“By this, we know Love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. (1 John 3:16)”
As a Fellows community, we are always growing together and finding new ways to seek each other’s highest good. The practice of loving each other well is a biblical idea we have discussed recently in class with our guest professor from BIOLA University, Dr. Sean McDowell. As a class, we read and studied Dr. McDowell’s book, Chasing Love, which teaches about biblical relationships in many respects. We learned and discussed many modern topics as they relate to the ethics we have been incorporating in the Fellows program.
We discussed critical theory and the challenges we as Christians face in attempting to share the love of Christ with people wrestling with these difficult ideas. Dr. McDowell answered questions and provided clarity to students that had curiosities pertaining to transgenderism, intersex, and other current topics in today’s culture.
Dr. McDowell also presented points of hardship that the church may have misconceptions about, such as the area of singleness. In talking about Biblical singleness Dr. McDowell says, “singleness and marriage are equal ways of serving and honoring God. Neither is better, or more important than the other. We need both married couples and single people in the church today.” (Chasing Love, 95). In his seminar, Dr. McDowell gave many examples as to the church’s need for a proper understanding of singleness, marriage, and other vital topics for our collective understanding of who Christ is and His ethic as seen in scripture.
It is amazing to be a part of a community of Fellows who so desire to have the correct perspective on such highly confusing and largely ignored topics, such as love, singleness, marriage, transgenderism, and even intersex. Having true freedom to bring questions, answers, and simply to have honest conversations about these subjects and more makes me proud to be a Fellow.
