When I was a pastor, there was nothing I enjoyed more than studying Scripture for the three sermons I taught weekly. The second thing I enjoyed most was actually teaching what I had learned.
Eric Liddell once said this:
I believe that God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. When I run, I feel His pleasure.
When I was a pastor, I often felt God’s pleasure when I studied Scripture and when I taught it to others.
Today, as I am no longer a pastor, I rarely get to do either.
Why am I no longer a pastor?
Well, some of the answer to that question is written in various posts on this blog, and the rest of the answer will probably never get written anywhere. At the core, however, was a conviction that I could not go back into the pastorate, at least, not as it has traditionally functioned.
But I wasn’t sure exactly how it should function, or for that matter, how the church itself should function.
So about eighteen months ago I began to write a book called Close Your Church for Good. Writing the book was how I was going to work through some of the questions I had about church. I was making good progress, but then, exactly three months ago, I stopped publishing posts about it.
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