Behind the Stories

I once heard it said that all love letters get to their destination; even the ones that are never sent.

Because love letters aren't actually written for someone else to receive, they are written for the sake of the author. It is a person trying to grasp things in their head and make sense of the world they are experiencing. It is a way to sort stuff out. So by the time they've finished writing the letter it has already made its way to the person who actually needed it.

This is what is happening when most people write.

Which is also why I am writing and posting and sharing.

I have recently emerged from one season of discovering at Fuller Theological Seminary and have found myself in a new one - as a pastor in the United Methodist Church through a team that seems to be recovering some early church dynamics of discipleship and church communities that exist within one another.

And in the midst of this, I find myself doing a lot of uncovering and learning and encounter the way of Jesus. I find myself in an experience that I am constantly attempting to make sense of.

My posts are my attempt to do this.

Which makes this whole thing kind of like a love letter. I'm not writing for you...I'm writing for me. There are these things going on inside of me, questions that I'm working through, ideas that I'm trying to grasp and I'm simply using this medium to carry that out. I'm taking the world I'm experiencing and trying to make some sense out of it.

So I wrestle and learn and piece things together and at the end of that, what I'm sharing has already made it to its destination.

So even though the purpose and the process is finished, I just figured I would offer it to all of you when I was done.

Which means you just happen to be looking in on what is going on inside of me. Maybe it will be helpful, maybe it won't, but just know that it has already gotten to its destination and that was the point in the first place.


________________________________________________________________


I'm always open to more conversation and collaboration and feedback or generally just different ways of figuring this whole thing out. If that is something you are at all interested in, please just let me know.

_____________________________________________________




I am currently the pastor at Metamora United Methodist Church and part of a collective team in NW Ohio that is attempting to collaborate in an early church sort of way. For more on the team go to http://www.umcteam1.org/





For sermon audio / teaching podcasts:

http://tylerkleeberger.podbean.com/





Contact: tylerkleeberger@gmail.com




For previous teaching podcasts:

http://sermon.net/mountunioncampuschurch