The Pastor Is IN

Come on in!

If you subscribe to my blog, or even if you just visit once in a while, I consider you a member of my parish. Not that I’m counting noses and boasting of the numbers, but it’s in the sense that I offer myself as freely as I know how. Most of you don’t need much from me and that’s fine. But if you show up here in my virtual ministry office, you are equally entitled to whatever I offer to anyone else. We can commune as much or as little as you like. You can call me if you need to hear a human voice, but I warn you my writing is far more thoughtful than my conversation. (BTW, if you chase down my resume from my “About” page, that cellphone number has unlimited texting, too, but no data — that means no pictures or documents. I don’t use a smartphone.) Still, you can call me if you can afford it. The point is, if you are reading these words, I serve as a pastor for you.

One of the distinctions in that service is that I am wholly unrelated to any current religious organizations. It’s not a matter of animosity, though some of them have been pretty rough with me. It’s that what I’m doing won’t fit inside any of those organizations, in large part because I insist their form of organization is all wrong. So I don’t wear any of their labels, despite still sharing some ideas with most of them. The distinctions are so large I’ve published books to explain them.

Telling you I’m a Christian Mystic is more of a warning than a description. Other mystics also have trouble with me. For the most part, my mysticism is not like theirs. Mine suffers no reliance on Western intellectual traditions at all; most of them aren’t even aware of the difference. I’m no better or smarter, but the differences are obvious if you attempt to understand any part of what I’m doing. But I make no effort to be exclusive unless it’s necessary for me to get my work done.

A critical element in that work is warning folks, not simply that we are headed for rough times, but how to avoid being suckered about the real threats we face. Way too many people are convinced this is going to be something dramatic and earth-shattering, as seen in many popular movies and TV shows. It ain’t like that. It’s bad, but not that kind of bad. What they show is far too simplified, too comprehensive in simplistic ways.

Indeed, the biggest threat to folks like me remains organized religion. Not in the sense of a direct threat — again, that’s too simplistic. Rather, it’s in the pervasive influence that mainstream organized religion has on the human race and even the very act of thinking about religion. Consciously or not, they have built a frame of reference that excludes my calling and teaching before I even show up.

Don’t assume I’m suggesting you need to quit your church or other religious associations. Rather, I’m asking you to be aware of the inherent conflict. Again, that’s what the books are for, in particular the one linked on the lower right. Most churches are creatures of Western Civilization and the West is in a long, slow decline, dying. Churches will have to detach from Western Civilization to survive and prosper as things get nastier. But as this period of tribulation progresses, you are likely to find conflicts multiplying if you consider my work at all persuasive. I don’t do this simply to create conflict and capitalize on it, but I’m chasing the truth and it leads me farther and farther from them. You need to follow the leading of your own heart, not mine.

But to the degree your path resembles mine, your biggest problem during the coming years will be churches and other organizations. The influence of that broad system of religious expression will cause people to say and do some truly shocking things, and you’ll begin to wonder if burning at the stake is making a comeback. The entanglement between church and state is not a question of “if” but “how.” I want you to learn how to discern the ways the two use each other. It will always remain highly complex and rather fluid, but the underlying moral compromise will never change. They both intend to keep you from seeing moral truth and how our true identity is rooted outside this world.

Throughout the ages, the Lord has continually made the same basic offer when things go wrong: “Come; let’s talk about this.” I’m doing my best to help you make sense of what He has said to everyone so that you’ll recognize how He talks to you individually.