General

            So much is written in the church circles I inhabit about the decline of the Church in North America.  In particular, the church blog-o-verse, catalog of conferences, and advertised books seem regularly to be offering advice about how to get The Youth back in church.             But I am convinced that much of the…

I’d heard it before, so this was only the most recent occasion.             “It’s rude to speak in a language everyone doesn’t share when you could instead use a shared language, because you’re excluding people.  They might think you’re talking about them, or you might actually be doing so.”             The statement drew a relatively…

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet He did not sin.  Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find…

“But hasn’t multi-culturalism failed?” – Church leader, in my office, after a tense meeting             I had been pushing to make “multi-cultural” a formally-stated value of our congregation, but I had overlooked a critical flaw, right up until I stepped in it.             “Multi-culturalism” sounded like a suspiciously-leftist agenda piece to certain of my congregants. …

A casual conversation between Iron Man and Dr. Stephen Strange, time traveler: “I went forward into the future… to see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict.” “How many did you see?” “14,000,605.” “How many do we win?” “One.”             So a few weekends back, I finally caught up to one piece of pop…

WARNING: This blog post contains more science and philosophy than I understand. I wrote it anyway.  Maybe you’ll even read it anyway. On a recent night, I finished reading a reflective book called The Great Unknown: Seven Journeys to the Frontiers of Science by Marcus Du Sautoy, Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at…

Sometimes you lose sight of why you chose the principles you did.             Back when our first daughter was born, my wife and I discussed the possibility that I would speak to her in Spanish for, say, six months.  The trouble was that six months is long enough to establish a firm habit, and in…

I regularly enjoy the webcomic “XKCD.”  (I take no responsibility for you looking that up, nor for your resultant mirth, confusion, or offense.)  Here is comic #2146, “Waiting for the but…”             All of XKCD’s comics also come with a post-punchline punchline.  This one came with: “Listen, I’m not a fan of the Spanish Inquisition…

My favorite genre of literature is science fiction, which wasn’t even considered literature when it started in the 19th century.  A few works, like those of Mary Shelley, Jules Verne, and HG Wells, had to stand the test of time, and a few authors had to die first so that their objections to being classified…

My elders had granted me a Sunday off, so it was therefore a perfect day to go spy on experience other churches.  Maybe covet come back with a fresh idea or two. The first church we visited was large, not mega, but large, and had a reputation in the community for shady finances and concomitantly…