In or Above the Tension?

I was reading "A New Kind of Christian" the other day and again thought about what it might mean to be "intensional." If you have read the book, you may recall that Neo at one point draws a line in the sand and uses the line to describe the polarities that exist within the church (Calvinists vs. Arminians, Catholics vs. Protestants, etc.). I guess I had been thinking of intensionality as being OK with the polarities, indeed embracing them. Neo goes on, however, to say that what we need to be focused on isn't on the line, but above the line. I'm not quite sure what to do with that. Does that mean we should be supra-tensional? I don't think he is trying to convey that we should ignore the tensions, rather that we need to keep our eyes on whatever it is that is really important. And so much of what we get "tense" over is pretty unimportant ....

By the way, I thought that ANKOC was a great book. I must get the second one in the series soon because I must hear what happened to Neo and the book's other characters. Maybe it will tell me a bit more about where I might end up on my journey.

I spoke with someone tonight who may be leaving his church because he feels that they don't celebrate communion often enough. This bothers him because he feels that communion is one of the best ways for non-believers to experience the working of the Holy Spirit in their lives (ie., he thinks that non-Christians should be encouraged to take communion). Recently someone left that same church because he felt that they didn't warn non-believers to not take communion. AAAGGGHHH. But both of these people were also outraged that their church didn't have altar calls on a regular basis. What is hard for me to understand in all this is that I could care less about how often my church or theirs has communion or altar calls! Every time I have a meal with a fellow believer, I am -- at least in some sense -- celebrating the communion that we have with each other through Christ Jesus and the power of the Spirit. And every time I share a meal, or coffee, or a beer with a non-believer, the Holy Spirit is also free to act in, through, and/or despite me in the life of the non-believer (AND IN MINE!). And altar calls? There is nothing inherently wrong with them, but why can't relationships and conversations eventually get to a point where people can experience a point of decision (if that is the path that the HS leads them on).

Any thoughts out there?