Had a great trip to Nashville with some really cool folks from our conference. The young adult summit was a gathering of people from around the nation getting together to talk about strategic ways to increase our outreach to young adults. I’ve decided I’m not much of an “on location” blogger, so no real notes from the summit.
I traveled back and forth with Nathan Mattox, and we had some terrific conversation about a number of different things. One thing I want to point you to is the book Nathan loaned me for the trip back and forth. I read quite a bit of The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality by Belden C. Lane as we traveled. Nathan commented on this in my post on burning brush, and he was spot on with the recommendation. I resonated deeply with a lot of what Lane does in this work, and I highly recommend it to folks who are interested in the connection between spirituality and a love of “fierce landscapes.” Some of the theological commitments remind me of Wendell Berry and his emphasis on “place.”
I think this concept is really important for itinerant ministers – if we lose sight of the fact that our ministry happens in a particular place or context, we’re sunk before we start. That’s why I’m suspicious of any methodology that will work in a Church of any shape, size, makeup, or place. I think that is a bunch of modernist baloney.
mattjudkins.com 
modernist baloney… great phrase! I may use that… would you like me to give you credit when I do?
And what is more modernist than baloney? Take a bunch of parts and pieces, grind them into a consistent goo and then package it for mass distribution.
Every day at my modernist elementary school back in the 1970s, my white bread and baloney sandwich was waiting for me. Simpler days.
All things coenddersi, this is a first class post
Haha – so true!