<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the piece that started it all \u2026<\/p>\n
\u2026 sort of.\u00a0 My road to blogging was driven by a need to have a way to post this piece that I\u2019d written, which was published in the October 2012 issue of The Lutheran.\u00a0 Of course, there is a backstory to this \u2026 a story that started just about a year ago.<\/p>\n
In January 2012, one of my pastor-friends on Facebook shared an essay by Bishop Michael Rinehart of the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod.\u00a0 I read it and was moved by what the good bishop had to say, so I shared it on Facebook as well.\u00a0 Then that same piece appeared in the February issue of The Lutheran.\u00a0 I was delighted that this important perspective was getting such a wide audience.\u00a0 (I still recommend reading it and here\u2019s a link to Bishop Rinehart\u2019s article:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/http:\/\/tlgcconnections.wordpress.com\/2011\/12\/02\/insiders-and-outsiders\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n But my hopes that this might prompt a forward-looking discussion in the wider ELCA were quickly disappointed.\u00a0 There were letters arguing that insiders matter, too \u2026 articles cautioning against \u201cthrowing the baby out with the bathwater by jettisoning our heritage\u201d \u2026 yet another go \u2018round on the contemporary vs. traditional \u201cworship wars.\u201d\u00a0 All of this was completely aside from what Bishop Rinehart was saying: that the future of the church depends on learning to care about those who are outside of the congregation \u2013 and orienting everything we do towards them \u2013 instead of taking care of those who are already members.<\/p>\n I was frustrated that people didn\u2019t seem to be getting it.\u00a0 So I fired up my computer and wrote a response that I submitted for consideration for the monthly \u201cMy View\u201d feature in the magazine.\u00a0 First, I heard it was being considered; then, a few weeks later, I was told it would be published.\u00a0 Shortly after that, I found myself face-to-face with Bishop Rinehart at the Multi-Cultural Youth Leadership Event prior to the 2012 ELCA Youth Gathering in New Orleans.\u00a0 I thanked him for what he wrote and told him that my response would be in the October issue of The Lutheran.\u00a0 He asked me to email him a link to when it appeared \u2026 which I did.\u00a0 But most of what I wrote was behind the subscription wall \u2026 and now, months later, the entire issue is behind the wall.<\/p>\n So I needed a place where I could post it \u2026 a place where it would be more accessible.\u00a0 I\u2019d been thinking about blogging for years.\u00a0 A number of people have complimented my writing.\u00a0 I\u2019m working on a book, so I need to \u201cget my name out there.\u201d\u00a0 So why not?\u00a0 It took some time to find possible host sites \u2026 think of a name that would be unique and frame my ideas \u2026 find the time to actually DO the work of setting up the site.\u00a0 But here it is (at long last).\u00a0 So I begin with The Piece that Started It All (in its original, unedited version).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here\u2019s the piece that started it all \u2026 \u2026 sort of.\u00a0 My road to blogging was driven by a need to have a way to post this piece that I\u2019d written, which was published in the October 2012 issue of The Lutheran.\u00a0 Of course, there is a backstory to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-this-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123,"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions\/123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}