Do we have religious roots? Of course we do. Sometimes, even when we don’t want to, we fall back into old patterns. Not everything in religion is bad, but let’s not repeat the parts we know are bad. 1. Creating inner circles It’s probably human nature to form alliances. But, inner circles are an over reaction to the fear that our organization will be taken over or fail. It is an unusually strong alliance to the ones that got there... Read more
Let me start by saying that not all of these are just words, some of them are ideas. But as my deconstruction of my beliefs. and religion has progressed / evolved, significant ideas and words have emerged. Deconstruction does not lead to nihilism, as some would suggest. It does however strip down everything to only what is true, thus leaving these raw, emerging ideas that are usually expressed in a word. It’s not a new belief system. It’s something else... Read more
Yesterday, I was showing Laura how there is a little more flexibility and strength in my arm. When you have a stroke, while the arm is immobile and before it starts to move a little, the shoulder gets very sore with any extra movement. Also to straighten out the arm or lift it up feels like there is a bungee cord attached to your muscles. Little by little, with rehab and therapy, this shoulder begins to get a little more... Read more
WHAT IF CHRISTIANITY WAS NEW by Karl Forehand What if Jesus had just left the Earth a few decades ago? What if, instead of the Middle East, he appeared in the United States? Consequently, it would be up to us to decide how we were going to move forward. What would we do differently? I understand it’s hard to think about something like this because we have a lot of history, and we wrote creeds and belief statements, and we... Read more
I realized some time ago that that we are part of a collective on a journey of discovery and enlightenment. I also am learning that some will always lag behind because they are waiting for a well-worn path or worse, they are driving around on streets that are already paved in a kind of follow-the-leader procession to celebrate the past. Others are focused on what they already know. At some point, in history, they drew a circle around their beliefs,... Read more
People have always been drawn towards things like religion to try to explain the things we could explain. The ceremonies and communities we built around our understanding and misunderstanding helped us shape some meaning into the world. I believe we can honor those traditions and, sometimes, even memorialize them while boldly and consciously moving into the future. Just because we were certain about things at one time doesn’t mean we possessed the wisdom for all time. As my friend, Keith... Read more
I talk a lot about my deconstruction and I have even written several books about my experience. But I always struggle to remember when it began until a few days ago when I remembered the exact moment. It was about 7 to 8 years ago. We had a fair amount of bikers in our church. It was one of the keys to our growth. One of the bikers had invited a group called Bikers Against Trafficking to hold a mini... Read more
I’ve always been the first one up in our house for Christmas morning. As best I remember, it was true in my family of origin also. I’m always unsure when to start decorating, but if I have a choice, it’s probably earlier than later. For the last 3 years we have left our tree up all year long, just to avoid the discussion and the work of taking it down and putting it back up. All of our effort at... Read more
As with everything I write, I don’t know if everyone is like this. But, this is how it happens for me. I am constantly muttering to myself: Hey, what is that over there? It’s like I disxover a small hole in the side of a hill and I venture inside to hopefully uncover something magnificent and amazing. As I examine the walls and venture deeper, I uncover things like writings of the Stoics or the record of Maximus the Confessor.... Read more
Every time we planted a church, we felt like we were doing something totally different. Without fail, we realized we weren’t all that different and people that came caused us to morph back into a very similar model as all the other churches. Nevertheless, we instinctively knew how to create a service that touched people in some way. It’s much like directing a play or movie. Once you accidentally do it right, then, it is just another version of the... Read more
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