If you’re a long time reader of my work* you may be aware of the fact that not only am I an exceedingly mediocre person of faith, but that I get paid for my mediocrity in the practice of said…
We all need a Seacrest
I hate New Year’s. And no, not just because I’d rather paint a terribly ventilated bathroom than attempt to stay awake until midnight only to watch Jenny McCarthy make halting small talk with people who’ve been corralled in pens like…
Peace on Facebook or Ferguson or Long Island or Cleveland
There’s a certain hollow and rather pernicious powerless-ness that wells up within me as I’ve quietly taken in the scenes, voices and verdicts (or, rather, lack thereof) unfolding before us all over the last couple of weeks. So much so,…
Decided. Or have we become what we thought we would be
At the end of every semester, like clockwork I suppose, it happens. Amidst the speeches, the tasseling (oh, the TASSELING!), the pomp and the circumstance. Amidst the youthful expectancy, the Quixotic hubris, and the endless marimba ring screeching disturbingly from…
On megachurches, Millennials and modernism
In my hometown there is a church. This church has a sanctuary. A steeple. A large staff of religious professionals. A jet. A hashtag campaign for each sermon series. A fleet of boats. A “membership” of over 8,000. And at…
on mega-churches, millennials and modernism.
In my hometown there is a church. This church has a sanctuary. A steeple. A large staff of religious professionals. A jet. A hashtag campaign for each sermon series. A fleet of boats. A “membership” of over 8,000. And at…
the jar is always smaller than the sky.
As a kid growing up in East Tennessee, there were few better ways to enjoy an oppressively sticky late summer evening, than attempting to catch lightnin’ bugs*. (*NOTE: I realize some of you may not be familiar with the colloquialism “lightnin’ bugs,” as…
i’m not rob bell.
I had this somewhat obvious epiphany the other day. I’m not, nor have I ever been, Rob Bell. I know, I know, groundbreaking. I’d probably give this one a “discovering you have enough change in your late model civic’s ashtray…
on arks and alienation: or why building a 70 million dollar boat in the middle of Kentucky still seems like a bad idea.
These days it doesn’t take much to leave me feeling dismayed and embarrassed by the public image of the faith to which I’ve tethered my hopes, fears, dreams, and abilities to pay my mortgage. Which, is why I’m ever so…
cynicism + the art of resurrection.
If you’ve been reading my work for any length of time (and once again, I recycle this joke only because it’s too good not to: thanks Mom!) you’ve likely at one point or another come to at least 2 conclusions about…
blessings.
Ahem, (clears throat, drinks water, begins.) Blessed are the persecuted mega-church majorities, for they own most of the world already. Blessed are those who mourn the loss of Christianity’s cultural power, for they will be trapped eternally in a group…
Forever asking, what’s the next right thing?
Quite often, over the course of numerous conversations unfolding inside the circled wagons of wounded American evangelicalism, there develops this almost liturgically repetitious refrain among the faithful: Our best years are behind us. Whether it’s wistfully recounting the size of…