This is not a newsletter column. Or, at least, not like I hope to write them one day. My newsletter columns will have a clear beginning, middle, and end — like the old ham sandwich my elementary teachers used to say exemplified a good essay. This post, on the other hand, is more of a simple spew. A peanut butter and banana open-faced snack of sorts.

For the past few days I’ve been meeting with a group of seven young pastors, all graduates of Columbia Seminary (except myself who’ll graduate in May, God willing) most of whom have begun their first calls in a church. It’s a support group, an accountability group, a place to be real and be seen by friends in ways only friends can see. It’s been lovely. Really, really, good.

One of the things we’ve practiced this week is sharing. Each of us has talked for a good hour on how we’re doing: professionally, vocationally, personally, spiritually, relationshipally, heathily, you get the idea. While a person is sharing, we don’t interrupt. It’s very strange to speak to friends for 45 minutes-plus without interruption. I think for me, though, it’s become a sort of spiritual discipline. Listening. Listening to this friend’s testimony. Listening for how God is at work in my friend’s life. Listening as a spiritual discipline. How often can we listen for 45 minutes plus without worrying about ourselves, or how a lecture will be graded, or what was the exact quote? Listening for an hour for one another, for the betterment, support, accountability of a friend is a different sort of practice altogether. You should try it.

Now we’re attending the Celtic Christian Spirituality Conference at Columbia Seminary led by John Bell, J. Phillip Newell, and Cynthia Matyi. The first day went very well, and I’m looking forward to today. Since “celtic spirituality” is such an amorphous topic, it’s easy to over-sentimentalize it, or simply read into it what we think is lacking with contemporary theology and spirituality. But even with that lens in mind, I really appreciated the first day of presentations. John and Philip, who spoke yesterday, weren’t about sentimentalizing, but pushing contemporary Christians to a more faithful practice of their faith.

A few gems:

• From Philip Newell, about wellness, “The extraordinary thing is we somehow started thinking that there was some way for us to be well and whole without the wellness of the other, of all. We cannot be well if our family is unwell. We cannot be whole if our nation acts out of falsehood. We cannot be whole if the earth is unhealthy.”
• From Julian of Norwich, “We are not made by God — then somehow set free from God — but we are made of God. We are fashioned not from a distant creator, but God is our mother, our womb.”
• From John Bell reflecting on Psalm 148, “The world, natural creation, is our co-worshiper. So care for the earth is about allowing it to praise its maker, to sing a liturgy which we cannot understand.”

I’m busy. More later. Happy days.