What if the Shakespearean-slow death of the mainline church in America were really an opportunity? I think it is.  In fact I would venture to say that the possibilities for new life for God’s people and the world are breathtaking. With declining church membership and budgets, the older model- of a seminary-trained minister “professional” called…

The other day the blog, “Real People, Real Lives, Real Spirituality,” asked where I feel most “spiritually connected.”  (You can find the interview and others of ordinary people trying to make sense of life at the intersection with God here: http://blog.spiritualbookclub.com/).  I gave an answer that I realize was incomplete. Because the truth is I feel…

The following two resources for Lent come from FB friends Kara Root, pastor of Lake Nokomis Presbyterian Church, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Nadia Bolz-Weber, who pastors House for All Sinners and Saints, in Denver, Colorado.  The first is a devotional guide, and the second contains suggestions for very doable daily activities.  I commend them…

Apparently conservative theologian and proponent of “masculine Christianity” John Piper is at it again. (Whatever happened to “Christian hedonism,” to borrow Piper’s own term, anyway?  This Piper seemed like a guy I could have a beer with.) Today Piper tweeted this quote from Wolfhart Pannenberg: “The church that approves of homosexual relations has by that…

The “uncertainty principle” in quantum mechanics is this: “increasing the accuracy of measurement of one observable quantity increases the uncertainty with which another conjugate quantity may be known.” I suspect we see this principle play out not just at the particle level but all over the place.  Case in point?  The GOP presidential elections.  The…

Jesus died in the open air.  He didn’t die in a temple. When we remember our own brokenness and death and receive ashes on our foreheads, we should be doing so in the open air, not in the recesses of some church building. That’s Lauren Winner’s latest wild and crazy idea, and I like it.…

“No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared him.” John 1:18 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him might have eternal life.” John 3:16 Yesterday NPR interviewed Jeremy Lin.  The Harvard graduate crossed…

It is hard to be honest as a minister about the fact that I am not very good at praying. Sure, I do it.  Most mornings these days I sidle up next to Jesus with a cup of coffee and a passage from Scripture.  Some days there is a long laundry list of intercessions: “Please…

My two-year-old has discovered how to crawl through the ladder rungs of the bunk bed she shares with her brother.  She likes to demonstrate her new-found talent after a drawn-out bedtime routine of bath, books, prayers and hugs.  Until recently we would leave the door to the kids’ room ajar, in the case of nightmares,…

Author and activist Shane Claiborne has recently proposed an “exorcism” of Wall Street (as opposed to an occupation).  Claiborne takes the story of Jesus’ exorcism of the demon-possessed man, “Legion,” as biblical precedent for the idea.  What do you think- “exorcism” or “occupation”?  I have republished Claiborne’s post, which was first posted on the blog,…

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