When I tell people that I’m one of MIT’s many chaplains, they often reply with the question: “What kind of chaplain are you?”

To which, of course, I reply, “the AWESOME kind!”

But, strangely, people often still want to know more. The real answer is that I am a chaplain for “Blue Ocean Faith.” When I mention this, people are usually more confused because they’ve never heard of Blue Ocean Faith. That’s because BOF is a fairly new network of churches. In this post, I’ll attempt to give a brief description of what it is and why I find it to be such a wonderful way to engage with God and the world.

Happily, I can rely on one of my scientific heroes for help. Isaac Newton actually does a superb job of capturing the vibe of Blue Ocean. Famously, he said:

“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore… whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”  —Isaac Newton

This notion of truth being so much bigger than us resonates deeply. Newton was applying this image of contrast between his smallness and the vastness of the ocean to his limited understanding of the physical world. In BOF, we find that this contrast also applies well to our relationship with the vast mystery of God and God’s love.

This mentality gives us a sense of childlike wonder and allows us to engage open-mindedly with paradox. For example, the paradox of an infinite and omnipresent God (“the One whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere”¹St.Bonaventure, or sometimes attributed to others) and the particularity and physicality of Jesus.

Speaking of Jesus, He’s a pretty big deal in Blue Ocean Faith. I think we exist to help people explore what it means to follow Jesus.

“…So it’s like a Christian thing then?”

Well, I suppose it is by virtue of being focused on “following Jesus”, but the label Christian doesn’t quite capture the spirit of it and feels kind of limiting (see my discussion on bounded sets). For those of us in the Blue Ocean world, it would not be weird to talk about someone who is not a Christian (nor necessarily on their way to becoming one) who is trying to follow Jesus. And, in fact, we encounter this somewhat frequently. And, quite happily, a Blue Ocean mentality sets us free from even worrying about whether someone is a Christian or not.

At it’s heart, Blue Ocean is a thoroughly centered-set endeavor that is primarily focused on relationship (with God, self and others). Whatever faith is, we experience it and understand it in fundamentally relational terms. All other matters are secondary relative to this emphasis on relationship and we’ve found that keeping them at a distant second keeps the relational waters unmuddied.

If you’re still reading and want to understand more about Blue Ocean Faith, here are two frameworks that are helpful. I’m taking these directly from the Blue Ocean Faith website.

Blue Ocean Faith Theological Distinctives:

1. Our primary framework is SOLUS JESUS.
2. Our primary metaphor is CENTERED-SET.
3. Our approach to spiritual development is CHILDLIKE FAITH.
4. Our approach to controversial issues is THIRD WAY.
5. Our approach to other churches is ECUMENICAL/ CONVERGENT.
6. Our approach to culture is JOYFUL ENGAGEMENT.

The links are to blogposts by Dave Schmelzer (the Executive Director of Blue Ocean) that explain these distinctives in detail. There are also shorter explanations here.

Blue Ocean Faith Perspectives:

• We need connection more than we need answers.
• Everyone is Us.
• There really is something going on out there.
• By and large, we flow easily within secular culture.
• There’s no bad news in connecting with God.
• Jesus has proven to be a particularly helpful North Star.
• We grow by taking our own unique, high-risk journey.
• My drive to judge other people is a big problem.
• Everything is shot-through with meaning.

I find these perspectives to be super helpful touchstones for understanding BOF. These are explained in a little more detail here.

And now there’s a new book, also by Dave Schmelzer, Blue Ocean Faith: The vibrant connection to Jesus that opens up insanely great possibilities in a secularizing world—and might kick off a new Jesus Movement. How’s that for a subtitle!