The hesitancy I see with people just getting started in this particular spiritual path we call Christianity is their fear of not knowing what to believe or how to go about believing it.

Formal rituals, strange hymns, secret buzz words...they all serve more often to intimidate than inspire.

My advice is always the same: Don’t start with creeds, confessions of faith or dreary doctrines. Begin with friendship. See God as a friend who loves and accepts you just as you are.

I can’t tell you how many times someone has said in the privacy of my office,

"I didn’t know I could believe that!"

If God desires our friendship, as I most certainly believe God does, then God accepts our questions, feelings, doubts, even honest heresies...because all true friendship is based on loving acceptance.

"You are my friends," Jesus says in the gospel of John.

Such an announcement should liberate us into a new relationship with God. It is a relationship based on love and trust and honesty.