I type these words with a mixture of sadness and joy. This Front Page contribution for Issue 212.will end my formal editorial involvement with Conversations, and I will join my friends David G. Benner and Larry Crabb in “retirement” to the masthead as a founding editor of this publication.

I love the design phase of new start-up projects much more than the administrative grind that follows. For me, the cycle for actually working with an idea, once it has been hatched, has typically been about three to five years. But engagement with Conversations has been so much fun over the years that I broke that mold. I wanted to stay involved—long after my attention had been diverted to other new ideas. But now that I’ve passed two perfectly good biblical numbers as possible stepping-away points, I need to call it quits with Issue 12—or else I’d have to wait for Issue 40 to roll around. It seems appropriate on many levels that this issue is built around the theme flourishing. It is a term that comes to us from the relatively new field of positive psychology and implies living in an optimal range of human functioning that includes goodness, happiness, love, creativity, and growth. A flourishing plant is well rooted, vibrantly alive, growing, and fulfilling its life mission. It is the same with human beings.

I remember sitting around a table in a restaurant of a hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, just over fourteen years ago. Larry Crabb and David Benner were my tablemates, and we were lamenting that psychotherapy was much more focused on remediation than flourishing. Of course, we were not using that particular word at the time, as it was still years away from notoriety in the field.

It was during that meal that we began our initial discussion about whether there was room for a new journal that would focus more on the right side of the normal curve—the positive, flourishing side—than the left—the place where pathology was found. We had no idea what to call this new publication idea. But the time together and the free-flowing conversation were very enjoyable.

The three of us shared a common bond. We each had been trained as a clinical psychologist and had practiced, taught, and written in the field of integrating psychology and a Christian worldview—and people were actually buying the books my two friends were writing.

During the course of the evening we each confessed to having received much more personal soul healing from what could be found in the fields of spiritual formation and spiritual direction than we had from traditional psychology. Or to put it another way, we confessed that we had been guzzling what seemed to be the best “wine”—pressed by devotion masters through the centuries—while selling to our clients a lesser libation. It was clear that we each were far more interested in what was on the right side of normality, the positive side, than the left.

And we further mused that the invisible, upside-down kingdom of God could be conceptualized as being even further to the right side—the flourishing side—of normality. Surely it must be true that helping people becoming oddly abnormal—as in abnormally loving, abnormally peaceful, abnormally joyous—had a place in the field. Surely borrowing insights and practices from spiritual direction toward the end of the flourishing of a soul deserved a place at the table.

At some point in the conversation one of my table- mates suggested that it would have been a good idea to have been audio-recording our conversation. Not for narcissistic reasons, but because it had been great fun and he wished to be able to listen in again. And in that moment the idea for a journal—a forum really—that would be devoted to conversations that matter, conversations about authentic transformation, conversations about wisdom concerning flourishing was born.

The best thing about that conversation was that it led to seven more over the course of the next two years. Along the way, we decided to pursue the launch of a new publication, one that would exist somewhere between a typical academic journal and a magazine, one that would be built around the image of a large table in front of a fireplace, where an unhurried con- versation would take place. The focus would be authentic transformation. Voices from each of the great traditions of Christian faith would be heard. The conversations would be fun, casual, and yet substantive.

I remember telling one of my favorite graduate professors about this plan. After all, he and some friends had launched a significant periodical a few years before. Plus, he was my former professor and I wanted to impress him. After hearing of the plan he said a few words that I’ll never forget. He spoke prophetically. “Gary, you know that after the planning is over, it is just a lot of hard work.”

Newt was right. It was a lot of hard work. But it has also been some of the work that I have done in life of which I am most proud—in a humble sort of way, of course.

Before I say goodbye and turn you loose on the pages of this special issue I must say thank you a few, quite a few, people.

To . . .

My co-conspirators, David G. Benner and Larry Crabb, it was a ton of fun.

Dallas Willard and Richard J. Foster, thank you for the support and for contributing the rubric each issue was built upon—hearing from each of the great traditions of Christian faith across five sections of the journal that correspond to the five components of the person.

The original editorial board; Donald Aultman, Margaret Guenther, James Houston, Trevor Hudson, Selwyn Hughes, Simon Yiu-Chuen Lee, Gordon Mac- Donald, John Ortberg, M. Basil Pennington, Father F. Gregory Rogers, Robert Solomon, Janice Strength, Siang-Yang Tan, Juliet Benner; who signed on risking almost certain embarrassment.

The original donors who contributed the money to get us launched, including academic institutions such as Ashland Seminary, Bethel Seminary, Colorado Chris- tian, Fuller Graduate School of Psychology, Asbury Seminary, and individuals such as Wes Gardner.

Our most faithful donors and wonderful friends through the years, Jeannette and Stan Bakke.

The first two managing editors, Heidi Bolton and Christi Pettit.

Faithful and underpaid friends who contributed to artistic and editorial needs: Bobby Strickland, Michael Hopkins, Sara Arnold, Robyn Keeler, and Craig Schutt.

Paul W. Smith, who edited every issue after 1.1. Section editors through the years: Emilie Griffin, Mindy Caliguire, Jan Johnson, Cindy Bunch, Alan Fadling, and Cynthia Bezek.

Eff and Patty Martin, who believed in Conversations and contributed significantly to its redesign and expansion—without you, it would definitely still be pretty ugly, and most likely dead in the water.

And most especially to Joannah Mason Sadler, who has served as the managing editor since Issue 4.2, and Tara Owens, who has served as senior editor since Issue 7.2. Led by the two of you, a fourteen-year-old conversation has come to flourish. I look forward to listening in on the next decade of good conversations about authentic transformation.

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01.  A Note from the Editors

It’s with both great gratitude and great sorrow that we honor Gary’s transition from editor-in-chief to executive editor with this issue of Conversations. We couldn’t think of a better topic on which that transition could rest than flourishing, but we still don’t want him to go—and we’re sure you don’t, either.

That’s why, despite this article, we’re not really letting him “go” anywhere. Gary’s voice, much like Larry’s and David’s, will still be found in these pages, and he will retain the title and role of executive editor. We will continue to seek him for guidance and wisdom (of which he will protest to having neither, and we will nonetheless receive from him), and his imprint will continue to be on the formation and future of Conversations.

But that’s what flourishing is really about, isn’t it? Receiving God’s good amidst change, allowing the Spirit to show us what to hang on to and what to release, living fully in the kingdom of God here and now.

It’s what we hope you find in these pages, with articles from the late Dallas Willard, whose teaching on the kingdom is foundational to all that Conversations publishes, and Steve Summerrell on avoiding a major pitfall in seeking the transformed life. Then Alice Fryling writes compellingly on how the Enneagram helps us to confront our false selves, Fr. Richard Rohr shares on the first and second halves of life, and section editor Alan Fadling slows us down with a piece on how unhurried community brings wholeness. Mark Labberton illustrates how the call to flourish is one that makes an impact not just on us but on our communities, Jim Wilder writes compellingly on how exercising our joy muscles make a transformed life possible, and Larry Warner walks us through the stages of faith development that help us make sense of the journey no matter how rocky. Finally, Helen Cepero walks us through some exercises to help us live fully in Christ, and our very own Jan Johnson talks about practicing the presence of God—for the next ten minutes.

There’s more in these pages—much more—and additional content in our new digital issue, which launches right now (see “Join the Conversation” for more details). Welcome to a whole new era of Conversations, one that we both hope and believe will help us all to live well in the kingdom of God in all the ways he calls us to journey.

 

— The Editors