Photo by Greg Bulla (Unsplash) According to a recent Gallup poll, Americans cited immigration as the most important problem facing our country. I don’t know anyone, no matter where they stand on how to solve the immigration issue, who doesn’t think that what we are facing right now is a mess for everyone concerned. The key concern has to do with illegal immigration. Losing control of our borders. And no one wants to lose control. And for obvious reasons. In 2023 alone, U.S. Border Patrol reported more than 2.4 million encounters with migrants on the Mexican border. Texas has a backlog of near ..read more

Photo by Tim Wildsmith (Unsplash) On more than one occasion and prompted by more than one news cycle, my mind has turned to a very obscure passage in the Bible that is often overlooked. Joshua, the great leader of the people of Israel and successor to Moses, was leading the people into the Promised Land. After crossing the Jordan River, the very first city they encountered was the city of Jericho, a city hostile to the coming of the Israelites. It soon became clear this was going to be an armed conflict. However, God had something else in mind. To demonstrate that the Promised Land was going ..read more

Photo by Pixabay (Pexels) Each year, at around this time, the American Library Association releases its list of most-challenged books from the previous year. Translation: the books that people petitioned to be banned from (largely) public school libraries. We now know that the three books most targeted by ban campaigns last year were: Gender Queer, an autobiographical graphic novel written by nonbinary author Maia Kobabe. All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson, who has very publicly maintained that all of his books are going to live in the “wheelhouse of queerness.” This Book is Gay ..read more

Photo by Matthew Hernandez (Unsplash) In an interview with LBC in London, famed atheist Christopher Dawkins offered two startling admissions: first, that he mourned the loss of much of what reflects the Christian faith in the world, and second, that he would consider himself a “cultural” Christian. He stated: I do think we are culturally a Christian country. I call myself a cultural Christian. I’m not a believer, but there is a distinction between being a believing Christian and a cultural Christian.... I love hymns and Christmas carols and I sort of feel at home in the Christian ethos, and I ..read more

Photo by Josh Sorenson (Pexels) The Telegraph, one of the U.K.’s newspapers of record, recently reported on a study published in the journal Scientific Reports of 12,000 English-speaking songs produced between 1980 and 2020.    Results?  Modern songs have been dumbed down since the ’80s and are now more repetitive. Specifically, there has been a trend across genres toward the “simplification of lyrics and an overuse of choruses.” Further, the “vocabulary range has also shrunk and the structure of the songs made more predictable.” The combination of streaming platforms and the s ..read more

Photo by David McEachan (Pexels) For a brief period following graduate school, I worked for a denomination as its leadership consultant for preaching and worship. My first assignment was to steward an already-existing program for churches titled, “Let’s All Go to Church.” It was a growth campaign for churches, and one clearly designed to capitalize on people’s innate sense that they should, indeed, go to church.  That was 1991. Even then I knew that it was a conceptual mess and was built on a terribly outdated assessment of culture. My first self-assignment? Instead of “Let’s All Go to C ..read more

Photo by Kelly Sikkema (Unsplash) There have been some interesting post-apocalyptic movies that play off the length of time following a cataclysmic event. 28 Days Later comes to mind. What would someone write about our own, very real event if titled Four Years Later? Yes, it’s been four years since March 2020 when the world faced the COVID-19 pandemic and, in countless ways, shut down. It now seems like a distant memory, something we prefer not to think about. It’s gone, we’ve moved on… let’s forget about it. Fair enough. Except for one thing.  It did change us.  All things COVID mi ..read more

Photo by Dan Myers (Unsplash) This is a blog with a very specific audience. I know it may exclude some of you, but it may be healthy for you to eavesdrop. This is for all the church planters and their volunteers on post-Easter Monday, struggling to make it from week-to-week, and for the leaders and members of established churches that are anything but “mega”—well below the 200 threshold in terms of average attendance. I don’t know how Easter Sunday went for you, but I have a hunch.  It was bigger than normal, but less than breakthrough. It was good, but not great. Your attendance was lar ..read more

Photo by Grant Whitty (Unsplash) good adj. better, best a) a general term of approval or commendation; b) suitable to a purpose; effective; c) producing favorable results; beneficial The amazing thing about Good Friday is that it was – and is – part of the “good” declared by God at creation. “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Genesis 1:31, NIV). The Fall was not good; sin, disobedience and suffering are not good. But God’s purpose in creation and the redemptive drama that ensued were – and are – good. Some would put God in the dock for placing such a burden on human life—th ..read more

Photo by Karsten Winegeart (Unsplash) It may have seemed like an odd staff outing.  Two or three times a year, instead of our normal monthly staff meeting, we have an “off-site.” Usually this is some kind of experience that stretches our leadership thinking or ministerial creativity. Our off-sites have been as varied as the Van Gogh immersive exhibit to a behind-the-scenes tour of a football stadium. This month, we went to a movie theater and watched a film. The Zone of Interest recently won the Oscar for best international film along with the rare distinction of also being nominated – a ..read more