All Blog Posts (306)

I had a great time in Fort Worth, Texas, last week. I started the week co-preaching at The Search on Super Bowl Sunday with one of my emerging missional church heroes, Rev. Dr. Suzanne Castle (see video…

One day last week I was making a pastoral call at a local private hospital. I didn't know the patient. I only knew that her name was Elizabeth and that her family had asked the hospital social worker to call a minister to pray with her. I get quite a few of those calls. Elizabeth was comatose, as they…

I'm excited to be able to share my recent interview with Anthony Smith (a.k.a. Postmodern Negro). February is, after all, African American History Month, and, I must confess, Anthony was my first real African American friend, who has taught me much of what I now know about black history and my own white privilege. I'm deeply indebted to him for that!

Anthony has been a great friend…

Last month, I decided to start a series of monthly #missionalchat conversations on Twitter, on the third Monday of the month (which is also when I'm planning to post on the Emergent Village Voice blog).



Back in December, the conversation was around the terms "…

I've been working full-time on the Web (in one shape or form) for over a decade now, and it's been fun to watch the language of it evolve from "interactive" to "multimedia" to "Web 2.0" to "social media." The radical shifts in culture that have taken place because of the Internet have been astounding.



At the same time, there's been a similar shaking…

One day last week someone posted a list of the 27 worst Nativity Sets to their Facebook page. By the time I read the post the number was up to 30+ and climbing. Most of the submissions were truly mind boggling.  One made entirely of Spam comes to mind - not exactly something you could keep in with your other…

I'm convinced that at the center of the missional shift in Christianity there's a theological change in our thinking about the Church that needs to happen to not only re-orient the Church around mission but to recognize God's mission is larger and greater than the Church itself. That's the first and primary theological challenge that needs to be addressed for…

I sat down recently to do a Skype videochat interview with Rev. Dr. Bob Cornwall, from Central Woodward Christian Church in Troy, Michigan. Bob has been a conversation partner for me over the last several years, and one of the first people I even knew in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Bob has been for me — and for many others — a "bridge" person, engaging in the emerging…

It's November. In November people's thoughts tend to turn toward gratitude. We are, after all, about to indulge in America's annual Thanksgiving feast. This year I think I will do something really different. I will try to just enjoy the holiday instead of feeling compelled to explain about the genocidal nature of the first such officially declared thanksgiving feast and all the other Grinch-ish info that…

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I'm curious if anyone here is familiar with Wm Abraham's books, especially Canonical Theism. This is a project apparently started at Perkins/SMU that tries to totally sidestep all issues of "epistemology," or how do you know what you know? We're so accustomed to the idea of having to demonstrate (depending on where you line up on questions of bible, authority, experience, etc.) that either the Bible is TRUE or show that true knowledge of the divine comes from within (experience) or through…

 Picking up a copy of one of Chalice Press' WTF [Where's the Faith] titles elicited a series of reflections about the subject of sexuality and Christian faith that continued to seem worth pursuing even though as a fifty-something I am clearly not in its target audience.  The more I reflected the more I thought that beneficial conversations might be encouraged if I blogged my thoughts occasioned by this provocative book in the form of an essay.  The essay raises a few questions that I think…

The living wage campaigns in many cities in the United States presents an opportuinity to contemplate the role of religion, and specifically Christian faith, in a social movement.  In Melissa Snarr's new book All You That Labor this contemporary movement for social justice receives an assessment by a scholar who is also an activist in the movement. For those who wish to think about the manner that religion enables a social movement, this book is well worth the read as it both…

When I was a young driver, my fiancé took on the daunting task of teaching me to drive a standard transmission in the Volkswagen I had just purchased.  Most of it was learning to trust the rhythm found in changing between the gas and clutch and moving the gearshift appropriately.  All seemed well as I settled into an easy comfort of moving from first gear to second, then third and at times going full speed in fourth.  That is until I encountered stoplights or hills.  It was at this point…