It was in 2003 that my mentor gave me a copy of A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren. He told me that he would deny ever giving it to me if someone asked. I was thirsty for a connection with God but I had so many questions. I was not the type of person that just accepted things because everyone else did. I had spent 5 years of my life in active addiction and in 2003 my mind was clear, I was sober and ready to take on whatever was put in front of me. I was reading through book after book about the emergent church and the books against the emergent church. I was studying philosophy in school and so I was interested in post-modernism and how that philosophy affected the thinking among certain christians during that time. I remember reading D.A. Carson's book, Becoming Conversant with the Emergent Church, it was a good read but I was not swayed. I remember waiting patiently for Kester Brewin's book, The Complex Christ (UK title) to be released in the US so I could tackle another perspective on emergence. I remember listening to podcasts on the Emergent Village website, reading blogs, and attempting to have conversations with my friends from the church about the issues. The truth is I felt alone. Although I read everything I could get my hands on I was not around others who wanted to talk about these issues. A few of my friends seemed to humor me with conversation but I wanted more and did not know where to go.
Around 2008 I pretty much gave up. I just figured I had my beliefs and I would be able to live them out no matter what arena I found myself in. I wrote my senior thesis about Post-modernsim and it's affects on the Emergent Church. I defended my paper in front of the Philosophy department professors at a Catholic School. They certainly found what I said interesting but it did not seem to garner much further discussion. I even remember emailing Brian McLaren about possible resources I could use for my paper. In his generosity he did email me back and gave me a lot to use for the paper.
I married Teresa at the end of 2008 and in September of 2009 we moved to South Florida. The only connection we had were my grandparents who attended a Plymouth Brethren church and we certainly were not going to go there. I started to look up possible places for us to go and found an emergent group about an hour away from our house. We went and she fell in love with the idea of the emergent church. Because of how far away it was we needed to find something we could go to close to our house and get involved. I walked into St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Delray Beach and immediately felt like it was home. I started to attend bible studies and asked a lot of questions. I talked about the Emergent Church and the rector fielded all of my questions and seemed open to my thoughts and beliefs. Within just a few months he asked me if I was interested in becoming the Youth Pastor (I had done it for 5 years at the Brethren Church). Of course I said yes.
So over the past few years Teresa and I have been involved with starting a church service for people seeking a deeper connection with God that is inclusive and accepting. St. Paul's has given us so much freedom and has supported our mission to be emergent in Delray Beach. Over the past few years Teresa has connected with so many people in the emergent church through her work in Young Adult Ministry, blogging, and Facebook (things I am not great at) and has led us to the Wildgoose Festival. We have attended the last two years and I feel like I have made it home. I had great conversations with some amazing people. I even had the opportunity to talk with Brian McLaren for a few minutes and felt that things had come full circle. I had the chance to tell him that his book brought me down an introspective and philosophical journey that has helped me to recognize the power and love of God that transcends human wisdom and understanding. I can only hope that I will be able to share my reflections about theology, spirituality, and philosophy with some of the wonderful people I was able to meet at Wildgoose.
