Welcome back. You belong here.

My theology is a process, some day I will post more about that here. Suffice it to say it’s been and continues to be quite a ride. But the purpose of this post is the richness of doing theology in community, specifically with my friends/pastors here in CA. I did church with these guys for 5 years, but more than that, we’ve lived in community with each other.

We’ve seen each other through struggles in church, our marriages, birth of children (many of them!), moving away, church transitions, loss, grieving, raising teenagers (not yet me) and so much more.

And even though we now live in different parts of the country (well, I do, they’re practically neighbors), our community remains. We email, call each other, I travel to see them (hint, hint) a couple times each year and every year we do a monastic spiritual retreat where we talk, process, make decisions, have a lot of fun and spend time with God.

This community, regenerative friendship, sustains my theology, is a safe place for all three of us to dialogue, disagree?, sharpen, refine, challenge, and most of all grow. It’s a wonderful thing.

We’re all doing church in three different contexts now, three different models, which only brings more meat and bones to our talks. The reason this matters is because I feed off of it. I’m a thinker and my thinking leads my actions. So to have a group where I can talk and process is huge. It often, like this recent trip, leads to different actions in my life.

I’m grateful for my friends, their influence and our commitment to each other.

Have a great day.

Into the future,

davidT