Ezekiel’s Vision of “Wheels within Wheels Covered in Eyes”

We All Start Somewhere

I was not raised or taught to say, “The Jesus Tradition.” I was raised Lutheran. It was a good foundation to build upon. It was almost a given that within my psyche would be the theme of protest. I mean, after all, Martin Luther was such a protestor that a whole era of Church history was dubbed Protestantism after him. This foundation gave me community and a language and exposure to not only what Protestants said, but also to a rather robust understanding (in my estimation) of what Catholicism taught before and up to the Protestant Reformation.

Then Go Somewhere Else

Then I went to a formerly Baptist college. Then to a Lutheran seminary before transferring to a non-denominational one. Then I worked at a Calvary Chapel before working in a Presbyterian church. Next up, I went to a Catholic church, and got a job at a different Presbyterian church while speaking at a Methodist camp in the summers. All the while, I was reading copious amounts of Eastern Orthodoxy and the Christian Contemplative Tradition.

Oh, and along the way I have interacted with Muslims, Buddhists, Agnostics, Hindus, Cultists, and many more.

So, I’ve been around the block more than once.

But We All Finish Everywhere (Hopefully), and that Everywhere is “The Jesus Tradition”

I say all that to explain why I now call myself a member of the Jesus Tradition and say that I teach from and about that tradition. Denominations aren’t bad, they are just limited. They come from a particular vantage point and worldview and so from within that framework, their answers make sense. When you know a particular denomination’s starting point, the rest is easy to understand…

However,

Denominations are often formalizations of what their leader’s experience of faith once was. Then, to map that out to thousands or even millions of people seems strange to me. There are roughly more than 7 billion human beings on earth and each with their own temperament, personality, habits and preferences… pile on top of that the fact that they each have different limitations and different levels of maturity, and you have something quite phenomenal. To take one denomination and attempt to invite every single person into it, might be a bit constraining.

So why not claim all of the denominations? In all of their variety? In all of their complexity and paradox and harmony?

I’ve been around the block a few times but recently I have been settling into the idea of being “omni-denominational.” And, to me, the “omni-denominational” is the Jesus Tradition in all of it width and breadth and height and depth. I am at a point where I am willing to hear from anyone that has an insight or take on the person of Jesus. Christian or not. If they are giving a helpful take on Jesus, I would consider that teaching a part of the Jesus Tradition.

So why not teach from and about the life and work and mystery of Jesus, and leave it to people and their own conscience/Internal Compass to go as the Ruach leads them?