Meet and Greet
Occasionally, I like to encourage my readers to introduce themselves to me and to one another. It helps us all know one another, where we’re coming from, where we’re headed, what we’re interested in, etc.
I’ve done this before, and you might enjoying reading about some of my readers (some who no longer read/comment here, and some who continue to interact): “Getting to know you,” “Introduce Yourself,” and “Please allow me to introduce myself.”
Since some new people have begun interacting on my blog recently, I thought this would be a good time for a new round of introductions.
So, please, take a moment and tell us about yourself, your family, your work, etc. Tell us about your theological and church background. Whatever you want to tell us. If you’ve introduced yourself before, please do so again for the sake of my newer readers. You have have the mic.
Hi all,
My name is Bobby. As long as I have been active here I don’t think I have shared in this type of post. Sorry, but here goes:
I am 31 years old and I am a plumber by trade. My wife and I just celebrated our 8 year anniversary and we have three children that are 7, 5, and 15 months. We live in beautiful Savannah, Ga . We homeschool our children and have been a part of simple church gatherings for several months now.
I blog over at Deconstructing Neverland (name soon to change) http://www.bobbyauner.blogspot.com you can also follow me on twitter @reformedlostboy. Mostly I write about what Christ is doing in me as he gives me his heart for service. I firmly believe that as he reveals his unsearchable riches to us our lives will overflow with service and love toward others. The last several months have been difficult for us as we sort out some of the baggage we acquired from many years in institutional Christianity. I come from a reformed baptist background and I am thankful for the support, encouragement, and teaching I find here on your blog Alan. It is nice to see someone take the Bible seriously and traditions lightly.
I thank God for you all.
For those who don’t know me, my name is Arthur Sido. My wife and I are the parents of eight kids, aged 3 to 17, and I work in financial services, a field that has led to us moving around a lot (my eight kids were born in five different states!). I grew up as an agnostic at best, got married in college and had our first two children before graduating on the five year plan and moving to Wyoming. It was in Wyoming that we stumbled into mormonism and that is where we were for a number of years until God sovereignly saved us (if you are interested in the details, check this out: http://thesidos.blogspot.com/2008/02/our-journey-out-of-mormonism-saved-by.html).
Since coming to Christ around 10 years ago, we have been on an interesting spiritual journey. Most of our time in the church has been in traditional Baptist evangelical churches. I served for a few years as a bi-vocational pastor as well so I get a little bit of what that is like. I have long embraced the soteriology of Reformed theology but over the last three years have gradually come to reject much of the traditions that surround being “reformed†especially as it applies to the church while still holding to the core doctrines. My blogging reflects this change. I write a lot about the church but I also dabble in other issues. We have recently moved to Indiana and are enjoying the fellowship of a wide range of other Christians.
Hi, I’m Mike Hutchison, recovering sinner. The LORD granted this gentile repentance unto salvation through the gospel of Christ 23 years ago. Christ dug me out of a pit of generational alcoholism, violence and despair. The LORD saw that it was not good for me to be alone and in 1990, Stacy and I were married, she is my “ezer kenegdoâ€, a source of strength appropriate for me and a power of God equal to me-Genesis 2:18. We will celebrate 22 years of growing together in Christ on April 14. We live in a suburb of Houston, TX where for many years we sojourned in legalistic fundamentalist churches where I taught “Sunday Schoolâ€, served as an “elder†and “preached†from time to time in the absence of the “pastor†and by invitation in two other area “pulpitsâ€.
Five years ago we left the Institutional/traditional church and have summarily re-examined and then BBQ’d all of our sacred cows.
I’m currently developing a “book/workbook†that will never be published, sold or widely circulated entitled: The New Covenant in Christ’s Blood…the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ. My purpose in developing it is to use it to relay information that has helped me in my walk with Christ to new disciples of Christ in the hopes that they can learn this information within the first 6-12 months in their walk with Christ instead of the 23 years it took me to uncover these truths. I know that discipleship is not a curriculum or a program, the workbook repeatedly encourages the reader to depend upon the indwelling presence of Christ to lead and guide them into truth and to learn from and teach others in community as led by Christ. This workbook is being born out of my re-examination of my formerly help doctrines. The chapters are as follows:
Introduction-Seeing Christ in all of the scriptures and depending on the Spirit of Christ/The Holy Spirit
What is the Kingdom/reign of God?
The God of covenants
Noahic
Abrahamic
Patriarchal Priests
Patriarchs and Judges
The Old Covenant/The Mosaic Law
The Nation of Israel
Theocracy and Monarchy
The throne of David
The priesthood of Levi
A copy and shadow
The tabernacle of David-hint of the New Covenant
Weakness of the Law
A profane priesthood
The stone that became a mountain
The order of Melchizedek
The fullness of time
The time of reformation
A voice in the wilderness
The ministry of the Master
From the cross to the crown
The Heavenly scene
The nature of the Kingdom
The New Covenant-the kingdom in the New Covenant
The Royal Priesthood-the New Covenant Priesthood
The true Israel of God
The New Covenant Priesthood, temple and sacrifice
The Gospel, what is it?
What does it mean to preach Christ/preach the Word
What is the Law of Christ?
The law written on the heart, the New Heart
Freedom of maturity
New creations in Christ, partakers of the divine nature
The indwelling presence where does the Spirit of Christ/the Holy Spirit lead me?
The distinguishing characteristic of a child of God-loving others, walking in love
What does spiritual maturity look like?
Misunderstanding the Kingdom
The destiny of the Kingdom?
The thousand year reign?
Maranatha
I really enjoy Alan’s blog, his ecclesiology is more structured than mine, but it always makes me think and challenges me. I especially love Alan’s heart for encouraging the application of real spiritual growth as exhibited by sacrificially loving and serving others.
My wife, Stephanie, and I live in Maine in the Greater Portland area. We have three kids: Gracie(3), Lily(2), and Danny(1). We love our kids and we love living in Maine. I work in Datawarehousing for Unum, a large employee benefits provider.
I don’t really know what tradition I come from. I used to go to an Evangelical Free Church with my grandparents as a kid, spent some time in a pentacostal church, then spent some time in SBC churches, now we don’t gather with any local church on any kind of regular basis mostly because I get grumpy and obnoxious about it, much to my wife’s chagrin.
I like to think I’m funny and smart. I like to think I know everything about everything. Often times this leaves me looking and feeling quite foolish.
I think this quote of Ben Franklin sums up my hobbies and theology pretty well: “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”
I am the author of The Ekklesia in Southern Maine.
I am norma j hill, aka penandpapermama. Mom of 4 daughters and 1 son (all in their 20s), 8 grandkids, and married to Lionel for almost 28 years. We’re Canadian, hubby is Haida (First Nations).
I have been a school-teacher (public and private/Christian), homeschool parent, tutor (still), and general jill-of-all-trades (secretary, orchardist, construction, you-name-it). Lionel has been in the Armed Forces, logging, and is now a Care Aide.
Both of us have come from very “churched” backgrounds. Hubby from a weekly combination of Anglican church and Pentecostal Sunday School in his childhood – along with some years in an Anglican-run Indian Residential School, the latter not an altogether positive “Christian” experience. I was brought up Free Methodist, until my teens – at which time I was Faith Gospel, then Nazarene, then wandering, then Pentecostal (at which point hubby took the family on an adventure accompanying him to a Pentecostal Bible School), then Anglican, then Mennonite Brethren, then Southern Baptist (Canadian) …
At the moment we are involved in a non-denominational street ministry ( http://www.anotherchanceokanagan.com/ ) and mostly just trying to learn to really follow Jesus.
I blog about my “church journey” at http://normajhill.blogspot.com and you can find out more about our family, hubby’s Haida roots, and my love of writing at my website http://penandpapermama2.com/
Is that confusing enough? 🙂
I read everybody’s blog who has commented above me, and enjoy them all. I found them all through Alan’s blog here, which is fantastic.
I am married with three daughters. I would love to write and study for a living, but it is not what God has for me right now, so I practice my writing at http://www.tillhecomes.org, http://www.graceground.com, and http://www.gracecommentary.com.