Getting Started

I must start with a confession. I have never blogged before. Worse yet, I haven't read many bloggs either. But for some reason today I must become a blogger. There is nothing special about September 19, 2004 for me. But today I will blog. Will I blog tomorrorw? I don't know!

So what do I want to blog about? For starters, I want to explore (with anyone out there who is interested in joining in) what it might look like to "Be Intensional". I am most interested in what this might mean within the context of the Christian Faith (I don't want to over-define this and certainly am interested in the perspectives of others who consider themselves alongside or outside of whatever they consider Christian Faith to be).

I know that "intensional" is a term used in mathematics, logic, and I believe linguistics. But I don't know anything about how the term is used in those fields. Maybe somebody out there can educate me. Maybe there is a connection. So many people, motivational speakers, authors, and preachers talk about our need to be "intentional." Most of us know what that means. But what might it look like to be "intensional?"

Face it, we live in tension! The world is full of it. Some of it is wonderful and some of it is absolutely terrible. Our churches are full of tension. Our families are full of tension. And we ourselves, as individuals, are full of tension. Or am I the only one to observe this? Modernism taught us to try to eliminate tension, I think. Abosolutes have very few tensions -- at least if you really believe in them. Paradox is all about tension -- the tension of accepting two or more apparently contradictory or competing absolutes. But what if we were to really embrace tension? What if, instead of fleeing tension, we sought to actually live in the tension of life?

Any thoughts? I would like to collect any thoughts that emerge from this conversation. If the discussion proves fruitful, I would like to use the discussion as the basis for a class I am taking at Biblical Seminary (www.biblical.edu). The course is called "Leadership in Emerging Culture." You can learn more about this course and the etrek program at www.theooze.com.

Intentional vs. Intensional -- are they contradictory or compatible or both? What would an intensional church look like? Or maybe an intentionally intensional church? What would intensional faith or an intensional life look like? Are these even relevant questions? What questions, or even answers, would you propose