In our heart-led path, we have the full assurance all truth is already active within our convictions, but a lot of head knowledge arising from that isn’t triggered until someone or something provokes the right question. That’s how it works for us. We each will have our own answers to some questions, but there is often a broad agreement between us. This is how we decide to associate with each other, to form an online parish of like faith and practice.
Some comments surrounding the publication of the most recent book, and the series posted here that made up the book, have provoked some contemplation. I sense the need to explain some things just so the folks who support this ministry can understand the concrete reality that is implied by our shared convictions.
Radix Fidem is a little too esoteric for most folks. Private communication confirms that again and again. We will see growth, but only from a thin slice of humanity. It’s not that we are so elite, though some of us joke about that, but that we share a certain odd outlook that most of the world will never understand. But that doesn’t mean we can’t understand the rest of the world and what motivates them. I went into that series trying to reach a broader audience than the folks who tend to join themselves to this virtual parish. It’s our curriculum for outsiders.
Nothing about Radix Fidem lends itself to institutional growth. That’s simply not a part of our ministry here. We are sacrificial in that sense; we don’t expect much pay-back. If a return on investment is what drives you, this is not the right place for you. The very act of trying to define what we really need from religion means that we have an awareness that most folks don’t need the same thing. We are called by God to help those who would never join us.
The best gift we can give them is the heart-led sense of awareness about faith itself. The book tries to point the way to what it means to be committed from the heart, and it includes a heavy dose of Biblical Law — the sense of organic continuity between law and faith, versus the strict binary approach of Western heritage. But if they only thing they see is that first section on the importance of the heart as the seat of the faith, we have won the biggest battle. God can nudge them toward His divine character any way He likes after that.
The same Holy Spirit can help you discern when you have encountered someone who is ready for our covenant of Radix Fidem, so it’s not like I’m suggesting you keep that a secret. But you should realize that, for most of the world out there, that’s just too much too soon. We aren’t exactly reticent, but we are sparing them the shock of moving that far all at once. It’s far better for us as a covenant community that we attract only the few whom God designed and shaped like this. We should be looking to help folks find their own path. The world needs Jesus, not you and me.
