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The Question of the Moment
For supporters of Donald Trump: Is radical candor so important to you that you are willing to support someone whose words are so ugly, divisive, and completely destructive? For everyone else: Can you see how important candor and open communication is that many people will answer this question with “yes”?
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Anecdotes Are Not Reality
We love anecdotes. They say profound things about our lives and how they are lived. And we are full of them. Just ask someone about politics or religion and see what you get. In my world, so many use anecdotes to speak for where the church needs to go in the future. This has led…
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What’s Religion Got To Do With It? Everything.
We are having a massive, global communication problem. All because we can’t agree on what the word “religion” really means. ISIS and Religion It shouldn’t be that hard to describe a group’s religiosity. ISIS or ISIL is a group, founded in a religious ideology. That is true at its most basic level. It is composed of religious…
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Announcements
I truly value communication. It has always been one of my top priorities. For a church, I’ve built a website, set up social media pages, published a weekly email newsletter, not to mention planned the weekly liturgy, written letters, visited with people, and made the obligatory announcements on Sunday morning. And strangely, one thing has…
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Broken bread, a broken father
Everyone who reads this story thinks Joab acted wisely. Everyone. We believe Joab was saving David from himself and was right for doing it. I’m not sure the text does, though. And I’m not sure GOD does. A vision of GOD through David and Jesus Proper 14B | 2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33; John 6:35, 41-51 For his own…
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The siren song of weeds
I wrote a post the other day in which I typed “reign” when I should have typed “rein”. It was a simple slip, and one I didn’t notice. It was pointed out on Facebook and for the next day, the only comments on the post were about the spelling. The post was actually a bold post of…
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Simple, bold, NOW!
Several years ago, I made a nearly nightly trip to Barnes & Noble to read and write. I had discovered Seth Godin’s books Tribes and The Dip and I was starting another: Lynchpin. This was the book I was looking for. In a very literal and figurative way. It was the book. The book I…
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How Do Other People Hear Our Gospel Message?
It seems that, right now, in the United States, in the midst of the Charleston shooting, two years of national conversations about race, and arguing over the confederate flag, we have long ignored the most crucial part of communication. A Should’ve Asked Question When Jesus tells us to proclaim the gospel to all nations,…