Three months ago I left my job as a local church pastor to make more room in my life for getting a big idea out into the world.
If you know me, you know the idea. For the past 20 years I have been living into it.
First, it was all about hearing God's voice through pop culture (which led to my book The Day Metallica Came to Church; Searching for the Everywhere God in Everything), then it moved into discovering God's truth in the sphere of science (with the help of three John Templeton Foundation Grants, dozens of faith/science sermons were preached), and then it transitioned into the field of vocation (with my newest book, Every Job a Parable; What Walmart Greeters, Nurses and Astronauts tell us about God).
And now I'm moving into... well that's still a bit open ended. I'm not exactly sure what's next.
It could be writing - I have two more books gestating right now (one on preaching and one on the human body). It could be teaching - Ambrose Seminary just contacted me last week re: doing a day long preaching workshop this fall. It could be public speaking - I've recently been invited to participate in two events (a teacher's conference and a metalhead gathering). It could be stewarding the outgrowth of Every Job a Parable - already the book has been picked up in the UK, early reviews have been very positive, Christianity Today is writing about it, and I sometimes wonder if I might be called to spend the rest of my career building some kind of faith/vocational institute. Or maybe I need to write for the broader public via more 'secular' media outlets - last week I published my first piece with RNS on Finding God at Crossfit.
Or maybe I need to do a mix of all of the above. Or something I can't see yet.
We'll see.
But one thing I do know is that I need continue listening for God's voice everywhere. All I want in life is to know God more and, for me, that means experiencing and naming his presence wherever I find it.
Ergo this new website. My hope is that this will be a place where I can chronicle where I am hearing, seeing and engaging God in culture, creation - wherever! I hope to do that via written blog, podcast, videocast, photography, and more.
So if you're interested in coming along for the journey this is where I'll be.
I took this photo of a dew drop years ago. The drop felt like an icon. Looking through it I could see an entire forest.