In the third installment of my conversation with Phyllis Tickle about Lent we talk about the physical nature of spirituality. You can follow the entire lent conversation on the Lent Blog here. You can watch all the videos in our conversation here. Read more
For a long time, the emergent conversation has been labeled and criticized (to some degree, rightly) as a mostly white male phenomenon. Thankfully, that is not the reality on the ground any longer. Over the years, the conversation has become much more diverse — racially, ethnically, socio-politically, as well as theologically. But that story hasn’t really been told, and so the movement (heck, let’s call it a movement) still is seen by some as not relevant to them or not... Read more
Patheos.com is hosting a lent conversation and Phyllis Tickle and I offered the first few postings. Here is the second. I asked Phyllis if there is something about the yearly pattern of Lent where we are pulled back into the church story, given church language that doesn’t sit well with many of us who don’t want the theology of the church from the time of the invent of these practices. (In spite of the thumbnail of the video, Phyllis is... Read more
The Kingdom of God is …a church where beauty is cherished. Where people are given the space to express their creative nature and make beautiful things. A space where candles come in all different kinds of colors, containers and arrangements. Where banners are made to fit a space and a people. Where lanterns light up the shadows in the ceiling and remind us that we are part of that kingdom. The Kingdom of God is…a pool in the middle of... Read more
There is something comforting to me in the idea that I am part of the earth and will always be part of the earth. Maybe it’s rooted in my rural upbringing, where I was familiar with the dirt, and played in it, and got my hands dirty often. There was a time in my adult life when I had a garden and lived in an old farmhouse that used to be a flower farm. I would come home from work... Read more
Patheos is launching a 40 day Lent Reflection Blog today. Phyllis Tickle and I are on for the first 5 installments. We recorded a conversation we had over Skype about Lent. Here is the first one – you can follow the 40 days at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/the40dayjourney/ Read more
What has been particularly harmful about American Christianity has not necessarily been the beliefs professed by American Christians but rather the worldview that makes professions of belief more real than living them out. Within this schism of reality exists classic American dualism. With just a reference to our nation’s fondness for war, our crime statistics, our rising poverty rates and an apparent increasing lack of concern for the most disenfranchised of society, we simply do not measure up to the... Read more
Thank you. I’m sorry. I need to say both. Thank you to everyone who has written, sung, or spoken the difficult truths of racism, discrimination, oppression and privilege. Thank you to my friends who have taken the time to tell me their stories so that I might understand my own history better, so that I might understand myself better. I’m sorry that you have these painful stories to tell. I regret that I didn’t already know them. I realize now... Read more
Yesterday on my radio show I talked with Father Richard Rohr about his book Falling Upward and Emerging Christianity from a Catholic perspective. Watch the Video Cast of the show below. (more…) Read more
We’re getting ready to celebrate in April our 8-year anniversary of meeting as the “Emerging Church Discussion Group” (a.k.a. the Charlotte Emergent cohort). The group has changed a lot over the years, but one thing remains the same: There is still a need for a safe(r) space for theological conversation, because most churches do not create space for it. This is still true here in Charlotte (“the city of 1,000 churches”), and I suspect it’s true of the many cities... Read more
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