When I left my full time job at a church to start my own business, it was framed in a way that was positive. I was going after my dreams and other fluffy things that made me feel good and made people I knew proud of me. It took me a while to admit to myself what really happened. I wanted to be the hero and control the story of my own life. I wanted people to think I had it all together. The truth was I’d had a horrible 18 months after a leadership change and had been (deservedly) all but fired. Saying you quit your job after your pay was going to be cut 25% is a lot less sexy than saying you’re chasing after a dream. But once I admitted to myself what happened, a weird thing started happening: pieces of anger, guilt, and embarrassment started to…
The Christian racist; or how I’m part of the problem
Eight days into my first ministry job out of seminary I jumped on a bus with 54 people and headed to inner city Jacksonville, Florda for a mission trip. I was interning with a high school ministry and what nobody knew at the time was that this was my first mission trip. Ever. Especially into the inner city. I’m from a small redneck town in North Carolina. Seeing the Confederate Flag fly from a truck bed wasn’t strange. It was normal. Imagine my culture shock when, on the first day we’re there, we see a woman in the street tripping on whatever drug she had taken that day. I was in a position where I had to calm down the freaked out 15-year-old girls when secretly I was freaking out inside. This world was so foreign to me. Later in the week our entire group had a sit down with the…
Jesus farted.
Jesus farted. He also laughed. And cried. He was sarcastic to his friends. He played jokes on people. He wasn’t immune to sadness. He hurt when his friends hurt. He got hungry. And thirsty. He felt pain. He even got scared. I don’t want to disregard his kingship and priesthood at all. But many times in our worship and pursuit of Jesus, we forget he was a normal dude like many of us. The emotions we feel on a daily basis? He felt them too. There’s nothing more comforting than knowing the creator of the universe knows exactly what you’re going through because at some point in his life, he felt it too. So today when you laugh, remember that Jesus had an incredible sense of humor. When you hear bad news, remember he got sad when he heard bad news. And when you fart, remember Jesus farted too. Say…
Trust vs compromise; or should I vote for Donald Trump?
Before we even get started today, I’m going to warn you that this post is political in nature. You probably gathered that from the title. With that said, here’s what I want you to know: This post is meant to start a conversation. What I’m writing today is what I’m wrestling through as a Christian in this political cycle. It’s not the end all be all “I’m an expert and you should agree with me because of these three reasons.” In truth, you may agree. You may disagree. Whatever your opinion, I think it’s vital for us to have hard conversations about important issues. I’d love to know your thoughts in the comments or on Facebook. My name is Jonathan. I’m a 29-year-old registered independent from North Carolina currently living in Tennessee. For as long as I can remember, I have been a Christian. I wore cheesy Christian knock off tshirts…
Jesus and politics; or why I’m rethinking everything I thought I knew
There are two things you don’t talk about in public:
Religion and politics.
Well crap.
I’m about to do both.
Religion and politics.
Well crap.
I’m about to do both.
Three thing I learned from my least read blog post ever
On Friday, I wrote a blog post. When I posted it, I thought it was a solid post that would connect with people. It didn’t. Because no one read it. Seriously. It was my least read blog post ever. If you were one of the 21 people who read it, I owe you breakfast. Or a hug. Or something. It’s a weird feeling when you step into your insecurities and do something you’re proud only for it to be recognized by next to no one. First you’re confused: Why is no one paying attention? Maybe I should tell more people about it. Then you’re even more insecure: Well maybe it wasn’t any good. I wouldn’t pay attention to bad quality either. And then you begin questioning yourself: Maybe I’m not even that good? What if those other things I did that people liked were just a fluke? Should I even keep…
How to find the fun in your faith
I don’t remember when I became a Christian. As far as I can remember, I’ve always been one. There are times I can look back on where things clicked more than others, but there’s not that one day where I look back and say, “That was the day!” While I’ve always liked Jesus, there have been times in my life where I couldn’t stand Christians or church. Part of my story is that I transferred to the world’s largest Christian university and for two and a half years didn’t step foot inside of Church. I liked Jesus. I didn’t like Christians. Unfortunately, in my experience and likely in yours, the loudest Christians were the ones least like Jesus. In their attempt to follow him, they would tell me all the things I shouldn’t be doing. Don’t listen to that music. You shouldn’t be dressing like that. How dare you go…
Three things for Christians to remember this election season
Over the last year I’ve made an effort to be outspoken about issues most people don’t like to talk about.
Five sins we accept that we shouldn’t
There’s one label most people hate more than any other label: Hypocrite. You can call someone pretty much anything and while they might not like it, they don’t get as offended as when you call them a hypocrite.
A few thoughts on race and southern culture
My junior year of high school, someone walked up to my principal and asked, “Mrs. Dockery, how many black kids are in our school?” Mrs. Dockery thought for a second and replied, “There’s Aduwa and Nakeysha and Paris and…” before naming all the black students at West Stokes High School in 2003. There were ten. A whopping 1% of my high school population was black. It made sense. The story went that there were areas in my town that wouldn’t sell houses to a black family up into the 70s or 80s. One rumor in town was that there was a sign that read “N—– better not get caught here after dark” at one time. Another rumor was that the Ku Klux Klan was still meeting in our county and the Grand Wizard of the state had family in our town. This was the culture I grew up in. There were…