"I was challenged a few weeks ago in a conversation with a respected retired pastor who knows the heart of Austin well. I asked him what he would do if he were planting a church today. His response was that he would focus on an elementary school, and do all he could to bless it. In his view, and I can’t disagree, elementary schools are our last remaining gathering points for any neighborhood, where we can interact with people who share our proximity."
Welcome to In the Coracle, Pat Loughery's blog. Make yourself at home, and do join in the conversation by commenting on what you find here.
I make my living as a software engineer and project manager. I have particular interest in social software, social networks, and systems that build relationship between people.
I blog a lot these days about spirituality and spiritual formation, and I have a particular interest in learning from the early Christian church's approach to spirituality and mission.
I'm a student at Bakke Graduate University, studying for a Doctor of Ministry in Transformational Leadership for the Global City.
I'm studying spiritual formation in an Internet-based world. I'm trying to learn from early Christian spirituality's monastic movements: the desert fathers and mothers, Benedictines, Celts, Fransciscans and others, in order to see how they ordered their values and actions to be fully devoted to God's work. Their total devotion to the presence of God was countercultural, that can show us what it means to be countercultural in our wholehearted devotion to God in contemporary culture.
You can read more about me and this blog at the About page.