There's Always Something More to Say
From author and speaker Michelle Van Loon
When I finished the manuscript for my first book in 2005, I started a blog called Parablelife because I felt that the book was just the beginning of a conversation about faith, the church, and the yeast and mustard-seed process of spiritual growth that I hoped readers would want to continue.
Since then, my blog has moved a couple of times. (Just like me!) For several years, I wrote at the Evangelical channel at Patheos.com, then eventually moved most of that content while continuing to blog at my own website. I also contributed regularly to the blogs of others including the now-defunct Her.meneutics blog at ChristianityToday.com and that of author and theologian Scot McKnight back when he hosted his popular Jesus Creed blog at Patheos. In addition, I launched a quarterly newsletter as another way to connect with readers. I’ve been amazed, humbled, schooled, challenged, and s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d by the conversations in all of these spaces over the last 18 (!) years.
But there’s always more to say, and new ways of keeping a life-giving, meaningful conversation going. Enter Substack. This site is a hybrid of an email newsletter delivery service and a public-facing blog, and a lot of writers and thinkers have found a home here, including a group of women with whom I’m proud to be associated, The Sage Forum.
I’ll be posting here every few weeks with a conversation-starter reflection on the same kind of topics I’ve always written about: faith, the church, and spiritual growth. In addition, I’ll share bits of life and writing news, offer occasional give-aways like the one below, and links to items by other writers that I hope will be of interest to you. I don’t want to garbage up your inbox with annoying unwanted content.
All of that is another way of saying that I hope you’ll stick around and maybe even share this newsletter with a friend or two.
Because there’s always something more to say.
A story and a give-away
My husband and I were in the Chicago suburbs at the beginning of June with a couple of hours to kill before we attended our younger grandson’s 8th grade graduation ceremony. We decided to park ourselves in the Mount Prospect Public Library and read for a while. I spent the second half of my childhood in the town, and logged quite a few hours there “studying” (which you should understand in this case meant sitting at a table with a textbook open, yakking with my friends). I hadn’t been in the library since I was a teenager five decades ago.
After flipping through a couple of magazines, I wondered if the library had any of my books on their shelves. As you can see from the picture above, they did! It was a sweet full circle moment.
Becoming Sage: Cultivating Maturity, Purpose, and Spirituality released April 7, 2020. It was a challenging time to launch a book about spiritual formation in the second half of life, as most of us were hunting for toilet paper, navigating closed schools, churches, and workplaces, and trying to make sense of a dangerous and fast-spreading virus. Despite all of that, I am grateful that a good number of readers found the book and reported that it was a helpful, clarifying read.
But the conversation about lifelong discipleship is a conversation to which I am committed. In the years since the book released, I continue to hear from believers in the second half of life who are trying to make sense of changes in their bodies, families, marriages, relationship with the church, faith, vocation, and more. It is my dream to see this book in the hands of small groups, church leaders, and groups of friends wrestling with these questions. I know you’re out there!
To that end, I have five signed copies of Becoming Sage to offer to anyone who is interested in receiving one (U.S. addresses only). This is my way of seeding what I hope will be some new conversations around this topic this fall. If you haven’t yet read the book, or if you’ve already read it but would like to gift a copy to a friend or ministry leader, click the button below to send me your name and full mailing address before Friday, June 14th at midnight Eastern time.
What Do You Have To Say?
Here are links to a couple of things I’ve written recently that might get a conversation started among your circle of friends:
At ChristianityToday.com: How We Stay in Church Matters as Much as Why
At Plough.com: A Good Death For Dying Churches
I’d welcome your feedback or questions on either of these pieces. Like the rabbit above, I’m all ears.
My prayer for you today is drawn from The Message paraphrase of the Bible: May the Word of Messiah Jesus—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. (Colossians 3:16)
Rabbit photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash