This Will Be Better with Friends

This week represents a significant change for me, for this site, and for those of you who pay attention to it. I have been convinced for a while now that I am in profound need of the help of others if I want to fully become the kind of person I want to be, and this has also proven to be true in terms of the projects I've worked on over the past few years through SalvationLife.com and SalvationLife Books. Everything––from a blog post to my life overall––turns out better when I involve other people.

So, as of this week, this blog and these books will also include contributions from others. Here are some of the main folks you'll hear from, each of whom have played an important role in my life:

  • Luke Ankeny: Luke is the pastor of Homedale Friends Community Church in Homedale, ID. Luke has lived spiritual formation in front of/with/and for me (and for many others) since before I had any clue what spiritual formation was.
  • John Grant: John has spent years as a Nazarene pastor and is currently working on a PhD in stuff I have trouble understanding. He has a great mind, and he and I became friends in graduate school because of his great heart. My friendship with John was one of my first real tastes of how good a spiritual friendship can be. (See John's blog.)
  • Kara Harris: No one else both helps me become and makes me want to keep becoming a better person as much as Kara, which is part of why I continue to be very glad that she married me. I and everything I do would be a mess without her, and this blog will be dramatically better with her contribution.
  • Robert Pelfrey: Robert is Associate Pastor at First United Methodist Church of Midland, TX (my church home), and later this summer will become pastor of Western Hills United Methodist Church in El Paso. He may be the smartest person I know, and his friendship has been invaluable to me as we have shared this journey of seeking to become more like Jesus together. I'm thrilled that SalvationLife Books will publish Robert's first book, Rock God, in the summer of 2014. (See Robert's blog.)