Moving Beyond the ABCs

Rewind (or fast-forward) to imagine your first day of college courses. Your English 103 professor enters the classroom. She announces her name, passes around the course syllabus, then says the first task of the semester is to review the alphabet.

Wait, what?

You decide you must be dreaming as she begins to write out the letters Aa, Bb, Cc on the white board.

A lot of time and learning would be lost if every school year began back at the beginning. You would never find out about misplaced modifiers or the importance of thesis statements. You would never learn the difference between summarizing and paraphrasing or know that they both require proper citation so as not to be considered plagiarism. (Exciting stuff, I know.)

In much the same way, our growth and learning as Christians would be stunted if all we ever talked about was believing in Jesus as Messiah and claiming him as Lord of our lives. No one here at the House Studio would deny the importance of this pivotal first step on our Christian journey, of this basic tenet of our faith. But we must not remain in the ABCs of Christianity. There’s so much more to explore, to study, to learn.

That’s why our books, our blogs, even our daily conversations here on Harrison Street don’t dwell on the need to accept Christ as our Savior. We hope, whether your small group is going through our books or you’re simply reading our blogs as an individual, you’ve already made that first step. We’d like to engage with you on what comes next. We’d like to dialogue with you about how because we adore Christ (not instead of), we love and care for the least of these, sharing both the gospel and our coats, our homes, our cash. About how we can be fallen humans living in an imperfect world who are striving to somehow still be like our Lord.

We hope you’ll continue to be a part of our journey as we all continue on together, learning to love Christ, his Church, and his creation.

Photo courtesy: gr33ndata