We live in a culture that is toxic to leadership, so argued the social thinker and Rabbi Edwin Friedman. What Freidman meant was that in our culture we have developed a regressive mood.[1]It is a mood that is destructive, bent on artificial togetherness, and more oriented toward safety than adventure. In such an environment, leadership is difficult because the forces of regression subvert any change in the status quo—even if everyone secretly knows the status quo is toxic. While Freidman... Read more

Photo by Luis Dalvan on Pexels.com How do you know when the light has gone out. We humans are remarkably adaptable to our social environment, and even large-scale changes can escape our notice. Because we can adapt so readily, we may not notice when we the society at large has slipped into darkness. The last few weeks though, have revealed a slip into darkness that should disturb not only believers, but also anyone who wants a good and just society.... Read more

What makes for the good life? While many would think of the Bible as only a religious text, much of its message is directed at creating the good life. Consider Jesus Himself. His Sermon on the Mount is full of practical wisdom on what is necessary to not only please God, but to have a happy, a blessed, life. Not only in the words of Jesus, the words of the rest of the Bible contain a lot of information about... Read more

This weekend we were astonished to see a video of two police officers who were shot while sitting in their squad car. An unknown assailant approached the car and opened fire, hitting one officer in the jaw and the other in the head. The images were disturbing to say the least. Adding to the shock were some of the videos of the responses of those who observed the events. One man in particular laughed in delight at the shooting. In... Read more

When you get down to it, the thing we fear the most—outside death—is change. Congregations especially fear change. When I first arrived in my current congregation, I told the staff to not even use the word. I said we could use phrases like “in addition to what we are doing here” or “we could pursue alternatives.” Change, I coached my staff to believe, causes anxiety. Anxiety causes people to freeze, and freezing is the opposite of change. Change, however, is... Read more

The Coronavirus has been a shock to the system for local congregations. Many congregations have gone weeks, even months, without meeting in person. Instead they have relied on online broadcasts of their services to communicate. My church started online broadcasting of our services as soon as we had to shut down. On Easter Sunday, though, we made a shift. We started a drive-in service. We began worshipping without our sanctuary. A sanctuary is only a building, but it communicates even... Read more

What will the Church be like after the Coronavirus and everything returns to “normal”? Well, we are not sure. We don’t even know that there will be an “after” of the Coronavirus. We are even less sure if there will be a return to “normal.” There are some things, though, that seem apparent that will affect the life of churches going forward. 1) The model of doing church most of us have been using is broken. The current model of... Read more

The great American baseball player and wit, Yogi Berra, once said, “Predicting is hard, especially about the future.” Growing up one of my favorite movie series was the Back to the Future. The movies were made in the mid-80s and they envisioned a distant future, 2015. In the movie’s view of 1985, there were to be flying cars. I have to say, I’m pretty disappointed there are no flying cars yet! I do find it fun to go back to... Read more

  One of Molly’s friends has a magnet on her refrigerator that reads, “I didn’t say it was your fault, I said I was going to blame you.” As it turns out, blame is a pretty old thing. In the story of the Fall in Genesis, blame was everywhere. When God confronted Adam and Eve after their disobedience, there was blame displacement everywhere. Adam blamed Eve. Eve blamed the snake. We humans have been blaming ever since. Parents know that... Read more

  The older I get, the more I like giving gifts. I love the look on Ainsley’s little face when she gets a surprise gift. She loves it when I come home with a toy or chocolate, and her little face makes my whole day. She doesn’t even say “thank you” often, but I know she loves the gift by her actions. As a famous theologian puts it, “Joy is the sincerest form of gratitude.” Her memories of the gifts... Read more