A bit about me...

Here's my first "official" post, one I'm pleased to put out and hope that someone reads it. Introducing myself seems like the thing to do. So, here's some for the statistics junkies out there...

I'm twentysomething, about 5'10", Scottish/Irish/English descent born and living in Canada. I was raised Presbyterian, but in my early teens I became disillusioned with organized religion and decided to give nihilism/agnosticism a try. Fast-forward four years and I was depressed, suicidal and lonely. I got dragged to a youth group by a friend and discovered, to my surprise, a surplus of cute girls that were unattatched and pure. I took it upon myself to remedy those conditions, but after a year off chasing girls I made another startling discovery: God. I was baptized into an evangelical church and have been there ever since.

Now, when you come onto the evangelical scene in your mid-teens, you get the feeling that everyone around you in the church are such fantastically perfect Christians that you don't know what to do. For me, I decided (at the encouragement of some of my new friends) to make up for lost time and be the most zealous, uptight and phony Christian you ever met or read about. I jumped in with both feet and fell flat on my ass. It is due to this experience and others like it that I tend to come across a bit jaded and bitter towards certain aspects of Christianity, and I may give the impression that my conversion was handled by absolute twits. This is not the case, however - in fact, the very fellow who helped lead me to Christ is a dear friend to this day and was a steady support when all else seemed like shifting sand.

I started becoming interested in emerging/Postmodern Christianity after I graduated from Bible college. The standard Christian answers weren't cutting it anymore, and I wanted the freedom to continue asking questions. In a dark time I was given A New Kind of Christian, and from that I got enough hope to enter into this conversation. After lurking/posting for about 8 months (as Dan-D from Canada) I am now starting my own blog with the intent of keeping tabs on my new friends, and also to share my thoughts with whoever cares. It will be slow going for the first few weeks due to my job (I am a full-time youth worker) and as I try to remember how to code in html. Hopefully I will put up a post with comments open every Monday, in which I will respond to every comment I get. I may post updates as the week goes on, but may keep those comments closed so as to not snuff out the convos on other posts (as so often happens). Please link to me if you feel your readers would enjoy this place.

The title of this blog comes from the quote beneath it; if you don't understand then please jump up and run extremely fast to the nearest library and don't come out until you've read Paradise Lost twice. My profile name (Grey Owl) comes from an inside joke with Jamie of Emergent Voyageurs, suffice it to say that sometimes I feel (in the emerging church) like I've "gone native", and hope that the true natives of the post-modern village that surround me treat me kindly and allow me to stay. Cheers,