Patrik Olterman
This is the end
Read more: This is the endSo this is it, the last day at the Malmö Salvation Army, the last day as a Salvation Army officer. We are spending the day clearing out the office, which is almost like moving house. It’s been six hard years with a lot of opposition and slow progress, but has also been the most transforming…
Truth
Read more: TruthI am the truth, the way and the life — Jesus It is funny how even though this statement of Jesus makes truth rather singular we still have so many different bids on the truth from different religions and different churches. Somehow we as humans seem to think that if we believe it hard enough…
Not a Christian anymore?
Read more: Not a Christian anymore?It’s funny what people will read out of my posts. I am getting the question if I am not a Christian anyomore. So I thought I would take a minute to adress this question. What is a Christian? To answer the question we must agree on what it is to be a Christian. There are…
Losing my religion
Read more: Losing my religionAs we are walking away from organised religion there are a lot of interesting conversations going on around the dinner table in our house. Yesterday Hanna said something about the death of her ministry and how maybe she never felt quite comfortable with the title minister of religion. I think I can echo that thought.…
Sex: A highway to god!
Read more: Sex: A highway to god!I confess I have borrowed the title from Johan Ekenberg but it is true. God gave us the wonderful gift of sexuality not as a racy past time and not only as a means of reproduction but rather as a gateway to experience oneness and higher states of pleasure, bliss and consciousness. As Dossie Easton…
How could I not
Read more: How could I notHow could I not fall as I teetered at the brink of your soul How could I resist a heart as open as yours How could I not awaken at the gentle touch of your hand You uncovered my soul You read my deepest secrets as if they were written on my skin You sailed…
We need permission…
Read more: We need permission…A friend of mine commented on a post that I wrote saying that it sounded like a request for affirmation. I responded that while I am not aware that I am looking for that affirmation I think that it is crucial for us as humans to be validated, to be affirmed. What we need is…
Basic instinct
Read more: Basic instinctAccording to the Enneagram there are three basic instincts (subtypes) that govern our behavioural patterns. These basic instincts operate underneath the ego and all the strategies of our personality. The three instincts are: 1) Self preserving (sp) 2) Social (so) 3) Sexual (sx) There are simply three types of people. Imagine you walk into a…
Oh no you didn’t!
Read more: Oh no you didn’t!Oh yes I did! I blogged about sexuality again, and after having had more traffic than usual on the blog with loads of people contacting me privately and publicly commenting on the blog posts the last week, after the post on sexuality, silence. [insert cricket sound] Talking about feelings and being openly emotional on the…
Sex has become poisoned, this is why we cannot talk about it let alone celebrate it!
Read more: Sex has become poisoned, this is why we cannot talk about it let alone celebrate it!No matter how much the evangelical church might try to ignore or pretend that it doesn’t exist and in other ways silence the conversation, sex is still a foundational, central part of the humnan experience. Sometimes I think the religious movement hopes that if we just ignore or oppose it strongly enough it will dissapear…
How can I support you?
Read more: How can I support you?So in the wake of my last post the question begs to be asked… When you see a friend in need, he/she is hurting badly emotionally, how can be supportive and yet respect the process? 1) Clear your own crap first! Make sure that your need to help the other person does come from a…
Permission to feel…
Read more: Permission to feel…It is funny this facebook thing. Not to long ago I posted an update on facebook that indicated I was dealing with some stuff. Anyone keeping up with my blog knows that I have done some real emotional heavy lifting the past weeks so one would think it would not be that surprising. Still when…
Affirming love
Read more: Affirming loveI have spent the last week in paradise, surrounded by nature and open loving hearts. Every morning as a collective we would make the following affirmation: Today on this beautiful unique day, I decide to choose love.I choose love by forgiving those I did not forgive yet. I choose love today by paying attention to…
Opening up
Read more: Opening upIf you, like me sometimes close down your heart. Either knowingly or unknowingly. You also need to open back up. Personally I think this becomes a daily spiritual practice of opening up and staying open. This can feel scary if you close down your heart because of heartbreak or other emotional trauma. Many people once…
Non attachment
Read more: Non attachmentIn eastern traditions detachment or non attachment is an important part of the spiritual practice. The idea is that you should not become atatched to things or persons so that these will not control you. “Things arise and she lets them come, things disappear and she lets them go. She has, but doesn’t possess, acts…
Do you dare to live?
Read more: Do you dare to live?So in the aftermath of my recent emotional awakening experience I am left with this question. Do I really dare to live? Not just to be alive but to live fully, filled with life and experience to the brim, each day? Most of us, myself included, opt out. We siphon life into small and manageable…
I don’t know how it happened
Read more: I don’t know how it happenedIt just did, one day I had stopped feeling. I was thinking a lot, thinking I was sad, happy or angry. But I wasn’t rally feeling it. My feelings dialed down to a low hum or buzzing at the bottom of my heart to low to even register. It must have happened gradually, little by…
Into the blue
Read more: Into the blueAs summer has actually arrived here in Sweden I have taken some time of work to start a writing project. I am taking all the ideas and thoughts from the last six years of sermon writing, blogging and theological reflection and boil it down to a little book describing my own “pirate theology”. The book…
So long and thanks for all the fish
Read more: So long and thanks for all the fishEvery Journey must come to an end and this is the end of our journey in the Salvation Army. It has been a great journey of trials and growth personally and professionally. So what does one say at the end of a journey? Stepping into the blue We are taking a step out into the…
Oh no, religion!
Read more: Oh no, religion!As I was browsing the interwebs I came upon this cartoon depicting how the secular society looks at christianity. It is true to a large degree. In todays society it is ok to quote Buddha, the Dalai Lama or Ghandi but to quote Jesus or the bible is somehow offensive. Of course the reverse is…
Death as a gift
Read more: Death as a giftWhen you read fantasy (as I do) there are many different races. In classical fantasy the elves are gracefull and artistic, the dwarves are tough and inventive and all the races live long. But what about humans, humans are mortal. In the fantasy setting the great advantage of being human is our mortality. That hardly…
Redeeming Sex – Book review
Read more: Redeeming Sex – Book reviewI just finished reading “Redeeming Sex” by Debra Hirsch. I was so excited when I picked this one up and I was hopeful that someone had finally published a book that dared to deconstruct and reconstruct sex from a biblical perspective. And it started out great showing the important and beautiful link between sexuality and…
What’s the controversy?
Read more: What’s the controversy?This Sunday I talked about the sacramental life at the corps. It was a nice service with good worship (Thanks Boris) and the teaching flowed nicely. As I am preaching my way through my “Life is my religion” teaching we where talking about life as a spiritual practice and apart from sacramental living we got…
The return of the blog
Read more: The return of the blogAfter a sorely needed hiatus, I have decided to reopen my blogs. I write these blogs because I need to work through my journey in writing and because I really need the feedback I get from doing this in public. Some people think I like to provoke on purpose (to a certain degree it is…
Prophetic vision
Read more: Prophetic visionToday I want to talk about transfiguration, it is a big religious word that ranks right up there with eschatology and soteriology and yet, I think, should be part of our daily practice as Christians. Transfiguration, from Latin transfiguratio, is primarily a religious term, and refers to the experience of momentary divine radiance. The most…
