not necessarily with a directing intelligence. It is something you can celebrate and even worship, but not something you pray to or take guidance from (you can take guidance from your sense of relationship to it, though).
 
Mendalla said:
God is where I wrestle with returning to the UCCan when I consider doing so. While I'm not a hardcore atheist, more of an agnostic, I certainly do not believe in a personal deity, just in a general sense of my relationship to a "Divine Cosmos", filled with wonder and power but not necessarily with a directing intelligence. It is something you can celebrate and even worship, but not something you pray to or take guidance from (you can take guidance from your sense of relationship to it, though).
Click to expand...

A virtue of the true wanderer or seeker ... of stuff beyond us as staid sense!
 
chansen said:
I get that you're proud of that, but understand that to a growing part of the population, it's not something to brag about.

I understand there is good to be done, but why put it in the name of something that undermines your credibility from the start?
Click to expand...
Well now, first off I'm not bragging (at least I wasn't trying to), I am stating. And how the population takes my proclamation is not a primary concern for me. My primary concern is that I joyfully proclaim God in my life and in the world, which is what I am doing. For all the complexities of God might encompass, proclaiming God is a simple exercise.
 
Dave Henderson said:
Well now, first off I'm not bragging (at least I wasn't trying to), I am stating. And how the population takes my proclamation is not a primary concern for me.
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Ah. This is a version of "evangelism" I am not familiar with, then.

Dave Henderson said:
My primary concern is that I joyfully proclaim God in my life and in the world, which is what I am doing. For all the complexities of God might encompass, proclaiming God is a simple exercise.
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That attracts simple people, yes. But your denomination is not that simple.
 
@Dave Henderson

Do you have a reason for starting this grassroots initiative? Does it have anything to do with a certain (self-declared) atheist minister by any chance?
 
paradox3 said:
@Dave Henderson

Do you have a reason for starting this grassroots initiative? Does it have anything to do with a certain (self-declared) atheist minister by any chance?
Click to expand...

My questions as well. I agree with most of what @Dave Henderson has written - including his definition of evangelism that chansen says he's unfamiliar with. But I'm not sure I get the point. Is this an in-house support group to encourage people in the United Church who are concerned about Greta (in which case it might have a purpose) or is it a statement to the wider church/world that Greta doesn't represent the United Church? And - especially if the latter - I'm wondering what sort of traction this can gain. Frankly, a hundred Christians saying they believe in God is less interesting than one minister who says she doesn't believe in God. Which means the one will get a lot more attention than the one hundred, leading to the impression that the one is more than that and the one hundred is less than that. Perception becomes reality, in other words.

Also - while I looked at the website, the Facebook page doesn't show up when I search for it. Is it not up and running yet?
 
[QUOTE="revsdd, post: 156773, member: 34"
Also - while I looked at the website, the Facebook page doesn't show up when I search for it. Is it not up and running yet?[/QUOTE]
https://www.facebook.com/standingwithgod/
Pages don't come up in search results well I find unless you specifically search for pages - not just the general search.
 
From the website it looks like the goal is to make a statement to the wider United Church from within the denomination.

The purpose of this initiative is not clear but I suspect it might be pushback against Gretta and her supporters. Many are advocating that the United Church re-examine its theological base and perhaps Dave is trying to lay some groundwork for this.

Would like to hear from @Dave Henderson.
 
chansen said:
It's just so backwards to me to *proclaim* the existence of something before you can *demonstrate* its existence.

Why shoot yourself in the foot like that?
Click to expand...
--Hi Dave --Don't give up so easy.

Airclean-post Chansen-- This from a guy who says there is no GOD. Yet can't prove it.--BANG--;)
 
Is United With God about Gretta Vosper and her atheist beliefs? No. Was it initially inspired by Gretta Vosper and her atheist beliefs? Yes. But it has become more, and better for it. I wrestled for many months regarding my future with the United Church of Canada. I prayed over it, wrestled with it and dealt with many emotions. I read our website, and our faith statements. God's word to me was stay. Not to fight, fuss and faction, but to simply proclaim God in my life, in the world and in this United Church I love so much. And it has become, for me, a joyful journey. Where will that journey end? I'm not sure, but it's one I know I need to be on.
 
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