faithhelp: about faithhelp

: about faithhelp

Why This Website And Who Created It

This web site is dedicated to helping persons to let God help them. God is the source of our life and therefore to have life we must be able to live out of God's Spirit that is within us. If we are to help others to let God help them, then we ourselves must be on the journey in that relationship with God.

Within that focus, this site is also aimed at helping those in the ministry of Christian formation in the Church to be able to carry out that ministry with more understanding and effectiveness. It is hoped that those who seek help for their ministry will also see their own need for personally growing in their relationship with God in order to be able to minister. We cannot ask others to go where we have not gone.

The material in faithhelp.com is created by and/or gathered by R. Ben Marshall along with those whose names are on their contributions.

The content is offered with the sincere hope and prayer that it will in some way bring new life to those who use it and/or indirectly benefit from it. It is hoped that it can be a gathering place for many insights and voices from all traditions for the up building of all of us.

This web site has grown out of a perspective that although the nature of God never changes, our particular understanding of and language about God must be relevant to the age in which we live for it to be life-giving to those who search for it and receive it. God cannot be bound by any particular conceptions from the past or from the present. That does not mean that “anything goes” for there is a central truth to which we must be accountable. It is however, the case that any of our human expressions about the truth about God are always imperfect and God is always calling us to ever new perceptions and expressions so that God's Love will be available for all people in all ages.

The soil out of which this material grows is the Christian community in general, and the United Methodist tradition in particular, and it is to that community and tradition that the authors stand both thankful and accountable. It is not the intention to create some new “center of truth” that stands on it own, but at the same time it is the intention to boldly speak on issues of relevance for the formation of faith so that we can be in dialogue about how we can know the Truth which we all seek. Within the Christian community the particular perspective behind these materials are, for the lack of a better term, what we will call "progressive". That means that we will be making our faith expressions from a view that includes a non-literal reading of the Old and New Testaments and an openness to new understandings and new expression of our words about God...our theology. That does not mean that this web site will not entertain all forms of expression with which to be in dialogue. It does mean that we will not be limited to more "traditional" or "conservative" expressions. Our concern is that there are multitudes who cannot find the relationship with God that they seek because they do not know they are free to think in new ways about their God and their Faith.

Please join us in exploring and growing in your own faith along with others.

Faithhelp.com was conceived and is managed by Dr. R. Ben Marshall. Some things about Ben:

Ben is a retired elder in the United Methodist Church residing in Dallas, Texas, who wants to continue to contribute to the faith formation of persons. He has served for over 39 years as a Christian educator, seeking to understand how persons come to faith and how to communicate to them about the nature of our God who loves them.

Ben graduated from Perkins School of Theology in 1963 and received a Doctor of Ministry degree in Christian Education in 1982. He has completed the studies in Spiritual Guidance at Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation and continues to practice spiritual direction as well as write and teach.

Ben and his wife, Karan, a young childhood specialist, have two children, two grandchildren and a black dog. Following a love of his, Ben is doing woodworking and metalworking for who ever will engage his skills.