Q & R: Finding encouraging relationships?
Here’s the Q:
We have never met however I have read many of your books over the recent years and have listened to everything I could find on the Internet from you along with many others along similar journeys to yours. I have found great comfort and encouragement in listening to you as well as other similar thinking believers however I have found myself increasingly feeling isolated, misunderstood and generally just not fitting into the evangelical world i was raised in. No one else in my network of believing friends are interested much in looking deeper into the questions of faith and how they work themselves out in scripture, typically business as usual works just fine for them as it did for me the majority of my life. However several years ago I began asking myself hard questions about the dogma I was holding to and that led to the discovery of many of your writings as well as others that began putting words to the feelings I was having about my own faith experience. While on this search i found myself discovering a much bigger God then i had ever known which brought me much comfort however it also began revealing a thought and understanding divide between myself and the majority of my spiritual network.
…I guess my question to you is how did you go about finding encouraging relationships as you started down this journey of rediscovering your faith and now that you have found yourself in the cross hairs of many evangelical sites how do you keep from getting shot down by the skeptics.
Any help or encouragement would be greatly appreciated on this topic.
Thanks for your willingness to step out and proclaiming such a ” generous orthodoxy”
Here’s the R:
Thanks for your note and encouraging words.This is one of the most common questions I receive, showing what a need there is to help people find each other … I’m working with a group of friends to try to facilitate these connections online. Stay tuned for more news about the CANA Initiative. (Cana stands for convene, advocate, network, and act.) I’m also hoping my next book will help people get together … More on that soon too.