MY

Community Engagement

Pastor

When people think of church, they usually limit the activities of a faith community to worship on Sunday morning. Being church is much more then that. As a pastor who overseas the spiritual welling of a faith community, I enjoy the opportunity to not only worship on Sunday mornings, but also facilitate opportunities for us to learn together, pray together, serve our community/neighbors together, and develop a deeper relationship with God together. The church is the environment where we get out of our singular self-centered focus on a healthy mind and healthy body in order to grow together in Spirit. We gather as community in two ways:

Traditional Congregation

The “traditional congregation” develops a healthy spirit through a variety of ways: 1) worshipful ritual, music, prayer, charity and a shared meal, 2) collective learning, study and participating in a culture of discipleship, and 3) seeing the divine in the other and serving those individuals or communities in need.

Missional Community

The “missional community” is when a specific demographic gathers intentionally to be a community of faith around for a specific mission purpose, or in a geographical location, or to serve a particular population demographic. The missional community comes together intentionally to bring the the best parts of Spirit to the need, location or people they feel called to serve.

Resources

As a pastor, professor and entrepreneur, I have my hands in a variety of fields and have access to a variety of resources for developing a healthy spirit. Please take a look at my Resources page or follow my Blog where I share what I am working on or what has helped others.

Professor

The academic environment of the college classroom provides a wonderful opportunity to explore as well as compare and contrast all the the ways the religions of the world have come to know, develop and teach about the spiritual whelm. In addition to talking and teaching about the nature of the spirit across the religion spectrum, I also enjoy talking and teaching about the “sacred” as the fundamental essence at the heart of all things, spiritual, religious or faithful.

Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so. The idea of the rev.preneur (my definition: a member of the clergy who takes greater than normal risks in order to organize and operate a community of faith and/or church) came out of my passion to take risk and invest capital in an attempt to create new or alternative communities of faith in our 21st century context. I believe many new technologies are available to us to enhance and develop a healthy spirit, yet are underutilized by the traditional congregational context.

Community

Historically, spiritual well-being always happens in community. There is, of course, times for silent reflection, meditation and prayer, but true discernment and development happens with the help and support of others. Community is central to my entrepreneurial efforts.

Data, Reflection & sharing

Our limitless access to data helps us keep track of what works and what does not work, or success and our faulures, our growth and our setbacks. Yet, data is lifeless. What we also need for spiritual well-being and growth is refection and sharing. By using a variety of personal and collective platforms we can walk the journey towards spiritual health with others.