Exploring with explorefaith.org

ExploreFaith.com is another sort of parachurch expression...it is our catechesis, perhaps, but not a community in real relational sense. While their website indicates that ExploreFaith.com thinks of itself as such (see the Who We Are page), what it really amounts to is a very general summary of what an ideally accepting church might look like. Visitors can find answers to all sorts of questions about what Christians believe and what the church teaches, and all of their answers are easy for me to accept (as a lifelong United Methodist). There are some big names behind the site (Michael Battle was at Duke when I was there, Phyllis Trickle is one of only a few women cited, Marcus Borg is a part of it as well) and perhaps that's the issue: so many names and so many positions that it all seems very fuzzy and welcoming in a way that I'm not sure is faithful to the way we often struggle with so much of our faith. As far as building community, they don't. Any relationship with this site will be a "public space" relationship, with no real provision made to encourage life-changing encounters with Christ or even with other Christians. There are worship components (prayer and guided meditation) but nothing that points to a relationship apart from the individual and (maybe) God. I think the site is founded on a good idea, but in its desire to be welcoming and inoffensive, I find it bland and uninteresting. Pity. I would not have said that at all about the contributors.