happy friday! i am in the process of making some small shifts around here. not sure how it will shake out, but i definitely know i am in a place where i keep saying the same things over & over again and it’s time to mix it up a bit!
i will definitely continue to use the same rule-of-thumb-for-blogging that i’ve always used for the past 4+ years–i never write just for the sake of writing. i only share something that gets stirred up inside that i feel like sharing. that won’t change at all. but i’d like to experiment with a few other things that i’ve been wanting to do for a while but seem to never get around to:
- formation friday. every friday i am going to try to share some kind of spiritual formation exercise or reflection. this is for me as much as for everyone else, but i would love for this blog to be a place for more tools & God-reflection-experiences and places-to-be-challenged-beyond-just-feelings-about-church. this will be a mix of stuff i’ve done in the past & things we do at the refuge & whatever might just come up. starting september 6th!
- in the living room: so many fun things happen in my living room. not just jose & i’s living room but where-the-refuge-meets-living-room, too (we have a really fun back space that we use all of the time for groups & conversations & learning). i’d love to share some of the exercises/questions/ideas that come up in some of these moments. they won’t be long and involved. sometimes they are just rounds where everyone finishes a sentence. other times it’s “what do you think about x, y or z” or maybe an exercise we all try together. i’d love to see more sharing in the comments so that it feels sort of like we’re in the living room together. i always get nervous out here asking specific questions because i never know if people will actually share (and there’s nothing worse than crickets) but hoping on these posts at least, whoever wants to come hang out in the living room feels free to (i really like to just go around the room when we’re together, so that everyone has a chance to share, with freedom to pass. i know it can feel annoying but in the end, but every time i am in awe of might have been missed). this will be as-they-come but very specifically titled “in the living room….”
- friendship week: kind of like shark week on the discovery channel but not nearly as exciting! all week the week of august 27th, one post a day from the refuge’s sacred summer friendship camp experience. no way to recreate it but will share a few fun & challenging thoughts and practical exercises we’ve been learning together. i want to get it up here while it’s fresh.
- what it’s like…: throughout september will be a series of interviews about real life, struggling with poverty & losing jobs & churches & feeling unloved & addiction & singleness & sexuality & mental illness & other issues that we need to learn more about as we become more compassionate people, a more compassionate church.
- adding to the rebuilding after deconstructing series: sometime this fall will finally get a few things up related to kids & deconstructing and what-happens-when-one-spouse-shifts-and-the-other-doesn’t and finding hope during faith shifts.
- more focused series: i am excited to focus on a few other series this fall/winter 2013 that i’ve wanted to give some attention to. they won’t look as intense as the rebuilding after deconstructing one, but i think that’s the direction i’d like to go this year. i hope to get a short series of posts on ex-good-christian-women, advocacy/journeying with people in hard places, and christmas-y stuff-when-you-don’t-know-what-you-believe-anymore. and yes, some day my teammate karl and i are going to focus on 8 ways to shrink a church in some fun way (every time i re-group i talk about it but it just hasn’t happened yet). here are all the other series i’ve done over time.
- disqus commenting: i am always a few steps behind on tech-stuff and finally getting disqus comment system up here. it’s in the process of synching right now but you’ll see the change in the next day or so. thanks for your patience with it.
- a really boring next week: next week i will be getting up some posts that i’ve written for some other blog-friends in the past chunk of months and want to archive here. some of you have already read them, for others they might be new. enjoy the capital letters!
i have some other fun ideas but for now, that’s plenty.
what else would you like to see more of here? please let me know. i am very grateful for this space; it’s always good for my soul in kinds of ways. thanks for reading & commenting & sharing & wrestling with these hard things along with me. you all encourage & challenge me more than you know!
have a great weekend.
peace, kathy