Here's the basic information I give to all my interviewees explaining who in the world I am and what in the world I'm doing.PURPOSE
My guess is that God shows up in everybody’s life in a way that is custom-made for each of us — using our individual experiences, hopes, fears, joys, sorrows . . . even our biases and blind spots. (Who better than God to know what catches our attention and what makes sense to us — but also what puzzles or angers us, what gets us to slow down and what gets us up on our feet.) Hearing about how God has done — and is doing — that in your life is both fascinating and encouraging to me. I’m recording and sharing these interviews because my guess is that they could fascinate and encourage other folks as well — opening us all up to how God is revealing Godself in big and little ways all the time.
LOGISTICS
I expect these interviews to run anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes, but I’m open to whatever fits your schedule. I have prepared questions, but you choose which ones you answer, in any order that makes sense to you. We might talk about 1 question or 12 — it’s up to you. You don't need to prepare at all, but some people prefer to think about questions ahead of time — so here are four basic ones: What has God been like for you in your life? What is God like for you now? What do you hope God is like for you in the future? Are they any stories that illustrate these? (If you’d prefer to have all the questions ahead of time, please let me know and I’ll be happy to share them.) At the end of our interview, I will take a photograph with the page of questions but you decide if it’s a photograph of your face, your hands, or your empty chair.
BACKGROUND
This interview is about you and God, not me — but it may help to know a little more about where I’m coming from. I grew up in a large Catholic family in beautiful downtown Blue Earth Minnesota, a farm town dangerously close to the Iowa border. I’ve lived in Tennessee (where I studied elementary education), Arizona (where I taught kindergarten and high school), Washington DC (where I worked with people who are homeless), Minnesota again (where I helped direct education policy), Antarctica (where I was happily cold doing carpentry and driving trucks at a research station) and Bolivia (where I taught English at a university in the cloud forests). I’m now studying for a Master’s Degree in theology in Boston. I love mom & pop restaurants and can’t stand TV commercials.
This adventure is made possible by a Ministry Fellowship from the Fund for Theological Education, a national non-profit organization that helps people throughout the Christian community explore and respond to God's calling in their lives. Though I’m not restricting the form or shape just yet, I am committed to editing and sharing these stories in a multimedia fashion. You can keep tabs on the project by visiting [this blog] Also, you can contact me directly by e-mailing [my e-address] or calling [my number] — thanks and God bless!
