As Guy Clark wrote, “Only two things that money can’t buy / That’s true love and homegrown tomatoes.” I arrived home from a vacation/brother’s wedding last night, and it was too dark and buggy to venture out into the garden. So first thing this morning, out I went and found a bounty of tomatoes on the vine, plus the last few beans of the season. It’s been said before — many, many times by Garrison Keillor — that one of... Read more
Unlike Scot, I love novels. In fact, one of the challenges of my life is that, as a blogger and non-fiction writer, I am plied with non-fiction books that publishers and authors wish me to read, endorse, and review. While that is a great honor, and I’m usually happy to oblige, I much prefer to read fiction, and how I wish that I were sent novels to review. So last January, feeling flush with a little Christmas cash, I ordered... Read more
First Amazon announces that they sold more Kindle books last quarter than hardcovers. Then they announce that authors can receive 70% royalties on books published directly to the Kindle (that’s compared to the standard 10-18%). And then they release a Kindle Reader that just about anyone can afford. I’m sure that some kind soul will buy me one… Read more
I’m blogging through Kenda Creasy Dean’s new book, a theological follow up to Christian Smith’s Soul Searching. I hope you’ll join me. Find all the posts here. In chapter five, Kenda continues a theme that she’s already introduced: cultivating missional imaginations in teens is a strong antidote to moralistic, therapeutic deism. But what, exactly, is a missional imagination? Well, what it’s not is a week-long summer mission trip to an Indian reservation. In fact, Kenda argues that the fact that... Read more
…at least when he’s backlit. Check out the singer of the greatest rock band in history in 1979… And last week, as shot by the inimitable Courtney Perry for the Dallas Morning News: Read more
I’m blogging through Kenda Creasy Dean’s new book, a theological follow up to Christian Smith’s Soul Searching. I hope you’ll join me. Find all the posts here. In chapter four, Kenda turns explicitly theological, arguing that “Catechesis shapes missional imaginations, which help us recognize God’s activity in Jesus Christ and in us, as Christ calls us to participate in his redemptive work in the world.” She writes that the gospel in ineluctably missional, and that teens who are formed by... Read more
My friend and co-conspirator, Andy Root, has a message for those of you in youth ministry: Hello Youth Ministry friends, I’m sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled blog reading, but I have broken into transmission to offer you an opportunity. I wanted to get before you the chance to get a free copy of my book, Relationships Unfiltered. As the new school year approaches and you think about volunteer leader meetings and trainings I would like to suggest you take... Read more
I’m blogging through Kenda Creasy Dean’s new book, a theological follow up to Christian Smith’s Soul Searching. I hope you’ll join me. Find all the posts here. In chapter three, Kenda’s provocative chapter title is, “Mormon Envy.” Those of us who read Soul Searching remember how Mormon teens religiously outperform their peers by every measure, from behavior (later to lose their virginity; less use of alcohol and drugs) to belief (higher attendance at church functions; better able to articulate what... Read more
Katherine Kersten is the often-mocked conservative columnist at the Minneapolis StarTribune. Often mocked because her columns regularly sound like she’s Michelle Bachman’s a-little-bit-less-stupid big sister. Mainly, she touts reactionary talking points and far-fetched anecdotes as her arguments. Yesterday, her column was so cloddish that I thought I’d break it down, paragraph-by-paragraph. She wrote about same sex marriage and the death of all that’s holy. Is same-sex marriage just over the horizon in Minnesota? Many say yes. A suit to legalize... Read more
Here’s a trailer for the forthcoming DVD that Paraclete Press made with me. It’ll be a small group resource to be used in my book, The Teaching of the Twelve. Read more
Theoblogy
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