"After a long and gradual arc of creeping disillusionment with the form of evangelical church I was experiencing, and having listened to thousands of sermons, engaged in countless Bible studies and attended dozens of “life-changing” seminars, I came to a point of asking 'Is this it? Is this all there is?' I was profoundly dissatisfied with the lack of spiritual depth and maturity I saw in myself and in my church peers, including our leaders. Consuming Bible lessons, singing heart-felt worship choruses and scrupulously engaging in personal sin management had brought only a modicum of spiritual maturity into our lives. I, and the other Christians I knew, continued to struggle with petty anger and jealousy and lust and fear and prejudice and dishonesty and selfishness and impatience and a subtly pervasive cynicism derived from living in what we had been taught is a fallen world. We looked to the future for a great coming revival—always just beyond the horizon—which would make everything right. This impending movement of dramatic Divine intervention—continually preached by our pastors, promised by our prophets, and prayed for by us pew-sitters—never came. I gradually became convinced that there had to be something more, something that was transformative not as a grand future event but right here and right now amid the mundanities of everyday life. But I had no idea what that transformative something might be."

--Daniel P. Coleman, Presence and Process: A Path Toward Transformative Faith and Inclusive Community