Hey, Jonas here. I'm a guy who decided to go to seminary in his 40s to become an ordained Lutheran minister (you know, like ya do). Before this, I'd stepped away from the church for a decade or two due to the tyrannical god they tried to sell me growing up.

After a period of deconstruction (it happens), I started seeking a more expansive spiritual expression. For almost a decade, I wrote one of the most-read spirituality blogs here on Medium, rooted in non-religious metaphysics. I studied, taught, and began training to become a New Thought minister within the Centers for Spiritual Living tradition. It was exciting and life-giving—until it wasn’t (long story). Over time, I began to feel the creep of ego-driven theology. “Spiritual performance” was replacing spiritual presence. So I stepped away. I left the ministry track, deleted my blog, and started over.

That’s when something surprising happened: I found myself back in church. Not as a critic, but as a seeker. Not out of guilt, but grace. I returned through the back door of Catholic liturgy and ended up in the grace-saturated arms of the Lutheran Church (ELCA), where I was eventually ordained. Now I can blend the mystical and the expansive, all while rocking an alb and chasuble.

Now I serve as a full-time pastor in Aptos, California, where I preach the gospel, preside at the Eucharist, and try to keep the coffee warm and the sermons short. When I’m not doing that, I’m either sipping coffee and fixing the world’s problems with my wife, Alex, on our porch; moonlighting as our daughter Rory’s personal Uber driver; or getting purposefully lost in the Forest of Nisene Marks—because nothing says 'spiritual practice' like questionable trail choices.

I've been sharing my whimsical ramblings online for more than a decade. I've also written for other publications like Huffington Post, Observer, Crossings, Good Men Project, and more.

Some of my stuff is good. Some of it isn't so much. Either way, this is my place to say some things off the cuff. I might share a sermon or three here, but mostly, this is where I share the things that I wouldn’t share in the pulpit for fear of tar and feathering.

*The ideas shared here are my own, not necessarily those of my denomination (though sometimes they do overlap).

More on the Christianity thing

Please know this…

I am not here to make you a Christian.

That would be impossible as I am not God (thankfully). All I can do is share my tradition and perspective with you.

The way I see it, being a Christian isn't about being 'right'. It isn't about swearing less and judging others more. It's about trusting that, as flawed and busted as we all are, we're also insanely loved at the core of our being by our Creator and Designer.

The Gospel of Jesus is the great cosmic leveler. It’s harshly universal while being intimately personal. None of us live up to any notion of a divine standard AND none of us are left out of God’s loving embrace (even those whom we reeeeally wish were).

We don’t have to be ‘right’ in order to be loved by God. Instead, we are loved by God in order to be made right. Again and again.

This Christian faith liberates me to spend more time doing the things I love and going to more places that make me feel small and even a bit afraid. It frees me to remember to laugh at myself more and to let others off the hook as much as I need to be let off the hook. It marks the changing of the seasons via the liturgical calendar as we move from Advent to Pentecost and back again. It gives me the sacred ancient words and liturgical movements that our ancestors have said and embodied for thousands of years.

And, one of the best things is, it makes me a better writer. It dis-illusions me from my false egoic self so I don’t take myself or others so seriously. Which is nice:)

Some caveats

A warning is due here… Yes, I’m a pastor. But I am a human and not a perfect one (shocker, I know). I will (yes, I promise) fail you in some way (or in a number of ways). I’m as bogged down by fear and ego as anyone else. This is why I need God’s grace just as much as everyone.

Also, I plagiarize a lot of plagiarizers… This is kind of the nice thing about being a proclaimer of the Gospel - our job is to plagiarize Jesus. Luther did it. Tillich did it. Sölle did it. So many people do it. It’s our job. So if you see something that you’re sure you’ve seen somewhere else… Yep, you probably have.

Grace & Godspeed, Jonas Ellison