Hi Bob, It’s me. Bob. I know! Right? Freaky that I’d write you from the future! No, I don’t have a TARDIS for travelling through time. It’s just that the community at The High Calling are writing our younger selves to give you some advice as you grow up. I’m writing you this as I turn 50 years old. Yep. You made it to half a century! But you nearly didn’t. In 2006, you will nearly die. You will have a... Read more
Where Are We? & What Still Needs to Be Done? October 24-25, 2014 | Boston MA A renewed commitment to faith at work integration has emerged in the workplace and the church over the past decades. The literature on faith at work is booming, as are initiatives at seminaries, business schools, workplace ministries, and in traditional and new media. This appears to be the work of the Spirit, no one person or organization in the lead. So where are we now? ... Read more
I am a big fan of early Radiohead. “The Bends” (1995), while accessible to the pop music ear, offered enough innovation that every song was a wonderful adventure. With “OK Computer” (1997), the band hit its zenith by progressing pop music into explorations of soundscapes and unexpected turns of mood. But then came “Kid A” in 2000, on which Thom Yorke began his eleven-year journey away from pop music and into explorations of abstractness with more emphasis on minimalism, textures,... Read more
One of my colleagues at CCO, Erica Young Reitz, has written a very helpful article for those who have graduated from college, “There Is Life After College.” Here’s a nugget: “More than advice, the best thing I can offer is a little help closing the gap between your expectations of life after college and the reality you may face. To that end, here are some things I’ve found to be true for most alumni. I hope these will help normalize... Read more
Looking for Hints of Hope. The left bank of the Seine is known for its cafés, and conversations, cigarettes and coffee too. But a church? And Albert Camus sitting in a pew, listening with the ears of his heart? For most my life I have been in conversation with Camus, the celebrated French novelist who was also one of the primary voices in 20th-century philosophy. As a 20 year-old college dropout on a pilgrimage through Europe with questions about human... Read more
I pulled the tie to my neck. It was cinched just like my dad had taught me. He called it the four-in-hand. I just called it “good.” I took another look at myself in the full-length mirror. No lint on my shoulder. Shoes polished. Hair combed back. Although I had been in the new position for just a few weeks, it still had that new job smell to it. There was a certain satisfaction to that sensation that I had arrived.... Read more
My Responses to David Gushee Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores … Some are hailing it as a victory for religious freedom; others are decrying it as a trespass on women’s health rights. There are many other concerns that have been raised by the case such as to the limits (if any) of corporations being given human rights and the limits (if any) of institutions from claiming religious freedom from providing other important services to their employees. And on and on... Read more
Recently I’ve found myself quite uncomfortable singing “Amazing Grace.” I find myself thinking, “What has Chris Tomlin done to this classic?!” Now, don’t get me wrong. I actually like it when musicians update the classics. And Tomlin’s new chorus is biblical, catchy, and moving. “My chains are gone, I’ve been set free. My God, my Savior has ransomed me. And like a flood, His mercy reigns. Unending love, amazing grace.” What musicians often do is rearrange old hymns or even... Read more
In this video, Chris Wright speaks on how we should read the Bible in light of it’s goal to reveal God’s mission and our participation in God’s mission. In his two excellent must reads, the scholarly and foundational The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative and the follow-up and very accessible The Mission of God’s People, Chris Wright describes how we usually look for the “biblical basis for missions” but that we should rather seek to understand the... Read more
COVENANT SEMINARY Commencement Address, May 2014 I suppose I was a favorite of the librarians in my hometown. Week by week I would come in, see what was on the shelf, and bring several books home. My favorites were of the frontiersmen who made their way across America, crossing the great Mississippi and up the long Missouri, over the Rockies and into the great beyond, the West, in all its majesty and mystery. But if the biographies of Jim Bridger... Read more
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