Category: Housekeeping

Must Read Books and Blogs

Hey everyone.

I’m hard at work on content for my new series “A Defense of Progressive Theology”; it all works together, so I’m working on it all at once, something I’ve never done before. My first posts should be up soon.

In the meantime, check out a couple blogs that friends of mine run, if you need some throughts on progressive Christianity in your life!

Shane Russo is a candidate for ministry in the Eastern Ohio Conference of the UMC, and is an up-and-coming progressive voice. In addition to his ministry, he is also a young father of two (like yours truly) and he always has unique perspectives to share. Check out his self-titled blog, where he will soon be starting the #30daysofPaul journey! Be sure to read and engage with him as he explores the Apostles letters!

Rev. Aaron Todd is the Director of Youth Ministries at First Christian Church in Midwest City, OK. I met Aaron earlier this summer when he brought his mid-high youth to do some volunteer garden work for me at StoneSoup. His kids were great, and they are all a reflection on Aaron and his leadership. A former lead pastor in Pasadena, CA, Aaron is also a young father (do you see a pattern here?) His blog, Chasing the Holy, is a must read, and a few of his posts have been picked up by Patheos and Huff Post.

sixmonthstoliveENIn addition to my next series, I also received a new book from Plough to review, called Six Months To Live by Daniel Hallock, so look for that soon. And in my Sunday school class at church, we just started doing a study on Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans, and I’m so excited about it that I may have to share some thoughts here.

I also just started a second job, with United Campus Ministries at the University of Tulsa. Well known as the “Little Blue House,” UCM is an ecumenical campus ministry focused on peace and justice issues in Tulsa. We are also the only open and affirming ministry on campus, and we encourage doubt and questions and self-discovery, making the work we do essential to the health and well-being of so many TU students. It’s a very, very cool place and I’m so excited to get started there.

Thanks for being loyal readers, and I look forward to engaging with you as we move forward!

Justin

Future Plans

It’s been pretty exclusive around here lately, with my monolithic focus on the #30daysofPaul series. So where are we going from here, now that that’s over?

where are we goingWell, I’ve got some pretty good ideas.

I loved diving into Scripture in the Paul series, going through chapter-by-chapter and seeing what it says and thinking about it and grappling with it and learning. I want to do that some more.

So, in the near future, I am planning on diving into the rest of the New Testament, bit by bit, just like we did with Paul. First, we will explore the pseudo-Pauline letters (Colossians, Ephesians, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus.) Next, we will tackle the remaining Epistles (Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1,2 &3 John, Jude), then the Gospels, Acts and finally Revelation.

If that all goes well, we may go on into the Old Testament. But I think for now, the NT is quite an ambitious undertaking.

But before that, I want to do another short series first. I’ve had some pushback and criticisms of my progressive theology in the recent weeks and months, but from sources close to me and online, out in the world. A lot of these criticisms stem from, I think, a misunderstanding of progressive Christianity in general, and my own personal brand of it.

So I want to lay out what I believe, in full, for the world to see and respond to. I think it is important to get your personal beliefs out in writing periodically anyways, so this will be a good exercise in that. I’m eager to engage with others over what I believe, and maybe even have my mind changed. That’s the next series, so look soon for an introductory post to that.

That should keep us well occupied the rest of the year. I will also occaisionally, of course, comment on other things, but those series will be my focus.

Anything you want to see my tackle? Any changes you would make to my plans, additions or subtractions. Let me know below, and be sure to share this page far and wide and bring others into our conversation.

I’m looking forward to growing and learning together! Thanks for reading and participating.

-Justin

Welcome!

Welcome carpet
Welcome carpet

Welcome to my new website! After a few good years over at my Blogger page, I recently decided it was time to “upgrade” my online presence.

So, I bought the rights to http://www.justindametz.com and began experimenting with different webpage builders. This is the result of that experimenting. It’s simple, but I think it’s pretty and easy to use and navigate. It has the ability to grow and flexibility to change as I need it to.

All my blogging will be happening here from now on. I’ve brought over a representative selection of some of my most popular blog posts from the old site, as well the entire #30daysofPaul series. As you can see to the right, I can organize my posts by category, meaning you can easily look at everything I’ve written on a given topic. You can also search by tags, which provide a bit more detail on subject.

Blog rules are staying the same: be nice, stay on subject, use nice language, don’t use personal attacks. I reserve the right to delete comments that violate what I think needs to be here, and to block permanently those who cause problems. I won’t do this unless it’s really bad, because I like an open and wide-ranging conversation, but not to the absolute extreme.

So what do you think? Like it, or hate it? Are there any changes you can think of that need to happen? Just let me know on the Contact Me page. Be sure to like me on Facebook by clicking on the Facebook button in the sidebar! And please, like and share what you find here with, and help me spread the word!