Welcome to the Oikonomist!

This blog is a collaborative effort to help bring some coherence to the (sometimes perplexing) task of living the Christian life well. That last word (“well”) is significant. On one level, it is not too hard a thing to live the life of a Christian. Because we believe in a wonderful thing called grace we gladly attest with many a bumper that, “I’m not perfect, just forgiven.”

Sweet and simple.

Except Jesus seems to have this little expectation that grace aims to work perfection in us. That’s when things get a bit more complicated. To live the Christian life well moves us from “just forgiven” toward “perfection.” That may sound odd, but perfection is simply a shorthand way of saying what the Apostle Paul calls “conformed to the image of Christ.”

From the perspective of this blog, living the Christian life well also has to do with getting a better grasp on what we believe and do as Christians. Why do we believe and do the things we believe and do? Of the things we do, what’s the most faithful and fruitful way to do them? And how does all this stuff help us become more and more like the one in whom we believe? These are some of the major questions this blog hopes to flesh out.

A Note on the Blogging Team

First, pretty much all the writers for this blog grew up in the wonderful world of conservative evangelicalism. In particular, the Southern California, Immigrant Chinese, Orange County brand of conservative evangelicalism. For sure, there are things we appreciate within this context. But there’s also things we have found wanting. For better or for worse, we may tend to emphasize the latter. Our aim (though we might not always hit the mark) is “to uproot and tear down,” in order “to build and to plant” (Jeremiah 1:10).*

Second, as of this writing, many of us are in the early stages of planning a church plant, so many of the posts will be reflections on specific things we are working through as a community.

*It’s the conservative evangelical part in me that has to include a Bible reference.

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