There are famous pastors and then there are the pastors I have known: Pastor George, Dad, Father Michael, Father Richard and so many other good souls. They are faithful, work hard, and do not abuse the trust they are given. They are stars in the Lord’s hand and they would comfort you as they do me if their true light were not obscured by the glare of celebrity Christians. We must be careful, because though the stars are built to... Read more
”Move on,” he said at just the moment he should have listened. “Let’s think about this some more,” he shared just when he should have let the person move forward. The problem with advice books, the problem with writing these words, is that people cannot be captured by general advice. General advice is generally true, but we are particular, yes even a peculiar (!) people in our own situations. I have seen good people tell people what to do, and... Read more
Good dads are an endangered species, but good pastors are even harder to find. Bad dads are an epidemic and bad pastors are a pandemic. The good new is that there are good mothers, like Mary, who follow their sons even to the cross when the dads are gone. This is because we have embraced toxic versions of manhood where the gentleman as an ideal has been replaced by the bullyboy. This results in pastors who value brand and winning... Read more
The worst of the Harry Potter films has been around long enough that spoiler warnings seem unnecessary. In this case, there is nothing to spoil, because this film is a dreary bit of mediocrity. With every book, JK Rowling shook off more editorial control and suffered for it. She became rich and now she feels free to opine. Sadly, JKR has ceased to be “as a little child” and her adult self is mostly childish. The first Harry Potter book was... Read more
A long time ago, though in this galaxy and not one far away, I received an email from a girl named Melody Guy*, who said, “I’ve noticed there are Bible translations, and I am curious about your thoughts…may this find you flourishing. I am gobsmacked to discover ancient books aren’t written in English! Why didn’t they speak Real in ancient times? Please, as your mom told me to say, drop some precious wisdom on me. Thank you for all the... Read more
Is there life on other planets? I hope so. So far the evidence is not great, but perhaps it is so. A former student and genuine intellectual, let’s call him Aristodemus*, provoked this discussion. He is not quite persuaded by my responses and so writes: I’m going to offer the guess that John Mark Reynolds has watched the Sci-Fi channel remake of Battlestar Galactica – such was my instinct when he noted, wisely, that a species of atheists would probably... Read more
Our problems are not unique, but are classic. Plato starts his Republic with a city in decay: the heads of the city are impotent and dull while those most powerful wish to be tyrants. God help us. The Republic starts with a miracle: the head of house leaves the conversation voluntarily and give Socrates the freedom to examine the assumptions of the young men. This “head”man, Cephalus, is removed without revolution. Nobody has to yell “off with his head.” As a... Read more
Today we shall hear from a critic of this column, but before the excitement let me describe some of what I have learned about writing interacting on line with critics, since I started on a C64 on Qlink back in 1986. If you want to get to the good stuff, skipping the “how to use blogs” part, and see a commentator go after me (unedited! raw!), then skip to the last section. On Blog Comments and Patheos as a Valuable... Read more
Strategic Leadership, Planning, and Management for Christians by Peter M. Danilchick (SVSP, 2016) Good ideas are rare, the ability to implement those ideas is as scarce as a professional athlete who can describe what he does. For every Tony Romo, there is a Phil Simms, that stand in for the thousands more who could not even earn a job as he inexplicably has in order to fail miserably on a weekly basis. I work in a big idea place for... Read more
Many years ago, so long ago the VCR had not yet been invented, there was an eccentric movie called Star Wars that became a bit of a hit. The setting for the movie was a remote desert planet where an isolated moisture farmer and his family lived quite happily and peaceably with little contact with the outside world except what was needed to get blue milk. All of that changed one day when someone flying high overhead dropped two robots to... Read more
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