Father Terry Starts a New World

I'm a regular (well, was a regular reader) of the Blog "Father Jake Stops the World." About a month ago or so, I was greeted with this startling post from "Father Jake, " (aka Father Terry Martin):

" After much thought, prayer, and consultation with others, I’ve decided that it is time to close down Jake’s place.

This is not an easy decision. In some ways, it feels like a part of me is dying.

There’s many reasons for making this decision:

.....I believe that a constant exposure to some of the toxic rhetoric found on the net has had a negative impact on my spiritual health. I find it more difficult to discern the glory of God. Most likely this is because I’ve become too preoccupied with the depravity of man. I need to take care of myself."

At first, I was kind of sad to see him go. I had lots of online friends from the comments posting section on the website. I was a daily reader of his blog- he had kept me up to speed with all the stuff going on in TEC.

Then, I was greeted with this a few weeks later - a new website called "Father Terry Listens to the World."

I would commend everyone to check it out. Father Terry has taken on a great notion that many of us in the Episcopal Church (and other so-called "liberal" denominations have taken) that it is high time that we begin to practice evangelism. It is high time to take back the concept- the duty - the work of evangelism - from the hellfire and damnation crowd to take the loving, inclusive and all-encompassing embrace of God's love through Christ to the world.

He had this to say:
"We begin evangelism by listening. And then we listen some more. It is only when we really hear the stories of others that we will know how to proclaim the good news in ways that can be heard."

Amen.

I'm glad he's back.