December 14, 2011

2011 INSPY Award Winners

The second annual INSPY awards have been announced today. This has been another great year of promoting Christian writing by the ardent team led by Amy Riley. The INSPYs passion for quality Christian fiction and creative non-fiction is truly commendable. 

I have been honored to participate as an Advisory Board member this year. Thanks to Amy, Hannah, Rel, Deb and Lydia for making this a pleasurable and successful venture. I appreciate your many labors as writers and connoisseurs of finer Christian writing.

Congratulations to the INSPYs 2011 winners. 

Read the Shortlist of Finalists

 

June 29, 2011

RAW: A Poetic Journey

I did not fully realize what I signed up for when I submitted my work to a poetry contest. I failed to read the fine print. I'm glad I did.

My first two published poems are in RAW: A Poetic Journey edited by Aimee Maude Sims with a forward by Jennifer Knapp. My public writing journey began with a piece on Burnside that discusses Knapp's lesbian lifestyle entitled "Protestant Planks: A Lesson in Grace." It is divinely ironic that she introduces a book that has two of my poems. RAW is what I have been for a long time. My life has been truly unorthodox so when I read the contest guidelines for real prayers and heart cries, I knew that I needed to be among them.

A perusal through the list of contributors reveals a group of men and women whose faith has carried them through some very hard times. Despite the raw and unorthodox nature it possesses, they cling to a good God who loves. His love is so vast and variegated that it encompasses the fringes. Jesus came for the outcasts, and I believe he would be named among these, too. For his mission reaches into the broken places. And such are we.

May 16, 2011

INSPYs Open for Nominations

The INSPYs are opened for 2011. Nominations can be submitted on the home page at INSPYs.com. I am honored to be on the Advisory Board. Please submit books published between July 1st, 2010 and June 30, 2011. Reissues are not eligible. Nominations will be received online until July 15th.

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April 28, 2011

Now on Burnside: "Book Review: Common Prayer"

My review of Common Prayer is on Burnside. This is great timing in light of yesterday's post.  There's also a great post by Enuma Okoro there, too. She collaborated with Shane and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove on this daily liturgy.

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March 5, 2011

Brian McLaren News

I've been doing a series on Brian McLaren's upcoming book Naked Spirituality for Examiner.com. It releases March 15th, so leading up to the release he has been releasing bits of his work each day. I've decided to share my weekly impressions.

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6

Today he also reposted my question about success in publishing. You can read his thoughts on how to overcome the challenges of writing well despite the current economic woes.

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November 30, 2010

It is Finished!

After nearly thirty days of writing abandon, the moment I have waited for has come. I have finished my Nanowrimo 2010 madness.  I am so happy to report that I completed the insane notion of 50,000 words in 30 days. More to come, but I had to shout it to the blogosphere before retiring to bed for much needed sleep.

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October 15, 2010

Acceptance vs. Accommodation

The Jesus I Never Knew and Church: Why Bother? illustrate the value of honesty and acceptance. Yancey is one of my favorite authors because he is not afraid to ask honest questions about the Church’s mission. The key to his approach is in the truth that acceptance is not accommodation. Acceptance is the willingness to see the other person for who they are – no matter what they believe or what they do – and to remain committed to one’s own beliefs. Accommodation is yielding one’s beliefs to those of another. The Church of the 22nd century must accept the world, not accommodate it.

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September 3, 2010

Now on Burnside: "It's All Gonna Burn...Or Is It?"

I suppose this has been a good summer for me. On many levels, I have realized some important things about faith, the future and our future faith. For those of you who have endured the journey of my faith blog and seen it come full circle, I present to you a clearer explanation. I have stopped blogging on Our Future Faith and have brought it as an archived site in my personal site.

Why would I just quit in the midst of so much hubbub? Because there has been an awakening of Evangelical consciousness upon the future. I am delighted to share this and feel my part is done in that stage of blogging.

Also, consider this my brief but lucid review of Brian Mclaren's books that I digested eagerly this summer.

I will continue to write for Burnside and any other communities I can infiltrate. Thank you for reading and commenting. I have thoroughly enjoyed this journey so far and I pray that something I have written will jar some goodness and grace in your souls, too.

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June 21, 2010

Brian McLaren Repost!

I browsed my usual websites today and stumbled upon an amazing tribute from Brian McLaren. I emailed him to express my appreciation for his work and I am overwhelmed that he returned the favor. He maintained my anonymity, but I am more than willing to disclose my identity as "a former pastor." I have recently started reading A New Kind of Christianity. I will do a full review later, but for now, I can say with all my heart that I have envisioned this for years. Brian McLaren has put perspective and a game plan to my heart's cry. I am truly grateful for that. There is a new kind of Christianity emerging. I feel it. I believe it. I love it.

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May 26, 2010

Support Your Local Library

My wife and I have discovered a jewel in our community that is worthy of mention. The local library near my home has become a staple element of my family's entertainment. For some time I have mulled over the idea to post a promo for local libraries, so here's my take on them. They are essential to building strong, healthy communities.

Our library has a county-wide exchange program, so it is an access point to all the libraries in the county. Basically, its holdings are small in comparison to others, but it is an amazing tool nonetheless. I have Los Angeles County's book holdings at my finger tips. This juicy revelation has provided hours of great reading over the past year.

I am also ecstatic to relay that my son has a similar passion for it. The video section has saved me hundreds of dollars in rentals or purchases. His attention span is as fleeting as any three-year old, so I don't have to scramble to acquire the latest fad kids show at the local video store. We take him to the video section in our local library and give him the run of decades of solid children's programming on video and DVD. He also loves to check out their kids book section and we always have one or more children's books, which we incorporate into our nightly reading routine.

We have been involved in their children's reading hour and are patrons at their Friends of the Library store. With the universities a few paces away, there always is some great work of philosophy, religion, art or popular non-fiction that I have to wrestle not purchasing as we all leave the wonderful facility.

Bottom line: you should try to make the library a staple source of enjoyment for your family, too. It is the eco-friendly, economic solution to our voracious desire to consume media. If you can't fight this, at least you can not go broke trying to fill the void.

I would love to hear your local library stories as well. Please comment and let's consider building momentum for our local programs.

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