“My husband reads your blog, and he commented that you seem to have a lot of complaints about the Church,” a friend told me recently. A number of responses came to mind, mostly of the “Well, yeah” and “No duh” variety. There are lot of voices offering criticism of the church around the blogosphere. A…

“I’m wondering if you and your husband have run into issues of sexual sin among any of the leaders in your congregation.” My query paused the conversation while my friend reviewed her experiences in the last year or so since her husband had become an elder in a mid-sized, non-denominational congregation. The fact that she…

I’ve avoided the genre like smallpox, but in recent years, a few crossover hits have captured my imagination. And that Mad Magazine coverboy, also known as American Idol winner Scotty McCreery, got me to thinkin’ ’bout tryin’ the Country Music for the first time. (!) I challenged myself to give country a chance for a…

Yesterday while I was playing hooky, I headed to WI for a quick visit with Meg, my long-time prayer partner. We ended our day in the empty sanctuary of her Pewaukee church. It is a small modern space, but was sited onto the land with great respect to the old trees and plantings already residing…

Toward the end of his life, King Solomon famously noted, “Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.” (Ecc. 12:12) In our modern age, we are now up to the point where there are endless numbers of books about the writing of books. Some new classics about the art…

Transitions are the bridges from here to There in written and verbal communication. In part one of this three-part series, I offered some basic thoughts about how transitions serve as a sort of GPS, directing readers/listeners from point to point of an author or speaker’s idea journey. In part two of the series, I showed…