Born into a pastor’s family to two pastor’s kids, I went directly from home school to a Christian Liberal Arts College to get my Bible Degree.  Evangelicalism is so ingrained in my life story that it became all that I was. Becoming a third-generation pastor was clearly my destiny. I was fluent in Christianese and all that I did was guided by the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Over 30 years of summer camp and sword drills, courting and side-hugs, worship team and Jeremy Camp covers, and look at me now…

I’ve been getting questions lately from people wondering how, given this back-story, I’ve come to classify myself as an Agnostic. Old friends not bold enough to ask me, have sat back at a distance thinking, “He’s just angry, maybe has some issues with the church and some of the dysfunction he’s seen, and he’s going through a reactionary phase. This is just his way of rebelling and testing his faith, but he’ll be back…they always come back.” The truth is, rejecting Evangelical Christianity was something I did out of necessity, not rebellion. It saved me. It saved my faith, my joy, and really, my LIFE. How, you ask?

This blog is an attempt to answer some of those questions.  I have a genuine interest in engaging in dialogue about my journey, but no desire to de-convert anyone.  This isn’t about me convincing you of how wrong you are, or listening to you try to reconvert me.

I’m doing this for two reasons. First, I intensely love many people who still consider themselves to be Evangelical Christians.  While I must live authentically, I have no desire for this to sever those relationship with the people I care so much about.  The only way I know to do this is with honesty about what I believe, but with an understanding that I have a deep respect for those that live with authentic faith and conviction.  I believe that we can agree to disagree and still enjoy a deep connection based on mutual respect and honesty.

Second, I know that I’m not the only one on this journey.  I hope that by “outing” myself in this way, I can connect with some of you with similar backgrounds about where you are at in your own journey.  Hopefully, we can help one another as we learn to process life outside the paradigms that we grew up in.

Finally, while I’m a huge fan of blogs and Facebook and other ways of communicating and connecting over the interwebs, I prefer to use these tools as a way to stay connected from a distance and to facilitate meaningful in-person connections.  So let’s grab a cup of coffee or a beer sometime!

In the meantime, I’ll be posting here occasionally and I look forward to being able to share more of my story and hearing some of your thoughts.