Pearl by Ted Kooser Elkader, Iowa, a morning in March, the Turkey River running brown and wrinkly from a late spring snow in Minnesota, a white two-story house on Mulberry Street, windows flashing with sun, and I had come a
A few months ago – September 25, 2015 to be exact – the 193 countries of the UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Development Agenda titled “Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.” I can only imagine the
So sad to learn of the death of Phyllis Tickle earlier this week, on September 22, 2015, Dr. Tickle was 81. Dr. Tickle was a teacher, professor, academic dean, and editor, and a tsar in the Christian publishing world. She
Disturb us, O Lord when we are too well-pleased with ourselves when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little, because we sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, O Lord when with the abundance of things
I read and reread everything that Dr. Randy S. Woodley (Keetoowah Cherokee) writes and try to sit at his feet every chance I get. I sense he may be a prophet of our time and place. Maybe especially to Whiteness
I stumbled across the above video; its a live performance of “Alive” by Pearl Jam. Eddie Vedder’s introduction where he shares some of the backstory is beautiful. He shares how that experience felt like a curse at the time of
Between the “Leadership in the New Parish” think tanks and the hundreds of parish walkabout Tim Soerens, Paul Sparks, and I have lucky enough to have engage over the last few years, we’ve identified 2 vital questions, and 10 practices
As Lynette, Pascal, and I have been thinking about the rhythms of our lives, we want to experiment with bringing our everyday lives in our neighborhood with our spirituality. While we don’t exactly know what that all means, we’d like
The evidence for Jesus’ resurrection is so strong that nobody would question it except for two things: First, it is a very unusual event. And second, if you believe it happened, you have to change the way you live. Wolfhart
You cannot have unity in the absence of diversity. Unity is only possible if diversity exists. RICHARD TWISS February 9, 2013 Tayoate Ob Najin (He Stands with His People) died. Richard Leo Twiss was a truly great man. A husband,
Simon Sinek is helping me rethink how I imagine the big why of a pastor. I am coming to see: 1 – What is the work of pastoring a church, 2 – How is following the Spirit in discovering a
“Tomorrow, & Tomorrow, & Tomorrow” By William Shakespeare (from Macbeth, spoken by Macbeth) Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,To the last syllable of recorded time;And all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to
Last month Kathryn Schulz delivered an outstanding TED talk on the idea of “Being Wrong.” Early in her talk she askes her audience what it feels like to be wrong. The audience responds with. “awful”, thumbs-down, embarrassing, etc. To which
Richard Florida, author of the international best seller Who’s Your City: How the Creative Economy is Making Where you Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life, writes to put it simply, about the importance of place. In his introduction
You either walk inside your story and own it or you stand outside your story and hustle for your worthiness.” Brené Brown A friend recently encouraged me to check out Brené Brown’s moving TEDxHouston talk on wholeheartedness and vulnerability. It’s so good. Peace, dwight
After spending some time with my grandmother, my cousin wrote a beautiful blog post. the journey of a diamond “Her arms held a million wrinkles and 100 million memories as well. As we (my mother and I) entered the room
One may be “outside” the church, but one can never be “outside” of God’s love. Clark H. Pinnock Christian Theologian Dr. Clark Pinnock passed away yesterday, August 15th, 2010. Dr. Pinnock was a strong, and at times conversational voice in
Well, we’re back and beginning to recover from jet lag after our first trip to the African continent. Lynette, Pascal and I got to spent the better part of July in Kenya, with a few days in London en-route. Lynette
So I’m in the process of writing a short piece exploring Christian spiritual/identity formation in a post-Christendom context. I’m desperately looking for any recommended websites, readings or other resources that might help me get a better sense of the shift
I have said many times that if Mars Hill Graduate School had existed when I was doing my Masters work I would have been here in a heartbeat. And for the last few years I’ve had the pleasure of learning
Am I a stone, and not a sheep,That I can stand, O Christ, beneath thy cross,To number drop by drop Thy Blood’s slow loss,And yet not weep? Not so those women lovedWho with exceeding grief lamented Thee;Not so fallen Peter
My bus drops me off about 1.25 miles from my school, so I have a little bit of a walk. I love this walk. It affords me the opportunity to feel my city, I encounter some of its people, walk
If God is male, then male is God. The divine patriarch castrates women as long as he is allowed to live on in the human imagination. Mary Daly Saddened to learn of the death of Dr. Mary Daly, on January
Welcome to day nine of the Tony Jones’, The Teaching of the Twelve, blog Tour. Let me begin expressing my gratitude for the thoughtful engagement with the Didache not only by Tony Jones but also by the other bloggers who
What makes theology practical is not the fitting of orthopedic devices to theoretical concepts in order to make them walk. Rather, theology occurs as a divine partner joins us on our walk, stimulating our reflection and inspiring us to recognize
All week I’ve been tucked away at our cabin in Bellingham. As I’m making final edits to a manuscript for Baker Books. The book will be titled, Thy Kingdom Connected: What the Church Can Learn from Facebook, the Internet and
