Lead on, Oklahoma City?

73 years ago yesterday, July 16, 1935, the first parking meters anywhere went to work in OKC.
Perhaps one wouldn’t expect such a novel concept and excellent revenue stream to be born in Oklahoma City.
Malcolm Gladwell wrote an interesting piece for the New Yorker about big ideas and change. Apparently big, revolutionary ideas are not particualrly [...]

Truth

Jack Nicholson was probably right. Tom Cruise couldn’t handle the truth.
Can you? Can I? Can we?
Claims about truth get thrown around like scud missiles.
Some in the church lament the loss of the day when we believed there was absolute truth (or should I say “Absolute Truth” ;) and that we (the church) had it.
Some [...]

Making Disciples AND Transforming the World

As I’ve already shared, the United Methodist Church has adopted a new mission statement: “To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” The decision to adopt this happened Tuesday, April 29th.
At least twice since then, I’ve heard reference made to the “dual purposes” of the church. Sometimes these are [...]

Top Ten

A good friend and colleague asked me for my “top ten books for youth ministry or personal top ten.”
Here’s what I told him:

Christianity for the Rest of Us, by Diana Butler-Bass
Practicing Passion, by Kenda Creasy Dean
Politics of Jesus, by John Howard Yoder
Soul Searching, by Christian Smith and Melinda Denton
Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry, by Andrew Root
Postmodern [...]

Fed Food Focus Falls

Kris Maher reports in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal that “Food Charities feel the Pinch” of the tightening economy.
The USDA’s surplus-commodity program has dropped from $242 million in aid four years ago to just $58 million last year. “Many food banks tells us demand is up more than 20% from last year” with people “mortgage woes, [...]

Thursday

What, besides Thanksgiving, is Thursday known for?
Today is what it is known for.  Holy Thursday, Maundy Thursday. This is the day when Christians traditionally recognize and celebrate that Jesus washed his disciples’ feet and had the Last Supper with them.
Today is also the day when Jesus told his disciples that one of them would betray [...]

Relationships and One’s “Religion”

or; Did I Really Say That?
Last night in staff meeting I said something that still has me thinking. Perhaps I shouldn’t share it here (is this the kind of thing that some SPRC somewhere down the line is going to ask me about?).
I said that I would rather have our youth in the care [...]

Is the Kingdom Here?

Rachel and I recently joined Netflix. We just received our second movie: The Kingdom.
So, I just emailed her to tell her: “The Kingdom has arrived!”
How true is this in your life?

Interpret THIS

I just took the hermeneutics survey designed by Scot McKnight. Courtesy of Joe Bumbulis and Gavin Richardson.
I scored a 64, which is “Moderate.” Any surprise?
Where do you come out?

Say what you mean, Mean what you mean

Several years ago, The United Methodist Church made a change that seemed to me, at the time, useless and inconsequential. It must have seemed the same to most people, because it didn’t stick.
I’m ready to reclaim it.
We (the UMC) decided, sometime during the 1990’s, I believe, that we were no longer gonig to refer [...]