The following is an brief, personal update from me about life in general, changes to the website and future changes in life.

HAMILTON MA. God has never ceased to amaze me, yesterday I was riding alongside Gordon College’s Chebacco (spelling) Lake watching the sun rise before returning to my bike and completing the 7 mile bike ride that has become a regular part of my morning. As I sit a few days away from my first Annual Gathering of the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference (CCCC) and my final summer class (both occurring in the same week AHH!!!) and how this year has gone so far, from academic success to the loss of Shalom to being added to the CCCC pulpit supply list and getting a call for supply within five minutes of being on the list. God has cared so much for us this year as our hearts have healed from the miscarriage we suffered in February. He has surrounded us with so many amazing people, some of them we have never met in person but who have reached out to us through GodsHeart and the GoFundMe we ran to help cover the counseling bills. You and so many others have loved us with the complete love of God and we cannot thank you enough for your love and support.

You will notice, and may already have noticed, that God’s Heart is going through a number of changes in the previous week. That is because this site, while continuing to function as a resource and commentary on the intersection of Theology and Cultural Issues will also serve as a portfolio for me as we enter our final year of seminary and begin the search for a post-seminary call. God has seen fit to plant us in a denomination that is in need of pastors and who supports its pastors while maintaining congregational government in its member churches. Next week I will be fully affirmed as a conference member and then the trickle of resumes that have gone out already will become a flood as we seek God’s call. We know where we would like to go, the great state of New Hampshire, but ultimately where God has called us to minister to and alongside His people while we raise a family. This change in the website will mean more activity, more posts, more sermon uploads as I re-record the sermons I lost when my computer crashed last summer. This means you, the reader, will have a greater chance to get to know me and interact with me as we will also use this medium to share updates about our family, time in Seminary and the search. We hope this will mean we can get to know you better as you get to know us better. This means you will get more content, more recommendations and regular life-updates as well as new sections for churches looking for information that you too can peruse at your leisure.

Rachel always tells me that she wants me to be around as long as I can, there has even been something about her having to go first when we are 90 so that she does not have to live without her. I kind of hope we go together in our sleep so neither of us has to live without the other, kind of like The Notebook only, we can remember who we are. For this reason I have begun a more stringent exercise plan to go along with the many dietary changes that have come with marriage. There is a stigma about Pastors that we tend to not take good care of ourselves, and that can be true, though sometimes we are trained to burn-out cycles (as I was in my first church) and not to a healthy work-life balance. Seminary has been partially about establishing a healthy balance to avoid the disastrous and nearly deadly consequences that came with my last burn-out. That means exercising and putting away the work to spend time with Rachel and our friends. All while making my relationship with God a priority through prayer and scripture reading and investing in my hobbies (I have taken up the Banjo) to make sure that I am not just physically healthy, but emotionally and spiritually healthy. I want to get to spend life with my wife for a long time, I like her, and love her, and so I am going to make exercising a part of my daily routine beyond the weekly game of ultimate frisbee.

As I said, God has been good to us in-spite of the pain we have felt this past year. He has surrounded us with beautiful people and showered us with love and grace and beauty. As we look to the future, which includes a weekend in New Hampshire with some close friends and a Christmas trip to my parents in Ohio, the writing of my thesis and untold other adventures. We renew our invitation to come after the beautiful, wild, loving heart of God with us as we seek to do His work both online and off.

Jonathan David Faulkner