As promised, here is Day One of a my 40 day journey called: Out of Exile...a journey from setback to comeback. As I said before, exile is how you feel when life throws you a curve and you end up in a place you never imagined you'd be. I'll define it more in days to come.

I've gone through my own share of exiles and come out the other side. More than that, I believe God actually used the exiles to shape me and prepare me for the ministry that I'm enjoying now. Without my times of exile I would probably have a small church of closed-minded, judgmental people, or selling encyclopedias door to door.

To start, let me give you a little context for how I came to learn some of the things I'll be sharing. I won't tell my whole story but I want to briefly outline five "exiles" that you might relate to:

Five of my exiles

1. Scandal

I came to faith in a large upbeat charismatic church in the 70's.  It fell apart after the pastor was exposed in an affair. The church had no idea how to handle it. It was chaos. I left confused how this could happen to a man I respected so much.

2. Control

I then went to a small church that got started out of the big church. I was convinced that a small church was the answer. But the pastor became paranoid and controlling. I was told to agree with him or leave. I left. Two strikes now and even more confused how church could hurt so much.

3. Isolation

I was in exile while I was in that church (dealing with the control) and then when I left (dealing with the isolation). Two different exiles. Both painful. We were cut off from our close friends and church community. Something happened inside of me: church suddenly seemed shallow and cliche. As much as I believed in church, nothing felt right.

4. Dysfunction

My wife and I gave up on church and moved into community with two other families. We were confident that we could love each other and live out the faith with so few people involved. Not so much. We disbanded after seven years. Strike three.

5. Repression

I reentered church and served as an associate pastor. I didn't realize at the time that I was wired to be a lead pastor. The church was fine, but serving as an associate when I had a heart to lead in new ways proved to be very frustrating for me. Another form of exile.

These were all exiles to me creating a heart ache that drove me to find answers in God and his Word.  

I'll share bits and pieces more as we travel along. Feel free to ask for more detail if it would help in some way. To learn more about exile, check out my book, “Return From Exile.”

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