Thursday, October 05, 2006
Okay so I'm a pastor. I have beena church minister for 14 years now. It might seem hypocritical that I would say that I'm sick and tired of religion and still function as a part of it. Would I not still embody that tragic cooling and hardening of spiritual fire that has become a trademark of religion? That might be a legitimate charge. Perhaps my being a pastor handicaps my credibility to make anti-religion statements. But there are a few facts that are going for me:
1.) My 14 years of pastoral experience and my 40 years of growing up in the church has given me a unique insight on what religion has become. I have seen and to some extent experienced this incredible fire of supernatural experience. But I have also seen how Christians as a religious sect have made relgion a cold and heartless world of mere formalities, rituals, and cultural norms.
2.) My 14 years of pastoral experience and my 40 years of growing up in the church has also given me compelling evidence of one thing: this very same incredible fire of supernatural experience is also a healing experience! A Divine therapy for the human soul! For such a healing flame to become cold and heavy is a terrible tragedy! I come in contact with broken and hurting persons who have come running to religion expecting that burning energy to make them whole only to discover the cold and frigid breeze of legtalism and intolerance.
Living Beyond Normal for me is a way of recapturing this fire of supernatural experience while trying to avoid the tendencies of religion to grow cold... I think as a pastor this becomes a badge of credibility!
1.) My 14 years of pastoral experience and my 40 years of growing up in the church has given me a unique insight on what religion has become. I have seen and to some extent experienced this incredible fire of supernatural experience. But I have also seen how Christians as a religious sect have made relgion a cold and heartless world of mere formalities, rituals, and cultural norms.
2.) My 14 years of pastoral experience and my 40 years of growing up in the church has also given me compelling evidence of one thing: this very same incredible fire of supernatural experience is also a healing experience! A Divine therapy for the human soul! For such a healing flame to become cold and heavy is a terrible tragedy! I come in contact with broken and hurting persons who have come running to religion expecting that burning energy to make them whole only to discover the cold and frigid breeze of legtalism and intolerance.
Living Beyond Normal for me is a way of recapturing this fire of supernatural experience while trying to avoid the tendencies of religion to grow cold... I think as a pastor this becomes a badge of credibility!
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