I (Bruce) have been a Christian since I was 12 years old. I spent 20 years moving from church to church, with my parents and later as an adult, and never really got to a place of understanding what it really meant to follow Jesus. I grew up in the 80s era of behavior modification gospel that provided a pretty extensive list of dos and don’ts for what it took to be a “good” Christian. Eventually, I ended up living my life as a Christian in name only and am not convinced that I would have went to heaven if I’d have died during that time.
Fast forward to age 32 and a catastrophically collapsing personal life, I was all but done with Christianity. But, God in His mercy was gentle and caring. He surrounded me with people that loved Him and each other, me included, well. It was then that I started to understand what it really meant to live a life committed to following Jesus. While I did learn some really important stuff from Sunday morning sermons, most of what I learned, during that time, about who Jesus is and what living in Christian community is intended to look like happened while I was sitting on a folding chair in someone’s living room or basement (or a coffee shop or Culver’s). It was during those times that I was offered an uncomplicated Jesus and Gospel. It was during that season of life that the Gospel really became Good News and I understood it for the first time in 20 years. All of a sudden Jesus became tangible in my life and following Him became accessible.
And that’s what Folding Chair Theology is. This is a space to explore the deeper aspects of following Jesus and understanding God in an uncomplicated and accessible way. In a time that is filled with so many armchair theologians (of which I’ve previously thought myself), FCT pokes a little fun at the idea. It’s also an acknowledgment that I reside a little lower on the theologian scale than the armchair, that I try not to take myself too seriously, and that the study of God and following Jesus doesn’t have to be overly complicated. FCT is intended to be theology for everyone. Thanks for joining us.