Let's Gather Some Things Up Here, Shall We?
When everything is in flux
I’m in a good season. I’m saying farewell in a couple of months to a church I love, but which is ready for new leadership. I feel like both the church and I have left each other better than we found each other, and I’m grateful and satisfied. I don’t know how this is going to work logistically or financially, but I receive increasing external and internal assurance that my intention to grow and focus on The Pilgrimage exclusively for the next while is “right.” The DMin, which I anticipate is part of that Pilgrimage-growing work, begins in two months and I have my first batch of reading on my nightstand which I hope to start this weekend. Just in time for a whole lot more focus on online relationships, I’m in the beginning stages of forming some new in-person community at the gym, while also taking care of my body.
And…there’s still some significant shepherding that needs to be done before I leave my church. I need to get started figuring out how to incorporate the Pilgrimage as an independent entity for the first time in its ten-year history. Once I am no longer at Central Baptist, my work schedule is going to change significantly.
Which is to say…a lot of things, probably, but my writing schedule is likely to continue in its “up for grabs” manner for some time longer. Today, though, I’m getting in a post gathering up some of the recent ones. I hope you’ll enjoy them.
My latest book, Follower: How Getting Close to Jesus Brings You to Yourself, launched on April 2:
I also shared a creative-writing story I wrote about another biblical character (you can guess who it is):
I joined a gym:
and revisited an old hobby:
I announced my church resignation:
and walked a labyrinth:
Paid subscribers got to read about some spiritual disciplines and practices:
Recommendations
I do have one recommendation for the last two months, and that is another new book release.
and I met originally on Twitter, but interact most now here in the ‘stack. His book The Light in Our Eyes is readable and timely for those of us navigating church disillusionment, political polarization, and trying to still find Jesus in all of it. I hope you’ll check it out.