I was talking to one of our Air Force senior leaders the other day who said, “Everyone who has served on the front lines of this war has been forever changed.” That was cool, because “Forever Changed” is the name…
A birthday party on our deathbed: Pentecost and the Pew study
Last week, the Pew Research Center reported that between 2007 and 2014, “the Christian share of the population (in the U.S.) fell from 78.4 percent to 70.6 percent, driven mainly by declines among mainline Protestants and Catholics.” Evangelicals are in…
How do we get along when there’s no middle ground? Part 2
In part one I told you the story of a couple of gay New York hoteliers who met with Ted Cruz and were treated as a result to calls for a boycott and other harassments. This situation prompted me to…
God’s knows the heart of single adults. Do you?
Recently a ministry acquaintance posted a very personal statement on Facebook about her life as a single adult and an affirmation of her worth and value as a person of worth created in the image of God to live and…
Can we be moderate and judgmental at the same time?
The first clue should have been when the Internet trolls didn’t immediately show up and condemn me as a liberal heretic. And then when some normally affirming voices fell curiously silent, it became obvious something was amiss. This response—or lack…
Welcome to the church of the casserole
Many non-mega congregations mistakenly believe they do not have any competitive advantages over a nearby mega church or one of its satellite campuses. Once again they are wrong. Their first mistake is the believing they have to compete. Beyond that…
5 reasons we should complain
As a minister and a father, I’m accustomed to hearing people complain, especially my kids. Such phrases as, “I don’t want to go to bed,” or “This sandwich is yucky,” or “My sister is bothering me,” are repeated on a…
Why Rachel Held Evans is not that controversial
Just as we had finished imposing ashes on the foreheads of worshipers, my friend and fellow pastor David Bennett turned to me and said, “Alan, remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” And with those words, David…
How do we get along when there’s no middle ground? Part 1
The other day, as I was reading one of the daily news emails that arrive in my inbox, I came across a story that I thought surely must have been ripped from the pages of The Onion. Two New York…