The Fiction We Need
If I were a youth pastor—and any teenagers reading this are going to thank heaven I'm not—I'd assign some required reading to my youth group. Namely, I'd assign the comic novels of Rob Stennett, a y...
Hoping for Hail Mary’s
We're deep into fall now, which means we're deep into a few stories unfolding with great drama all around us. There are national, regional and neighborhood versions. You can share one with a neighbor over a...
Interview with a Teenager (Me!)
My 17-year-old self didn't do a good job of listening to anyone but himself. Most of the time, I said what I wanted and did what I wanted. I was, as most every teenager I knew, deaf to the voice of anyone older...
Twisting Scripture for the Kids
My wife and I recently taught Sunday School to 4- and 5-year-olds at our church. The lesson was about John the Baptist, so we gave the kids a spin at acting like first-century hippies. They dressed up in camel&...
Faith, Doubt & Dark Nights of the Soul
After I embraced the Christian way at 19, I enjoyed about 18 months of doubt-free Christian living. I read the Bible for long stretches, prayed a ton, talked to all kinds of Christians and listened to all kinds...
Speaking — & Listening — in a Facebook Age
Late in the evening of the presidential election last November, as Barack Obama addressed the nation for the first time in his role as President-elect, a Facebook (and real life) friend of mine named Brandon po...
Sight Unseen: My Noise Problem, And Ours
I’m going to do something foolish and write about a spiritual practice I’ve only just begun: the practice of silence and solitude. Because I’m a novice, I barely know what I’m talking ab...
Inclined to Hope
“It’s not running. It’s not walking. It’s surviving.”That’s how Rulon Gardner, the Olympic gold-winning Greco-Roman wrestler, describes the Incline, a 2,000-foot uphill scar ...
In the Beginning Was the Word
As I have been working on my doctoral dissertation on the role of the Bible in American culture, I have thought about the impact the Bible has had in my life.I liked hearing about it, but didn’t much like...
Pay Attention! God is Calling
We live in an instant society. We need gratification not now, but yesterday. Our desires come pre-packaged with impatience. Many people blame the proliferation of media for this, and there’s no doubt that...