Wayward Son

Musician. Composer. Recovering perfectionist. Minister-in-transition. Lover of puns. Hijacker of rock song references. Questioner of the status quo. I'm not really a rebel. Just a sincere Christ-follower with a thirst for significance that gets me into trouble. My quest has taken me over the fence of institutional Christianity. Here are some of my random thoughts along the way. Read along, join in the conversation. Just be nice.

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God Is In the Darkness (Part 1: Afraid of the Dark)

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Categories: food for thought, moments of truth, My Story

A bit of a disclaimer concerning this next series of posts. These are ponderings and questionings only, and not intended to be a statement of doctrine or theology. As with so many other things, I’m attempting to think outside the box of religious tradition, but not outside the boundaries of Scripture. So if you find yourself in disagreement with what I say here, please take it for what is is. I’m not holding this too tightly, and neither should you. Feel free to leave comments and discuss, but as usual, be nice. šŸ™‚

Have you ever heard this riddle?

This is a preview of God Is In the Darkness (Part 1: Afraid of the Dark). Read the full post (1029 words, 2 images, estimated 4:07 mins reading time)

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Lifetime Heroes: Dottie

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Categories: lifetime heroes, prayer

I never knew Dottie’s last name–or if I ever did, I’ve long forgotten it, because it didn’t seem that important. Dottie was one of those memorable people who only seemed to need one name. Everyone who knew her simply knew her as Dottie. (And no, for any of you gospel music people out there…it wasn’t that Dottie.) šŸ™‚

I first met Dottie when I was a teenager, after an evening worship practice at church. I met her because someone said, “Dottie wants to meet you,” and led me to the back of our large auditorium to meet her–like somehow it was very important that I meet her, or that she wanted to meet me.

This is a preview of Lifetime Heroes: Dottie. Read the full post (1486 words, 1 image, estimated 5:57 mins reading time)

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Destiny Reinterpreted (excerpt)

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Categories: church, food for thought

Here’s a snippet from my bi-weekly post for the Survivor Blog on Communitas Collective…

Iā€™m observing that former institutional leaders like me seem to be in various stages of processing. Some are just burnt out from all the crap, and left completely disillusioned, even possibly questioning their relationship with God. Some have just walked away because they believed there must be a better way, and have found their way into more organic expressions of faith.

This is a preview of Destiny Reinterpreted (excerpt). Read the full post (258 words, 2 images, estimated 1:02 mins reading time)

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Selfish Christianity

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Categories: changing mindsets, food for thought, theological questions

Cred where cred is due…Co-heir sparked my thoughts with what he wrote here…and this post below is what came out. šŸ™‚

I’ve mentioned numerous times here that my rather broad church background (from liturgical to evangelical to charismatic) includes my family’s involvement in the Word of Faith movement–which for some is associated not so much with the concept of faith it teaches as the “prosperity gospel” it promotes. This particular message receives a great deal of flack, and is caricatured as a grouping of well-dressed preachers who support their extravagant lifestyles by talking people into giving their money to them–citing Scripture to say that God will return their donations 100-fold.

This is a preview of Selfish Christianity. Read the full post (1282 words, 1 image, estimated 5:08 mins reading time)

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Sunday Morning Christians

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Categories: food for thought

Here’s Nugget #12 from the Official Collection of Proverbs and Random Thoughts from Jeff the Twisted, Slightly Off-Center Philosopher:

“Lots of Christians seem to be more concerned about whether their fellow Christians are in church on Sunday morning than they are about how they are living the other six days of the week.”

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Permanent link to this post (55 words, 2 images, estimated 13 secs reading time)

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Well, This Doesn’t Happen Every Day…Not In Tulsa, Anyway

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Categories: movies, random stuff

So last night we caught a news clip that they were doing some on-location filming here in town for this movie. So today, we thought, what the heck…let’s go downtown and see if we can see anything. We honestly didn’t expect to see anything.

Turns out we were wrong.

This is a preview of Well, This Doesn’t Happen Every Day…Not In Tulsa, Anyway. Read the full post (233 words, 1 image, estimated 56 secs reading time)

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My (Sort of) Brand-New Dinosaur

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Categories: tecknical stuff, What the heck was THAT?

Some of my readers might remember me talking about the dinosaur laptop I have used in blogging, and how the laptop seemed to be possessed by a phantom that would make the screen get snowy at times, and make a set of keys stop responding for no reason. I learned to placate the phantom by giving it a “massage”–i.e., tapping the bottom of the laptop to get the keys to work again.

As it turns out, appeasing a codependent computer-phantom only enables it, and soon it requires more than just a massage. Before long, I had to do more than tap the bottom. I had to spank it.

This is a preview of My (Sort of) Brand-New Dinosaur. Read the full post (743 words, 2 images, estimated 2:58 mins reading time)

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Dangerous Thoughts About Love

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Categories: food for thought, link love

If you want to know why sometimes I like to make your brain hurt…blame people like Erin. Her blog is often quite thought-provoking–like this post about love and breaking the law. In it, she postulates that when it comes to a choice between showing love and keeping and honoring the Law (i.e., the Law of Moses), showing love and mercy should take precedence–even if it means breaking the Law on that point. (There’s a whole thought process behind that conclusion in her post, so please read it in context before judging the validity of the statement.)

This is a preview of Dangerous Thoughts About Love. Read the full post (1620 words, 1 image, estimated 6:29 mins reading time)
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