As a young impressionable worship pastor, one of the first hard lessons I learned from my Pastor was to “fill in the dead spaces”. For some unfathomable and unexplained reason a “dead space” in our westernized evangelical church services was akin to the unpardonable sin. If, God forbid, a dead space happened inadvertently, the Monday evaluation…

As I struggle mightily with the two—what seems to be—inevitable presidential candidates for the upcoming election for President of the United States, I feel a growing concern about the possibility of living effectively in a world (and nation) of challenge and radical discontinuity. If you have known me long and have discussed my love of…

One of the great revelations of my life is coming to full consciousness (to wholeness) by facing my contradictions, making friends with my mistakes and failings, and realizing that every one else has them too. This has tempered my need for approval and the unreasonable expectations I’ve had for myself, my family, and my friends….

(with apologies to J.R.R. Tolkien and F. Scott Fitzgerald) In Two of Two Thousand, a man named Elrond dreamed of a place in the Misty Mountains called Kalien. It was said of Elrond that “His house was perfect, whether you liked food, or drink, or sleep, or work, or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting…

As I write, I’m snuggled in my artist cabin The Hawk’s Nest in the Appalachian mountains surrounded on all sides by the a snowfall that most news sources report is the most Tennessee has seen in over a decade. Stunning panoramic beauty. Pissarro would call it “winter effect”. Just finished a long walk along one of our trails—an…

For the past fourteen years I have located a lot of my dreams in a place to be called Kalien. Many times it felt like a mystical utopia—a Galt’s Gulch or a Shangri-La—only scrawled words in my journal. A dream each night in the dusty recesses of my mind, only to wake in the day…

31 people have now given to help “Build The First Kalien Retreat Cabin.” That is not many people considering the thousands of people I have personally mentored and ministered to over the past 40 years and when you consider my 5,000 Facebook “friends” and 40,700 Twitter followers and thousands more on LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest….

On average, we are awake for 15 hours each day and at least 10 of those precious hours are spent on our ever-broadening behinds. We consume 8 hours of media each day—including a staggering 4.7 hours on our cell phones—which means one-third of our lives is now spent on the phone.  That leaves 7 hours. We…

In 2002, burned out and struggling to find my soul working as a Creative Arts Pastor in one of America’s largest megachurches, I first dreamed of creating a space where encouragement is embraced. My wife Gina and I have purchased and paid for fifty-five wilderness acres in the Appalachian Mountains to provide a beautiful place of encouragement and solitude. We call it Kalien which means “beauty is calling”. SEE…

1) Less But Better—I am learning to filter through my activities, friends, needs, longings, and opportunities in order to select only those that are truly essential and meaningful. 2) Does It Matter On Tuesday?— If a purchase or decision won’t make a significant difference every day of the week—we don’t do it. 3) Don’t Worry About…

This girl (a little trivia—she is a champion equestrian and English show jumper)) came into my life over twenty-two years ago as a platonic friend. For seventeen of those years she was like a sister to me. Five years ago we quit being siblings and became lovers. Three years ago today we became husband and…

Every day I’m asked these questions via social networks. “What are you up to now?” “What is the Hawk’s Nest?” “What is Kalien?” Well, I’m glad you asked. What is the Hawk’s Nest? The Hawk’s Nest is my personal artist cabin made of cedar and situated high on a wilderness ridge (overlooking an actual hawk’s nest)…

I just read a list of things to do if you are on the Ashley Madison list by a popular Christian leader and blogger. In my experience, his advice which I’m sure is well-meaning, feels trite at best and harmful at worst. After hearing today about a pastor from the same denomination committing suicide after being exposed,…

Most of us fantasize about leaving the worries and cares of civilization one day and escaping to a cabin in the wilderness. Sounds so sexy doesn’t it? The tiny Appalachian town of 1,199 people that is closest to us— about 20 minutes away—does not have a grocery store, a coffee shop, pizza place, or a laundromat. When…

At the age of fifty-seven and in the second half of my life, I realize I don’t have a lot of answers, but I sure have a lot of questions. Here are a few that have changed my life. Perhaps one of them can do the same for you. 1. If I didn’t know how old…

Siesta Key, Florida—consistently voted the number one beach in America, this idyllic stretch of sand lives up to its name. Free parking, incredible amenities, a breathtaking entrance and the warm bathtub waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It is blessed with the world’s finest, whitest sand that is 99% quartz and soft and cool on…

We have now lived a rather isolated and contrarian life in the mountains for one month. The stories are plentiful and some are painfully funny. Perhaps the best way to illustrate them is to list a few things we realize we’ve taken for granted. 1) Hot water. The 240 square foot well worn RV in…

Billy Ray Hearn, a friend and mentor to me, died yesterday. He was 85 and fully alive until his death. I told him once (as we talked about sex and wine and how much he still loved both at age 80) that I want to be just like him when I grow up. He mentored…

On a cloudless Monday morning August 12, 2002, while at a staff retreat, on a run through the woods in the mountains near Paint Rock, TN, I had the one and only vision of my life. As I originally recorded in my journal, the vision was of an artist retreat (I coined it, the Rivendell…

During my earliest years while sitting in church, starting when I was about seventeen, my mind would wander to the people I had begun reading about but was not allowed to talk about—John Galt, Johann Sebastian Bach Smith, Valentine Michael Smith, Tom Sawyer, Guy Montag, and Helmholtz Watson to name just a few. The church I…