Last week I just didn’t have any words after the Las Vegas massacre. They completely eluded me, and I shared a brief post on my blog. For now, that’s all I’ve got as I wrestle with the tangled up feelings inside related to guns and violence and the current state of our nation. Meanwhile, I will keep sharing about what this Patheos blog is centered on–shifting faith. A few years ago I made up a new word. In a conversation... Read more
In the earlier days of my faith, knowing who was and wasn’t a “Christian” was a big deal to me. There was something attached to it that was comforting, familiar, certain. When I look back on those years, “Is he/she a Christian?” would come up in countless ways–related to teachers, doctors, family members, auto mechanics, friends, you name it. Now, if I hear that phrase–“Is he/she a Christian?” I often feel myself tense up and my skin get a little... Read more
Is it possible to rebuild something again related to faith? Are there some things we could try to bring new life? What kind of hope lies on the other side of a painful unraveling? These are the questions so many people I know are asking. After walking through some of the major movements of Faith Shift: Finding Your Way Forward When Everything You Believe is Coming Apart—Fusing, Shifting, Returning, Unraveling, and Severing–we are now to one of the trickiest parts, Rebuilding.... Read more
So far I’ve walked through these major movements from Faith Shift here: the certainty, conformity, and affiliation of Fusing, the rumbles of Shifting, some of the reasons for Returning, and the losses of Unraveling as we move toward greater authenticity, autonomy, and uncertainty in our faith. Reality is we could spend months processing through each of these, but that’s what the book is for! My hope was to get the framework up here so that it’s in one place for folks... Read more
I haven’t written anything in the past few weeks. And oh, there has been a lot to write about. Hurricane Harvey, the ongoing onslaught of policies from this political administration, The Nashville Statement. Yeah, on Monday during Hurricane Harvey, a group of powerful conservative evangelical leaders thought it would be great timing to inject a damaging and harmful document into the world concerning LGBQT+. Really? Right now? That’s what they thought was good leadership? But the answer is yes;... Read more
We wrestled with church for a reason. We left church for a reason. We despise what so much of church has become for a reason. The weekend’s events in Charlottesville have stirred up deep and painful feelings in so many of us. The reality of the pervasive connection of Christianity to such hate. The divide between Progressives and Evangelicals getting wider. The uncovering of what’s been there all along. The awakening of white supremacy’s stronghold in every aspect of our... Read more
For the past 3 posts, I’ve touched on Fusing, Shifting, and Returning as some of the movements of a lot of our faith experiences. These three are really only groundwork for the places most of us reading here live, and the next three are the ones I’m most passionate about processing. They are: Unraveling (deconstructing), Severing (for some), and Rebuilding (finding new life on the other side). While Shifting is the season where things get rumbly, Unraveling is beyond just simple doubts... Read more
I’m juggling the last few weeks of my kids being home for summer and am a little behind on this short 6-part series of the major movements from Faith Shift: Finding Your Way Forward When Everything You Believe is Coming Apart. These posts are only a tiny peek into what’s in the actual material, so if you haven’t read it yet and are drawn into the content, the book contains a lot of content to help engage and process. The first... Read more
In light of a really rough week for progressives and our current political administration, I wanted spend a little time today considering just how deeply the November 2016 election has catalyzed faith shifts for a countless number of men and women across ages, demographics, and experiences. It’s been brutal! For the many people already Unraveling in their faith, there was something about the election of Donald Trump that is causing an even greater tumble down the slippery slope. And for those... Read more
This post is part of a short 6-post series, a small taste of some of the major movements in Faith Shift–Fusing, Shifting, Returning, Unraveling, Severing, Rebuilding. This is how you know you might be in a middle of a faith shift. Last week, we talked about the 10 Commandments of a Fused Faith and some of the rules of that stage in our journey. These first 3 (Fusing, Shifting, and Returning) are part of the first section to lay the... Read more
Faith Shift
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In