“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NASB) – Biblegateway.com

Great, another Sci-Fi writer Creating a new Religion?

I apologize if it sounds a little “out there.” So let me reassure you, dear reader, I’m a simple, scripture-based, Christian.

However, God builds each of us unique, and when we operate in a manner authentic to our uniqueness we’re most effective personally and on behalf of the Kingdom of God. I was born outside the box and the Path of the Postmodern Cleric is my way of saying how I walk with God. It’s my life’s work.

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made by our Personal Savior:

I read somewhere that there are 2,000 types of beetle. The reason there are so many is simple, that’s how many God wanted. (Psalms 139:14 & Jeremiah 1:5) The scriptures clearly express God’s intentionality when designing each and every human.

We are often told that God has a unique purpose for you, but my experience of Christianity hasn’t really engaged with that aspect of it. (There’s a reason for that I’ll circle back to in a moment.) While studying marketing I first encountered the idea of my personal brand. The book actually described it as, “embracing your freak factor.” Then I took a Strength Finder test and when I read my top 5 strengths I realized that my weirdness was by God’s design. A world without me would not be as beautiful an expression of God’s character and love as it could be. It’d be like a world with only 1,999 types of beetle.

Organized Religion: My journey to the start of the path.

I grew up in a denomination. Gatherings were based in part on shared rules and principles cobbled together from the Bible. The goal wasn’t homogeneity as much as a peaceful assembly of individuals trying to learn how to be better Christians. It really helps to know what a good Christian is in that scenario and that necessitates rules.  As a by-product of this, you can easily distinguish yourself from other groups who do it differently. They’re the ones doing it wrong.

My efforts on this front cooled for a few years until my father passed away in 2003. Enter the non-denominational (evangelical) Christian phase. Now there were two purposes to being a Christian, 1) spread the gospel & 2) live a more effective lifestyle so you don’t look so screwed up. It was a nice phase for me but it turns out I look terrible in a blue sweater-vest.

I lucked into a group of non-institutional Christians who believed that corporate gatherings were for worship and encouragement. That’s been a huge blessing and in the last decade or so they have taught me more about living in the Kingdom than all my time before.

To Codify or not to Codify:

For years I desperately wanted to create my own rules for living an effective Christian life and as I’m sure you guessed it doesn’t work. All I managed to do is create a religion of one. My ultimate answer came when I learned that truth is less important than love.

That elevates relationship, not only between us and God but between us and other human beings. Here’s the real secret of the Path of the Postmodern Cleric– a relationship is a dynamic thing, not a static thing. It is a flow and a journey. It cannot be hoarded.

The Flow of Good Things:

Suddenly everything falls into place for me. Suddenly my purpose within the context of my relationship with an all-powerful God is a journey of transformation not about learning to conform to the rules. In fact, if you read 2 Corinthians 3, or Romans 7 to 9, you get a pretty good look at following the rules versus following God.

All good things come from God, they flow through us on their way to other people and they transform us on the way through. Ultimately, they return to God. My pursuit of life as an intimate conduit of God’s love has lead me to amazing insights that I’d like to share. Abundant life awaits those who take on this path because Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.

The path is broken into four parts you can learn sequentially but they all happen at once. They are 1) Spiritual Roots, 2) Unique Identity, 3) Health & 4) Wisdom & Wealth (Insert Links)

So that’s me, Sir Bunch, on the Path of the Postmodern Cleric. I’m learning as I go and still making plenty of mistakes, but I’m sharing it all because I believe this is a core mission in my life. To follow my journey follow this link and subscribe to the list you feel is where you want to start.

Some of my mentors:

Graham Cooke, Mike Galeotti, Bill Jastrom, John Eldredge, Frank Viola, Janice Seeney,