Hello. Remember Me?

The sad truth is that it has been over a year since my last post.

Many things happened that caused me to abandon my blog for a time, and many have kept me from returning.

The first big change was taking a break from seminary, to pursue a Master of Arts in Non-Profit Organizational Administration.  It has been a great experience that continues to prepare me for work in faith communities and community organizations — both of which I want to be a part of.  Being removed from the daily conversation has been really hard, and for a long time it left me with nothing to say.  Additionally, the creation of this blog with the idea of talking about faith, practice, and all things ministerial left me feeling like I couldn’t blog about anything else.

The second issue has been the continual expansion of my workload and responsibilities with the Sullivan Center for Innovative Ministry.  In addition to all of the branding and design work for the website and print media, I have also been creating an (almost) bi-monthly newsletter and am now overseeing the planning for three big events that we are hosting on the MNU campus between now and June.

The busyness of work and study took me away from the blogosphere in general.  It also had a detrimental affect on the rhythm of my spiritual walk.  My Rule of Life fell to the wayside and my spiritual disciplines have been anything but.  Luckily, this is no longer true, as I have learned to find better balance in my new roles and responsibilities.

Lastly, I have been really burnt out in general.  I guess you could say that my spiritual journey has been in a valley for the past year.  It hasn’t been a crisis of faith or a whirlwind of doubt, but more the result of a shift in my views of ecclesiology and what it means to live as a follower of Christ.  This shift has been in the opposite direction of the shift in the church we are a part of, and I no longer feel like I have a place there.  There is a lot more to it, but I will save that for another day.

So where does all of this leave me now?  Drained!  That is why I am trying to get back into the things that kept me going, and this blog was one of them.

You will start to see some changes in the coming months, as I begin to tweak ogrepraxy.  I will still talk about faith and practice, but I will also talk about other things in my life.  My artistic side, and interests like photography and woodworking.  Things that are happening in my life.  My continuing transformation as a teacher and as a disciple.

These are all part of this orgre’s praxy (practice), so it is only fitting that they become part of ogrepraxy as well.

I look forward to continuing on this renewed journey, and the great conversation that is to come!

Peace,

Jason