Episode 9 - Spirituality 2.0

A spiritual life can make us feel vulnerable on account of the spiritual vs religious dialogue - and we have talked about vulnerability in past episodes. 

Today, we expand on the spirituality dialogue by expanding further on bible study.

• Logos Bible Study
  • Logos Bible Study grew out of The English Bible as Literature, a course that Dr. Bill Creasy taught at UCLA for many years.  Today, Dr. Creasy is once again teaching through the entire Bible, verse-by-verse, using the same approach he did at UCLA, only his current teaching is much more in-depth than anything he has done in the past.  As a Christian, Dr. Creasy brings both academic integrity and spiritual insight to his Scripture classes -- as well as a great deal of humor!
• Small Groups vs Logos Bible Study

All Around Growth Communities

• All Around Growth Facebook Group
• All Around Growth Telegram Group

Why am I and why have I been on the search to find a church home?

What drew me to finding the church that I'm a part of now?

How did I get to where I am?

• United Church of Christ
  • Congregationalism in the United States
• Medina United Church of Christ
  • The Breadmakers

Join us as we talk about building relationships and becoming a part of your community.

(And hear some humor about being pulled over for driving a Japanese mini-truck!)

If we put in the work to achieve the goals we set - we *will* achieve them.

Sometimes it takes months, years, or even decades.

Don't walk away from your goals and your dreams.

You will find what you seek - stay the course.

The church has become part of my routine...

...and routine is what we'll talk about in the next episode.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:04

Life will reward you. But not always by the route you expect. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the All Around Growth Podcast. That quote is attributed to Edna Rodriguez. And today we are going to wrap up our discussion about, or our discussion on, my experiences with spirituality. Now, I want to preface this discussion about spirituality with the fact that talking about this makes me feel vulnerable. Okay? And we spoke in depth about vulnerability, what we can learn from that, and how that can help others in past episodes. But the reason why I feel vulnerable talking about my spirituality is due to the fact that there is a significant amount of judgment in the world based on those who proclaim themselves, quote, spiritual. And I'd like you to think about JP Sears and his satirical comedy, which I am a big fan of, by the way. But his uh, I mean, he's got shirts that say woke AF, right? Spiritual AF. And it's kind of a joke, but not really, because that is the mindset of a lot of people. And a lot of those people shun, chastise, or just do not respect religion. And for a long time I was one of them. Now I'm both. I embrace both warmly and also have a significant amount of disdain for those who cling to either one rigidly. So accordingly, I feel as though I'm a bit alone in my spiritual path, and that's okay, because like everything and anything else in life, I continue to do the work that I feel is relevant to the goals that I have with regard to my spiritual life, and as time goes on, I feel as though I am achieving those goals, making progress on that path, and things are and continue will continue to be presented to me in ways that I really didn't expect or understand, and that's all part of the process. So without further ado, let's get into the discussion today. Um, yesterday in Spirituality 1.0, we talked about how as I grew older during my teenage years, I began to question what I perceived to be blind faith. And then I walked away from the church, I walked away from Christianity, and I began to explore and embrace various Eastern philosophies, specifically Taoism. And then I went through a process of trying to get involved in community, and one of the ways in which I did that was through involvement in the church in my mid-20s and early 30s, and I ended with speaking briefly about Bible studies, and today I'd like to expand on the Bible studies that I have done and also talk about my mid to late 30s and bring us up to the current day of my spiritual practice and how I go about that. So let us hit the road and we will get talking. Alright. So um, the Bible study, right? The Bible study is a it's it's it's important because the Bible is a complex series of books and it's frequently misunderstood, and it's easy to well I was gonna say it's easy to misinterpret, but the interpretation of the Bible is very personal. So really it's open to interpretation in whatever way you feel is appropriate. But the important thing I think is for people to read it and also read it in a manner that allows them or allows us to put it all in context. Now, I've been some I've been a part of some small groups in reading, and we would read and we would talk and that was fine. And more often than not, those small groups were frequently led by an individual. And as individuals, we all have a certain amount of bias. Okay. Now, when I lived in California, specifically when I moved to San Diego County from Laguna Beach, I lived in San Marcos and began exploring some local churches around that area, as well as some Bible study. I found one church, and I don't recall the name of it right offhand, but a man named Dr. Bill Creasey, who had a Bible study program called Logos Bible Study. He I saw some advertisements about his program that he coordinated and taught, and sounded pretty cool. So I went to check it out, and indeed it was cool. It was very cool. Here's why. Dr. Bill Creasey was a retired professor from UCLA, and once he gained his tenure as a professor at UCLA as teaching literature, he chose the Bible as the primary book in which to study historical literature. Now that's fascinating because the Bible is oftentimes perceived as a wildly controversial book, and at UCLA, I'm not entirely sure how that went over, and I think that would be an interesting discussion. And who knows, maybe as time goes on, I'll see if I can't get Dr. Bill Creasey on the phone for an interview. I think that would be a great thing to do, and I think interviews are going to be a great way for me personally to expand my own knowledge base, learn from people who have experiences much greater and more vast than I do myself, and also a great opportunity to share life experiences with you as we both continue to move forward and grow. And then that'll further give us more topics to communicate amongst ourselves with in the various communities that are forming. Right now, those communities consist of the All-Around Growth Facebook group. And for those of us who don't use Facebook all that frequently anymore, we also have a Telegram group, uh, which is basically like a group message, and as our community continues to increase and grow in numbers, we will explore further avenues for community with one another. But, anyways, back to Dr. Bill Creasy. What was really cool about the way that he approached it is he put a lot of emphasis on the stories that were told and how they were told. And frequently what we find in the Bible is that the same story is told by multiple people and written in multiple different books at different points in time in different areas of the world. And we learned this by looking at a map at the same time that we did while studying the Bible. And we would bounce around a little bit and read the same story written in a different way and do some comparisons and contrasts with the context of the conversation, and it really provided an in-depth and comprehensive look at what the Bible actually was, how it was written, and what it meant. And because of the way in which he spoke about the Bible, well, and moreover, one of the things that he did as a retired professor, kind of a side hustle, if you will, was he would lead trips over to the Holy Land, if you will. Trips to Greece and the Middle East, all throughout that region, to visit and study directly the historical spots and put all that context into something tangible, boots on the ground, that you could experience for yourself in real life. And I think that that was just an amazing thing that he did. He still continues to do it, and I would very much like to take a vacation like that someday, but who knows how these things are gonna pan out, especially with regard to the current situation in 2020, which is COVID and the various restrictions and limitations that are being put upon us on account of this virus, and that's all I have to say about that. Now, so, anyways, Bible study by uh Bill Crease. Dr. Bill Creasey is awesome. I would encourage you to check it out. I will again link to that in the show notes. It's called Logos Bible Study, and he's got a number of different programs. He's got his one flagship program that focuses on the entire Bible and then a number of different sub-programs that focus on individual books or individual topics. Highly recommended. Definitely check it out, and uh, if you have any questions about that, let me know. Now, in my mid-30s, I after moving back here to Medina, realizing that I was going to stay here, the desire to get involved in my community grew even stronger. At this time of this recording in October 2020, I have uh there are two significant things that have happened, and I mentioned this before in earlier podcasts. I've lived in one town for longer than I ever have in my entire life, outside of growing up, of course. And I've lived in one residence for longer than I ever have as an adult. So for the last few decades, I haven't lived in one town for more than four years, and I haven't lived in one residence for longer than 18 months, and I've done both of those things here living in Medina County. Specifically Medina. I suspected this would happen years ago, and accordingly, I wanted to get involved with the community and build these relationships with people as time went on, because building relationships and participating within your community is it's a good thing to do. So I began doing or I began approaching involvement in church in the typical buffet style that I had in the past. And oh boy, am I gonna get pulled over here? This might cause some uh I've already been pulled over by the local sheriff for driving a Japanese mini truck in the road. And if I do get pulled over, I suspect I know why, it's because I have a headlight out, but anyways, um I'm going to just try to focus on what it is that we're talking about, and that was the buffet style of church, or the buffet style approach of going back to church. So, in doing so, I stumbled across the uh United Church of Christ, congregational type of church. And at that time I was living in a neighboring town with my parents in the town of Lichfield, and there was a small church there right on the little right in the little circle of the town center. And there were a couple things that drew me to this particular church. First and foremost, it was the pastor, and it was just a small church, um, old church. I like the feel of it, and I loved the pastor. Oh, Pastor Carol. She was an interim pastor, and there goes the sheriff. Um, she was an interim pastor, and she was just a spunky, she was a spunky woman, and I very much liked her and her approach, and she kind of sold me on the United Church of Christ. Now, why that particular denomination? Well, first of all, like I said, she was the draw for me to attend that particular church, and as I learned more about the history of the church, specifically the congregational element, is what drew me to it. In the United Church of Christ, there is no hierarchical way in which the church operates. Each individual church is effectively controlled by its congregation. Voting and making decisions, and nothing happens without the consent of the body of the church. So the church makes the decisions. of the uh freedom and liberty bend, that was important to me, and I very much liked that, especially since the blind faith element that I previously spoke about was something that challenged me. Now, after a while, the interim pastor was replaced by someone who was, for lack of a better term, interviewed by the church and accepted into the church. But I didn't like that guy. So I left because I didn't I wasn't really involved with the church. I would show up for service and then I would leave. And there was just there was something that didn't feel right about the church itself and the community within the church. And when the pastor left, I realized that's what it was. That I didn't fit in there. So I began, you know, I didn't go to church for a while, but then there was an old man that came in every now and then at Davis Tree Farm, and his name was Mr. Klein, and he's since passed. But on more than one occasion, he invited me to go to church with him. And he was a member of the United Church of Christ in Wadsworth, a neighboring town. Now I never took him up on that offer, and I kind of have regrets about not doing so. But I could kind of see the signs, if you will, and I decided to attend the United Church of Christ Congregational right here in Medina on the square. It's an old church, it's been around since 1819. And as soon as I stepped in there, it felt like home. It felt like home. And I knew I was home. I only had to attend a couple of services in order to realize that I wanted to become a member of the church and I wanted to participate in the church. And that's exactly what I did. Shortly after I began attending, I would read about the new member, uh, the new member classes that were taking place at one of the two times of the year. And then I would uh well, I filled out one of the little cards in the pew and I'm gonna wait to navigate around Karen here. Good morning. And um, I took one of the cards in the pew, filled it out, expressing interest in becoming involved with the church, and um later that week, or early the next week, my dad told me that some people had stopped by the house, and they left something for me. Now I was unsure what he was talking about, and by the time I got home, I realized that it was an older couple that had stood by getting a little emotional thinking about that. That was one of the most touching things that had ever happened to me in my life. After all the trials and tribulations and all the experiencing negativity within the church, one of the first experiences I had within the church was not something. Wrap it up here with the simple fact that again, if we put in the work in order to achieve the goals that we want, good things will happen, but we can't just put in the work periodically, we have to do it consistently, and sometimes consistency takes months, years, or in this case, with regard to finding a home, in my own spiritual journey, it may take decades. Don't walk away if you don't get the results that you're looking for in your own spiritual path. I assure you that there are people out there who share the same ideology that you have, and whether it's within the Church of Christ or another Christian denomination, the Church of Islam, Hinduism, or any other religious organization or spiritual group, I encourage you to move forward with whatever it is that you're looking for. And even if it is something as simple as yoga or meditation, I don't want to dismiss that because church has become part of my routine. And since getting back in my evening and morning routine or my a.m. and p.m. ritual, which includes yoga and meditation by default, I have found that I operate just at an increased and higher level, and routines are important. Church is a part of my weekly routine. After church, I grab a coffee, I do my little weekly planning, weekly review, and that's where I go through my journal, which is also part of my morning and evening ritual. And that may be the subject of our next podcast together, is the importance of the morning and evening ritual and how I came to find mine. So, again, I'd like to thank you for listening to this episode today. I hope you found value in it. And again, I'd like to encourage you to take part in the Facebook community that we have and also check out the Telegram group that we've created as well. Thanks to the suggestion of Andrew. And if you have any suggestions on content you'd like to hear about or things that uh we could do to improve our community, feel free to share in those two communities. And I look forward to seeing you in the next episode. Thanks everyone. Bye bye.