Thanks for checking out my blog! I am a "tentmaking minister" in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which is to say, I am an ordained minister in that denomination who also works a full time secular job to support himself. I do not currently pastor a congregation, which is why I am a "minister-at-large."

I'm not entirely sure why I'm setting this blog up other than I've seen a number of them online and thought it looked like fun. In my secular profession as an engineer, some of my colleagues and I who share political views (card carrying members of the VRWC) often exchange articles of interest we find along the way in our netsurfing (always done on our own personal time!). This seemed like a good way to accomplish the same end without running afoul of corporate policies regarding sending politically oriented e-mail over the LAN. I also am working towards completing a Doctor of Ministry degree (basically a project and a dissertation/thesis away from completion at this point), so on occasion I may also use this blog to float ideas out there I am toying with in relation to my doctoral work.

I hope you will find this site informative, but I also hope that it will challenge some of your assumptions about our culture here in the United States and Christian ministry, ordained or otherwise, along the way. Whether you call Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior or not, I hope that you will hear God's call to you to respond to the good news that "... if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new," and that "... in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us." (II Corinthians 5:17-19 (NRSV))

Yours in Christ,

Mike Murdock
Minister-at-Large, Presbytery of Charlotte