I feel like a little kid.

Hi, Mom!

Well, obviously, this is my first post and my first foray into the blogoshere. Though I know my way around a computer, I don’t beans about blogs. So, any advice, especially technical advice would be appreciated.

I have some objectives in mind for this new venture….

• Help me try to figure out what the church could and should be. I know that that is a loaded issue and that there is no one way for it to look, but I am wondering about the values that form the foundation. Of course, I also have an interest in creative examples of how it fleshes out. When it comes to the church, many of us have some gripes about what is, so I am asking, what’s next.
• Help me figure out what avenues I should pursue. Many of you know that I have been wandering in nearly five years worth no-man’s land, much of the time unemployed. After twenty years of being a pastor and a growing discontent with churches, in general, I have been at odds to come up with a next step.
• Help some old friends and some new friends by giving them a venue where they can be honest and sort out some of their questions that may be similar to some of mine. I look forward to your contribution to the discussion.
• Help me maintain a degree of emotional and spiritual health by venting, ranting, thinking, and chewing over things.

So, I ask that we don’t try to outsmart ourselves by sounding pious or theologically astute, that we try to come up with something that gets on the solution side of any gripes we have, and that we remain gentlemenly or ladily (I know, not a word.) by not getting personal or ugly. You can email me or call me with any important personal comments.

So, let the adventure begin! God had this amazing dream called the church. It has gotten off track in a lot of ways, but we know that it will prevail. The head of the church has given us a lot of latitude in how to do it. Now, it is up to us to re-dream the dream.