It’s easy to miss but I’m a recovering alcoholic and a former pastor. At my first rehab, a man who would become a father figure to me jokingly said I should start a blog called, “Drunk Pastor.” I think he meant it as a joke, knowing him. Faith and recovery have flipped me around and turned me inside out. I’m still a “pastor” and trying to climb out of the wreckage of my own making has led me to conclusions about myself, faith, Church, and a lot more.

Philosophy and psychology are integrated into the rest of my worldview now. I still have that part of me that strongly identifies with the label of “Drunk Pastor.” It both reminds me of my faith and what I’m capable of when I am out of control. I want to engage with Protestants and Evangelicals in particular. I also like to be a bit of a rebel.

I have a lot of favorite verses. Here are some:

• Genesis 2:25
  “And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”
• Joshua 1:5-9
  “No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
• Hebrews 12:1-3
  “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
• Matthew 10:16
  “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves”
  

As of October 20, 2024, I try to go as regularly as possible (1-2 times a week) and have a group picked as a home group. AA doesn’t get me either but that’s something every person in AA says.

I was an Evangelical since first becoming a Christian in high school. Back then, I thought that was the “only” Christianity. Evangelical is no longer a title I can hold faithfully. It would be dishonest. In general, I’ve always hated these labels. Working at different churches, I was expected to adopt their doctrine as if we could all change beliefs as simply as that.

However, what I am has been elusive. My actual beliefs and how they fit in Christendom aren’t so cookie-cutter. Currently, “Egongelical” is the label I’ve given myself. It ignores the Catholic/Orthodox/protestant schism largely.

I am “mystic” but that wasn’t something I studied or tried to do – it just happened as a part of my journey and it’s been weird.

I say that I rejected Systematic Theology as the metric and canon by which we measure “faith” and spirituality.

Stay tuned.

Stay tuned.

Ummm, good question. I’m still working on it…

Ego is the central issue for all of us. We all develop an idea of our self that we then allow to get in the way of ourselves. It is what I believe Jesus was talking about and why he challenged us the way he did. It reframes theology away from the 1700’s of doctrinal entropy and puts the biblical narrative back into its context, which allows it to speak freely to us today. It rejects our different systematic theological approach to Scripture and adopts an Analytical Narrative approach using historical and modern research methodology. It places faith in Jesus alone – not Jesus + another doctrine. The personal side is about internal wholeness and peace. The mission of Egongelicalism is Jesus’ one new command – to love as he loved us.

Stay tuned.

Hahahaa.. Still working on it. I struggled with just denying or rejecting out right. There were beliefs that were developing before church planting and alcoholism already.

It hasn’t been until recently, as in the last few months, that things have finally made sense to me. It’s like I can’t unsee it now. Definitely would be difficult for me to believe it now. It’s a whole “thing” and it is also young. As I study, meditate, and engage with others, ideas and principles are being refined as my own person is continuing to find new crevices and pocket dimensions his ego still controls.

I’m not Evangelical. I’m not Protestant. I’m not Orthodox or Catholic. I’m not Liberal. I’m not Conservative. I’m not sure if any of those labels have all the answers humans have been looking for.

There are features these share with my posture now. However, the best term I’ve come up with is Egongelical. It’s a dumb name but it works. It’s just coming together.