Go be a priest.

Thank you for your prayers.

Two verses of scripture
have marked my life and my story:
Proverbs 13:12 "Hope deferred makes the heart sick."
Habakkuk 2:2-4
"Write the vision . . . though it tarries,
wait for it, it will surely come."

Six years after Asbury,
I was floundering in life.
The Episcopal church was at war with itself,
and my ordination process was caught in the crossfire.
A close friend pulled me aside at a conference.
She was an insider in the Anglican world, as I was.

She was concerned about me.
"You're a priest, go be a priest.
These guys are never
going to get their act together.
You're a priest, go be a priest."

Her words,
although encouraging,
seemed like nonsense to me.
How do I "be a priest"
without a bishop, a church, and credentials?

After that I crashed and burned.
Part of my restoration was learning to walk out
God's directions, day by day.
And part of that walk
was functioning as a pastor, priest, and teacher
to this group of artists.

And eventually,
I settled into the fact
that God was in this Belonging House thing.
I wrote the vision.
The lame walked, the dead rose,
the sick were healed,
and the message eventually reached around the globe.
And for the most part,
no one raised the ordination question.
But for me, it was still there.

In 2022 I asked God what to give up for Lent,
and the Lord said,
"Put on your collar."
I didn't want to go there.
Time doesn't heal any wounds.
That collar represented a big scab of rejection,
broken promises, abuse, and hopes deferred.
I said "no."
I wrestled with God for seven weeks.
And eventually, God won,
and I had a change in uniform.
I heard Rose-Marie's voice in my head:
"You're a priest, go be a priest."

It has taken years,
but I have accepted the reality
that like Bezalel, God called and ordained me.
But a real calling from God
has to be publicly acknowledged.
Eventually Bezalel was ordained by Moses.

Last weekend,
Myles Milham and our community on Zoom
gathered in Peter and Nancy's living room
and ordained me.

My credentials are coming through the Missionary Church International,
and they have given me the freedom to keep doing what we do:
raise up an army of artists
and be an "independent" community in the Anglican tradition.
It was originally going to be a perfunctory act,
but it became everything I had hoped for when I was a seminarian:
My mom bought me a chalice.
Alan Bailey sang the Veni Sancte Spiritus.
And our community was there.

The second half of Provers 13:12 is
"a dream fulfilled is a tree of life."

God is raising up
an army of artists,
a new kind of priesthood
who builds a throne for Jesus
and makes a way for the coming of the Lord.

After the ordination was over
I had time to reflect.
I first went to see my pastor about ordination
in the fall of 1986.

Forty years.

Don't give up.

He Never Fails,

Come under the roof

Belonging House International is a movement of artists and creative people, now reaching thirty-eight nations, learning to listen to God together. We are not trying to survive the storm. We are the storm.

• The Friday email is the thread that holds us together. Sign up at belonging.house and you get the full archive, your very own private library.
• Make the Belonging House Commitment, the Twelve I Wills, and you're welcome to join our Mighty Network community.
• Pray with us daily at 7am ET / midday UK, and gather with the House of Artisans each week at 1:00 ET: Belonging House on Zoom.
• Real Mail: original artwork in your mailbox every month, crafted with Human Intelligence.
• We are a 501(c)(3) through the Missionary Church International. Give to Belonging House here.