Short Intro: Hey, welcome to the blog. I’m just an average guy who has become enthralled with Jesus and what his life, death, and resurrection mean for the world. Here is where I write about everything from random stuff in my life, to meaningful stories, to deep ponderings about the nature of reality. Have fun, look at pictures, and share whatever you’d like. Peace.
Longer Intro: Born (1979) and raised (for the most part) in NE Ohio, I became a follower of Jesus in high school through the ministry of FCA. Aside from studying youth ministry, Bible, and theology at Malone University, I was also introduced to a community of people that have been the most amazing and tangible expression of God’s love and grace that I have ever know. After college (2001), I did several years of student ministry alongside two of my best friends, Sean and Jason at RiverTree Christian Church.
I began to feel a strong sense of disconnect between what we were doing as a church and who I understood God to be and the implications that held for the life and mission for the church. This led me (2004) to Fuller Theological Seminary where I had the opportunity to study a missiology of Western culture. This entailed doing 1/2 my degree out of Fuller’s School of Intercultural Studies where I was fortunate to study under Wilbert Shenk, Ryan Bolger, and Eddie Gibbs, and the other 1/2 out of Fuller’s School of Theology where I was profoundly influenced by the likes of Nancey Murphy, John Goldingay, Mark Lau Branson, and Marianne Meye Thompson. All this study and of course the experiences I had previous to during seminary culminated in a masters thesis: Restoring Hope to the Church in Western Culture: Exploring the Relationship Between Culture, Theology, and the Church.
I graduated and began working (2007) for Fuller’s Master of Arts in Global Leadership program. Here I continued to grow in my appreciation and understanding of the inseparability of life (how we live) and education (what we believe).
My studies at Malone and Fuller, along with my experience with the MAGL program, have resulted in what I would call a driving passion for the centrality of holistic spiritual formation in the life of missional communities.
While I have mainly been a part of small house churches for the last few years, I am now a young adult pastor at Living Hope, a missional community in Memphis, TN.
Other tid bits:
I love being active and playing team sports. I played football in high school and soccer in college. I love to run and am always looking for a good game of basketball.
Aside from blogging, I am really into social networking (sharing, connecting, collaborating) in general. You can find me on flickr, delicious, facebook, and other spots around the web. My handle for all the major connecting stuff (Skype, AIM, GTalk, Yahoo, etc.) is jrrozko. I read a lot of blogs using Google Reader and try to mark all the stuff that I think is worth sharing. And for all this I of course utilize mac products.