Liminality

This week I will be flying to the Middle East with about 30 seminary students to tour and explore the Holy Lands. The trip is designed for second year seminary students who are seeking parish ministries. The group is comprised of several seminaries that cover the theological spectrum. There will be men and women who are either conservative, liberal, moderate or anything else not mentioned. The thesis behind the trip is to get next generation leaders together in the Holy Lands to have an ecumenical experience. If we leaders share this experience together, it will make doing life and denominationalism a lot easier later in life. I covet your prayers and can’t wait to blog about it when I get back. Due to traveling and limited time to blog, I will be taking a short hiatus from my weekly blogs but promise for more insightful reflection upon my return. God bless to you and in your endeavors. Here is our Itinerary. May 18 Depart Atlanta at 5:20 p.m. (Delta 122)...

I know what it is like to deny Christ as my leader, Savior and friend. I know what’s like to have my faith squashed by fears – fears of the unknown and fears of the predicted. I have been down the road that chooses cursing over blessing, sinner over saint, and worldly over Christ-likeness. I know what it is like to follow Christ but see no eternal value in my praying and choosing to sleep instead. My life is just as broken, dirty, foolish, and unkempt as the next. But that’s the beauty of our faith. We take our brokenness, anguish and despair into the pulpit with us. We own it. We use it to preach. God is not asking us to be perfect – but rather to live life fully alive. To go through our day knowing we have messed up, failed, and fallen short of the glory of God but also to know that we are forgiven by a God who is all loving, all powerful, and always present. God is not telling us to preach from our perfection, “Look at me, look what God has done for me my whole life...