I quit my job

now I'm using my time differently

Perhaps this is not how anyone envisions starting the year, but on January 2^nd, I resigned from my job.¹ We are still attending church at my previous workplace. I left with good relationships with the staff. Nevertheless, it was time for me to step down.

Some decisions made by the church leadership more firmly outlined their beliefs about women and I was increasingly aware that I was on the outside of the lines. It is my belief that it is both Scripture’s most consistent teaching and the best practice for life that women and men work and lead together at all levels.² This is a core belief for me and one that I love talking about, and I was experiencing more and more dissonance with the church’s stance as time passed. The decision to leave staff was tough and sad and also relieving.

I am not sure what is next. Last week, I remembered that every step of my vocational journey so far has been a surprise. Nothing has been planned for or anticipated. I used to think that was a deficiency in me, but a few years ago I read this passage³ in A Burning in My Bones, the authorized biography of Eugene Peterson.⁴

The imagery spoke to him so deeply because he had been that dog for decades. His life and work had been more like tracing a scent than following a nap. Discovery, not direction. In all those fifty-five years, Eugene had never truly mapped his future, never tried to lay some ordered path toward a clear career goal. Intent? Sure. But haphazard too. The whole meandering journey had been a dog sniffing the wind, the next whiff being the only real clue.”⁵

I am apparently not the only one who is unsure what is ahead and laughs on the inside at ten year plans.⁶

For now, I am planning to do more work here with this Substack.⁷ Here are two (paid) offerings for you to consider.

A Book Club: Practicing Christian Doctrine by Beth Felker Jones

If you want to learn more (or anything!) about theology but don’t want to try to do it alone, this book club is for you. Each week, we will read a chapter together and I will provide some written commentary about the chapter, outside resources to supplement the reading, and questions so that we can discuss the material together. The comments section will allow you to connect with one another and ask questions from the reading.

Here is where you can buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop | Audible | Your local bookstore | Ask your library to get a copy⁸

If you can, buy your own copy of the book. I plan to mark mine up. I’ll underline. I’ll ask questions in the margins. Annotating books is a helpful habit when you are studying even if you don’t do it with your normal reading.

The book club will start on Feb 17. The first post will cover the introduction and our aims for the book club. It will be free for all subscribers so that you can get a taste of what we are doing. The book club will finish at the end of April. Think of it as a semester of #personalgradschool.

Here is a pdf of the schedule in case you want to print it and stick it in your book!

Becoming Book Club

48.4KB ∙ PDF file

Download

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Zoom Workshops

At noon, on the fourth Thursday of each month, paid subscribers can gather for a (roughly forty-five minute long) online workshop. These will be recorded if you cannot attend but will be much more fun in person.

February 27^th- contemplative exercises with Scripture
March 27^th- how to teach the Bible
April 24^th- women in Scripture: the beginning and the end
May 22^nd- Q+R with questions sent in advance

I will send out the Zoom link a week in advance as a reminder!

If you are interested in participating, upgrade to a paid subscription. This will also allow me to spend more time preparing these resources for you instead of searching for another job.⁹

I’m looking forward to connecting more with you, both in studying theology and working together to learn and embody God’s Word.¹⁰

1. My disabled fourteen-year-old says that I have “retired.” I don’t hate it.

2. In the family, in the church, in the world. On Mars, if we are taken there by billionaires.

3. Here is the entire poem by Denise Levertov.

4. Peterson is one of my far-off mentors. I love his approach to ministry and I’ve learned so much through his books.

5. Winn Collier, A Burning in My Bones (Colorado Springs: Waterbrook, 2021), 60.

6. Do you know how much of life has surprised me? I want to aim myself in a direction and I want to direct my days but so much is beyond my control. I want to use my agency in what I pursue and learn and how I spend my days, but not grasp for control that is not mine.

7. You didn’t know this was a Substack? No worries! That’s just the platform that hosts this blog or newsletter or email. However you consider it does not really matter.

8. You better hope nobody else wants it though because we will have it out for longer than a renewal cycle.

9. Though I am, so if you know of something, pass it along!

10. With an aim toward curiosity and wonder, not certainty.