This essay was originally a sermon, delivered to Redemption Church. If you would like to listen or download the mp3, here’s the link. One of the consistent claims of Jesus in the New Testament was this idea that the heart matters. The exterior life can be deceptive; we can play games with it. So Jesus continually pointed people to the heart & to their character. He didn’t believe it was enough just to do right things. One... Read more
Dear Pastor, You put your congregation first, and yourself last, and you did it all week long. You took every phone call, answered every email, attended every meeting you could, and kept the ball moving forward in your congregation. You shared words of comfort, compassion, and encouragement with your people. In those few short moments you had on your schedule in which to get a jump on your message, you watched replay clips of the Royals’ World Series... Read more
This was originally a sermon that has been converted into a long-form essay. If you are a pastor, feel free to copy and steal any of these ideas. One hundred years ago this was the hottest product on the market. What’s the great Henry Ford marketing phrase? You can have it in any color you want (as long as it’s black). 4 cylinders, 20 horsepower, max speed 45 miles per hour, and it would run on gas, kerosene, or... Read more
I recently wrote an article for FaithGateway.com. Here are a few pull quotes… would love to have you go to the article & share a link on Facebook or Twitter… Nearly every pastor or ministry leader I’ve ever met operates with the underlying assumption that their job is to make their ministry successful. When leaders accept this premise, using it as a guiding principle, they allow the American story of bigger, better, higher, faster, and stronger to dictate... Read more
I confess that the past few weeks have been a blur. I’ve been out of town Monday through Wednesday each week, and have felt one step behind. The first trip was to Conception Abbey to spend a few days in discussion with Ian Cron… will blog about that later. The other trip was to Durham and Duke University to the Hauerwas/Willimon event. Both trips were definitely worthwhile. But they are not the reason for the blur. I confess that the... Read more
I spent the past couple of days at Duke University listening in on conversations between Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon. The event was part of Duke’s annual Convocation and Pastor’s School. Twenty-five years ago Hauerwas and Willimon teamed up to write the book Resident Aliens. To date the book has sold over 160,000 copies, a remarkable number for a book of this type, and remains an important part of the literature regarding ministry and the church. I consider this book... Read more
Editors’ Note: This article is part of the Patheos Public Square on Remembering the Dead: Ancestors, Rituals, Relics. Read other perspectives here. A few years ago my friend Chris Jehle asked me to begin making a trek to the hood in KCMO to help him with a peculiar task. Chris had spent the previous fifteen years living in one of the most poverty entangled and violent neighborhoods in our nation. At the time he was the founder of The Hope... Read more
I confess that my daily routine has been completely whacked lately. I blame the Kansas City Royals’ three extra-innings playoff games in a row, after which I’m so jacked up, it takes me awhile to come back down. My body doesn’t seem to know what to do, so it just keeps trying to get me to lie down. I just woke up and it’s telling me to go back to bed. I cannot. First comes breakfast with the kids. I... Read more
If I had to pick one theologian who has had the most influence on my thinking–probably my being and doing as well–it would be Stanley Hauerwas. He has the ability to see the world the way I want to see it. He’s unafraid to tell the truth about his own life, which seems to give him the freedom to tell the truth about almost anything. When I am in a rut or a quandary, when I’m having trouble seeing the... Read more
Scot McKnight has a nice blog post in which he describes why the Bible translation you prefer says something about your personal politics. While I think bible scholars and teachers overestimate the amount of “use” these bible translations actually get (it’s been my experience that most Christians don’t read their bibles much at all), Scot makes an interesting point. He says that all bible translations are good, so the only reason to prefer one English translation over another is to identify with a Christian subset,... Read more
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