This was the message on the first Sunday of Advent, 2014 for Redemption Church. If you are a pastor feel free to copy & steal (w/attribution please!). You can listen to the message here. Advent 1B – Isaiah 64:1-9 / Waiting “O, that you would tear open the heavens and come down.” Today marks the beginning of the season of Advent, which is the 1st day in the new church year. So, by the Christian Calendar, today is... Read more
I confess that I have not written a Monday Morning Confessional since October 20th. That I have not written one has much to do with the fact that I am attempting to take a real Sabbath from Sunday afternoon until Monday afternoon. My definition of Sabbath is anything but rigid. Sabbath means almost anything that encourages delight, a joy or enjoyment of the delectability of time. Sabbath is not necessarily the cessation of work, but the cessation of restlessness (Brueggemann said that).... Read more
“Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them, is a spiritually moribund [at the point of death] religion.” – Martin Luther King Jr. In a letter written on April 17, 1959, President Richard Nixon issued an invitation to Martin Luther King Jr. to join him at a conference to talk about how religious... Read more
This essay was originally a sermon written for Redemption Church on November 09, 2014. If you are a pastor, feel free to copy and steal. __________________________________ “Even powers that seem invincible are vulnerable to love, which is why God’s love has so often taken the form of the civil disobedience of God’s people.” __________________________________ Somewhere around four hundred years had passed since Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream and became Chief of Staff. In the Torah, Joseph is remembered as the man... Read more
This was originally a sermon preached at Redemption Church on 11 NOV 2014. If you are a pastor, please feel free to copy and steal. One of the important aspects of our discipleship, often overlooked, involves the understanding that our relationship with God didn’t just appear out of thin air. Our faith has a history reaching back long before our lifetime. From Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob, to the priests and prophets of the Old Testament; from the early church leaders... Read more
Shrink is my third book, so I’ve been through the review process a few times. I know what the author is supposed to say in response to a critical review. “I enjoy the give and take. The dialogue is helpful. This conversation is why I wrote the book.” Usually I can bring myself to say my lines and actually mean them. However, a recent review is so careless I couldn’t pull it off. That’s a first for me. The review appears on... Read more
In my twenties and thirties, I spent more time on the road than at home. I was attempting to make a career in music, first on my own, then with the band Satellite Soul. I was a fickle NPR listener in the beginning, but that many hours staring at the horizon (pre-Sirius Satellite Radio and in car DVD players), had me and my mates searching the dial for something worth listening to. More times than not, NPR was the only thing... Read more
Editors’ Note: This article is part of the Patheos Public Square on Politics in the Pulpit. Read other perspectives here. Talking politics in the local church is tricky. One statement that flies in the face of a parishioner’s strong belief and that could be the end of the conversation, the end of your influence, and quite possibly the end of their involvement in your ministry. Risk seems to outweigh reward. On the drive to school one day my eight year old son asked, “Why does... Read more
I know it’s just a silly game. More than that, it’s professional sports, so it’s corrupt and corrupting. There’s a whole chapter in my most recent book, Shrink, called “Cooperation and the Mythic Failure of Competition.” A friend of mine once sat with a group of Hispanic parents and asked them what they thought about the culture of Johnson County, Kansas where we live. Their first comment was, “You guys really care about sports. You organize your whole life around them.” The implication was,... Read more
“I’ve tried all the major religions, and most of the minor ones. I’ve worshipped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms, and Isadora Duncan. I know things. For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I heard that, I gave Jesus a chance… It’s a long season and you gotta trust it. I’ve tried ’em all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in,... Read more
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