Theology as a Communal Project

The Worship of Christ in the Imagination of the Saints

This post is a procession for my bro

Trey Ferguson

’s book that’s bout to drop soon.

This mug bout to land hotter than a Travis Scott mixtape.

Trey been talking about the Bible for a minute on podcasts and on Twitter. He’s shown us how the way some of us have received the Bible has weakened our imaginations.

Trey’s humility allows him to accept people’s views on what the Bible is, but he’s also a brilliant model of not allowing the Biblical inspiration theories and debates to preclude a necessary, constructive conversation. He unpacks the importance of being a listening community as a substitute for unmalleability. He courageously marks the cultural impositions put on the Bible that pose themselves as divine revelation itself and invites us to ask ourselves why we think using the Bible as a tool to bolster dogmatism and domination ought to be the mark of Christian love.

What really excites me about the potential “Theologizin’ Bigger” has for churches, youth groups, small groups, agnostics, and anyone else I’ve missed is its witness to the life of a pastor whose commitment to Christlikeness isn’t rooted in placating any theological guilds. No critique of Trey’s exegesis or indictments of heresy placed upon him have deterred from this witness of impactful, present-tense love. This witness and the conversations laid out in the book are signposts for us to habituate ourselves in the air of shalom and to produce peaceful conditions as the consequence of approaching the Bible with a bigger lens, not a restricted one.

Communities will, and I am confident of this, be equipped to examine the language of the Bible as a grist for opening the world the Bible imagines: A world where the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea (Hab 2:14) and a place where the will of God is done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt 6:10).

This examination, this theologizin’, is not merely cerebral; it’s communal, imaginative, and constructive. In this process of listening to each other, we are blessed with methods of detangling ourselves from crusty hermeneutics and learning where we’ve missed out on the heart of God through the human beings around us.

This care for others and the world is what I deem to be worship. And perhaps if we were able to sit down over coffee, friend, or chop it up at a battle rap event, or a comedy club, or church, I’d be blessed at how your imaginative, loving self has been transferred to the kingdom of God’s Son and been renewed by fellowship with God and God’s people. It’d be dope to see how being ministered to by Jesus has helped you eschew the oppression some people believe the Bible prescribes. I’d love to see us get free in Jesus’ name.

It’s honestly unexplainable for me to describe my excitement for this book. But, it’s coming soon! Be on the lookout for a preorder.

Luh y’all big time,

Ru.