My Spiritual Journey Beyond the Walls of the Church
Interview by Ruth Perry of Beautiful Kingdom Builders
This week, I received a beautiful gift from Ruth Perry over at The Beautiful Kingdom Builders - the interview linked above.
My spiritual worldview has expanded exponentially since I began this journey as a young adult. While it started inside the church walls, my journey was fueled by a vision of a world beyond walls - where we are all one big beautiful community.
This interview covers a lot of ground. Starting with my unchurched upbringing to my first experiences of the Christian tradition, I share with Ruth how I found my way from accounting to ministry inside the walls of the church. That journey led me to seminary, where I was introduced to the missional church and contemplative movements. It was at the intersection of these streams that I found the Asset-Based Community Development approach.
ABCD provided me with a methodology for holding together the missional vision and contemplative practices in a way that cultivates rich, vibrant communities. The process nurtures contemplative activists who listen deeply for where the spirit is moving and then join in. This faith-informed approach to cultivating community moves us beyond walls of separation and across bridges of division.
I encourage you to check out the full post along with the transcript here. I also highly recommend you subscribe to The Beautiful Kingdom Builders publication and watch the previous interviews. They are all excellent, but if you have to choose one, I would recommend the interview with kathy escobar.
If you enjoyed this interview, I hope you will consider subscribing, sharing your thoughts in the comment section, and sharing this post with others. All materials on my site are free, and 100% of any paid subscriptions are donated directly to Embrace Communities, a public charity.
Thank you both for exploring this broad topic together. Wendy, your experiences are all coming together, and I appreciate you sharing them. I hope people who can appreciate this can discover it. It is a great first-hand account of how to trust yourself and to find yourself on the journey out of toxic religion to a healthier place. I love the path of following beauty, which is so often the way out. My wife and I followed beauty to a more healthy church, and then beyond that to the ancient streams of contemplative Christian wisdom, cross-fertilized with the wisdom paths of other religions. It helps to hear others tell their story, after doing such profound self-reflection on it.
Conversations like ours was exactly why I wanted to start a podcast! Thank you, Wendy, for sharing your story, even the vulnerable parts. I'm inspired to get outside the four walls of the church and start making a difference in my community!! <3