Start :: What in the world is going on with the world?

I find myself on the front end of a spiritual shift. Right now.

It is but one of many spiritual shifts that I have undergone. And knowing myself as I do, this is very likely not the last. Or at least I hope not. I have always believed that Faith is best experienced as an ever-evolving things, not something that is static or repeatable or lifeless or filled with something small like static certainty. 

I am going to chronicle this spiritual shift. The entirety of this spiritual journey will be chronicled through this blog.

What's bringing it on? I believe God is. I think it also makes sense to say that everything around me seems to be popping with spiritual resonance right now. This reality has hit a fever pitch due to the pandemic we find ourselves in. Recent connections with friends has quickly led to discussions of God, life and death, human consciousness, archangels, the nature of the self, cosmic redemption, Marianism, eschatology and much more.

All discussions and questions are fair game. But all answers are not.

While the above conversations may speak volumes about the kind of people I form connections with, I think it is also indicative of a general shift in society more broadly. As some segments of US society become definitively more secularized, other segments are increasingly focused on things that are transcendent. 

I want to explore this phenomenon more deeply.

By way of background, I spent the last twenty-five years at Selwyn Avenue Presbyterian Church in Charlotte. 

It is a place I loved deeply. 
  I loved the people. 
    I loved the structure's elegance. 
      I loved the rigor of the preaching.
        I loved the music. 
          I loved the warmth of the people.
            I loved the openness of the community.

SAPC will remain a very important place to me and to my family. I thank the church for a wonderful twenty-five years.

What is this "spiritual shift" that I speak of?

Beth and I plan to attend 100 churches and chronicle the entire experience. 

We will adhere to the Biblical definition of church as found in Matthew 18:20 - "Foror where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I with them."

We plan to visit big churches and small churches. We'll worship in mixed settings, We'll worship at "white churches" and at "black churches" and at churches where only Spanish is spoken. We'll join the places that have rock bands and the places that only have an old organ. We'll worship at churches filled with immigrants. Megachurches and tiny churches. Up-and-coming churches. Dying churches.

We plan to hit as much as we can.

Liberal
  Conservative
    Underground(?)
      Eastern Orthodox
        Roman Catholic
          Protestant
            evangelical
              Quaker
                 Pentecostal

                    Etc.

                       And so on

Beth and I plan to attend churches of a wife breadth of denominations. The only prerequisite is that we must find ourselves in a place where two or three people are gathered in the name of Jesus. Since we have been asked this question, we will say definitively LDS, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, Christian Scientist and Unitarian Universalism are out of scope. This journey will focus only on denominations and communities within the limits of orthodox and traditional Christian belief.

We've been asked another question often - Will this journey be only about visiting churches? What about other religion? 

Yes, this journey will only involve churches. My personal history of visiting religious locations of other religions is pretty solid, despite the fact that I am anything but a spiritual relativist. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. There is no other path to God, it is solely through the Cross and the Empty Grave that a soul is saved. 

In my life, I have visited:

• Synagogues in the US, Israel and Cochin, India
• Hindu temples in the US, India and in Bali, Indonesia
• Mosques in India, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates
• Buddhist temples in the US, Sri Lanka and Singapore
• Sikh gurudwaras in the US and in Punjab, India 

Finally, we plan to invest in this experience. we plan to make decisions about domestic and international travel in the context of this spiritual shift and these 100 church visits. 

Some of these church visits may be solo (just Byl), we hope the vast majority will be together. Since we started during Covid-19, my first experience was at a rural drive-in church. Southern Baptists, no less. 

And away we go! Read on...