Recently on Facebook, I was asked a question about what the mission of this blog is and I realized that I only had a basic idea of what that is. I took the past week and decided to plan out a bit more of what I would like to accomplish through these platforms. Here are my first set of ideas:
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Discuss the relevance of God to our lives in the 21st century.
God is still present in the world. God is still acting in the world. Whether you believe or not, I hope that you will be able to use this blog to see some joy and good in the world. That is one of the places where God resides, but God also lives in our sorrow, boredom, happiness, and in every aspect of our lives.
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Following my journey through seminary and through, hopefully, eventually ordination in the Disciples of Christ Church.
Many of you know that the completion of seminary does not automatically mean ordination. There are a lot of tracks through seminary. Some people are studying for ordination, some for social justice, chaplaincy, and some just for education as their final goal. Seminary is a time to grow in faith as well as a basis of religious education. So far seminary has challenged my beliefs, made me go back and research why I believe and think about certain things both spiritually and non-spiritually. After the first year, I’ve already felt the ability to use what I’ve learned to help with worship and the planning that goes with it.
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Looking at various scriptures that pertain to social justice and the true love of God for all.
When we have grown up hearing certain things about other people, what our beliefs are, and what we’ve been taught about what the bible says; it can be difficult to go back and challenge some of those beliefs. Specifically, the scriptures that discuss homosexuality, marriage, and other things that talk about modern topics that affect our lives. What does the Bible say about Divorce? What does the Bible say about the people who are murderers? What does the bible say about suicide? Death? Heaven and Hell? All of these things that we sometimes don’t get to discuss with our pastor for various reasons. Political usage
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Creating a space for constructive discussion about things that we might disagree on.
One of the most important things that I’ve learned in seminary is that there are a large number of small differences that make huge differences in what we believe and how it changes our worship. I’m hoping that this blog will help to create a meaningful dialogue that will show us that different styles of worship through prayers, music, and amount of scripture reading and how each one is valid in its own way. One of the biggest disagreements is over music style in worship. What are some other disagreements you see in the world and specifically Christianity today that you’d like to know more about?
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Learning more of the various denominations and religions in the world.
One thing I’ve always been interested in is the differences and similarities between the various Christian denominations and religions around the world. I’m hoping that this section of the blog will help foster inter-denominational and inter-faith discussions and experiences that highlight our similarities and give us new ways that we can work together to create a better life experience for every human being. I’m hoping to be able to interview various priests, pastors, ministers, chaplains, and laity within as many of the Christian denominations that I can. Which ones are you most interested in?
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General life experiences/responses to current events.
This is one that will give reflections on what is going on in my life and any current events that are going on. The world is full of so many good and bad things that happen every day. One of the hardest parts is seeing the good in the bad events and that is something I strive to do as often as I can. These responses will hopefully be able to give a different viewpoint than other responses will. I’ll try to focus on how we as Christians and non-Christians can respond to these events.
I’ll also be trying to include devotionals at various times throughout the year. These might be based on the church seasons or they might just be over random scripture that has spoken to me at various times.
Of course, all of these are very important parts to this blog but the most important is that this blog will hopefully be a place to begin conversation and healing between the Church and the LGBT+ community. There have been so many attempts to ostracize and marginalize communities from our churches and due to that, there is a very large gap between the church and a large number of individuals in our world. We need to look for opportunities to rebuild the bridge and strengthen those bonds that already exist.
Sending out peace to all,
Mike
Gay by the Grace of God 
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