Learning at Paradigm

The text below is taken from Paradigm’s website. Paradigm — in case you didn’t know — is a ministry that Julie and I are involved with in Seattle. Our vision: to create sustainable faith in Seattle. We’re inviting people to hear God’s story through interactive liturgy (Sunday night gatherings), deepen their understanding of the story (Paradigm communities during the week) and bring a bit of heaven to earth for our local and global neighbors (missional involvement opportunities).

We started a few months ago, and we’re very much still in the process of putting together a core team to serve as the nucleus for the ministry. Even during the process of inviting people to the team, we are gathering on Sunday nights to pursue God through a lot of worship forms and spiritual practices that we see becoming part of Paradigm’s long-term identity.

If you’re in Seattle and want to come by, we meet at 1059 NE 96th St in Seattle (fairly equidistant to Northgate Mall and Green Lake), in a building we share with Maple Leaf Church, at 6:00PM Sundays. (I feel like there should some sort of pithy gimmick here — “Mention that you heard about us through this blog and you’ll receive a free [something].”)

Or maybe you’re reading this and you’re not in Seattle, but you suddenly realize one of two things: 1) your newfound calling to pack up your things and move to Seattle to join us in our endeavor, or 2) the inclination to gently nudge your Seattle-area friends to check out Paradigm (maybe try something really subtle — “Paradigm is the greatest thing ever and the future of the universe depends on whether you go and take part in what they’re doing”). 

Um, yeah, we’re going to want you to act on either/both of those impulses.

In all seriousness though, we have been, are, and will be ridiculously grateful for anyone who wants to take a risk and give some time to a ministry that has the potential to make a significant impact in Seattle. Let me know if that’s you.

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(From the Paradigm site)

We want to relentlessly pursue truth. It’s our belief that God is pleased when people are willing to dig deeper than status quo assumptions, ask big questions, and engage the mystery and grandeur of God and His story.

We’ve made a few central commitments in how we seek truth at Paradigm. First, we want to embrace both left- and right-brain thought processes as we study, reflecting on God’s story in both creative and linear ways.

Seeking truth is no solo job. We pursue truth in the context of community, where we can not only learn from one another, but also apply truth in and through the community (because truth is lived and not merely thought).

Learning at Paradigm is holistic and relational. Sometimes it is also difficult and limited. Paradigm is a community where people are free to engage mystery, raise questions, and run their fingers along the wounds in Jesus’ hands. And sometimes we raise questions to which our only honest answer is, “I don’t know.”

“I don’t know” can be a great theological claim.

We’re not pursuing truth for the sake of self-assurance, textbook answers, and power games. We aren’t creating circular smokescreen doctrines. We’re engaging a complex world with a powerful, mysterious Gospel. We have found life-changing hope in God’s Story and life in the Way of Jesus, and we want that truth to be lived, told, explored, and known.

There are four main resources we use to seek and verify truth: Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. The technical term for these four “truth-decectors” is the Wesleyan Quadrilateral.

In Scripture we have the most tangible, uniquely authoritative expression of God’s revelation. For this reason, Scripture is the starting point of our Quad. Scripture provides us with the narrative of Israel and some of the earliest communities that followed Jesus and built his Kingdom. The Bible explains to us God’s character and articulates what it looks like to become part of the people of God. As God’s Spirit illumines it, we’re able to use Scripture wisely in our context today.

God gives us intelligence and welcomes us to use it. We naturally bring our cognitive ability and framework (our reason) into our handling and application of Scripture, understanding of God, and observation of ourselves and our world. We want to worship God with our thoughtfulness, as we love Him enough to observe His work in this world.

God’s Holy Spirit is available to Christ-followers as a Helper — consulting, convicting, encouraging, ministering, and illumining truth through all different kinds of mediums and situations. As individuals and as a community, we are called to remain sensitive to the Spirit’s personal and particular guidance. Through a deep experience of God’s Spirit we gain the wisdom and discernment needed to serve God in our culture and context today.

We’re connected to the tradition of God’s people throughout the centuries and around the globe. As we pursue truth, it’s important that we look beyond our own context and learn from the wisdom of other faithful believers. By seeing how other Christians have understood truth, we’re able to affirm and adopt many of their conclusions. We’re also free to recognize and correct misguiding thoughts of past Christians — moving forward into a healthier understanding of, and relationship with, our God.

By holding the four components of the Quad together in dynamic community, we continuously learn and grow in our understanding of who we are, who God is, and what is going on in the world.