I continue to slowly re-read Nouwen’s Wounded Healer.  This is one of the best books on Christian leadership I have ever read.  It feels like Nouwen is peering into the window of my soul as he writes and perfectly describing the human condition as I experience it. In the second chapter, he attempts to characterize [...]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shalawesome/ / CC BY-NC 2.0 We all want to be happy.  The other night I pursued happiness in my third helping of french toast (yeah, I said night; we were having brinner ).  The sticky, sweet goodness of french toast covered with syrup was delightful…in that moment.  But not long after dinner, I felt awful. [...]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mckaysavage/ / CC BY 2.0 I sat inside his meager thatch hut, listening to his story, told through the tears of an orphan whose parents had died of AIDS.  At thirteen, Richard was trying to raise his two younger brothers by himself in this small shack with no running water, electricity, or even beds to [...]

Some sobering stories and stats about consumerism in America (all quotes from the book Affluenza): “We spend more on shoes, jewelry, and watches ($100 billion) than on higher education ($99 billion).” pg. 13 “nearly 30 percent of Americans buy Christmas presents for their pets; 11 percent buy them for their neighbors.” (pg. 13) “In 1986, [...]

This is an excellently researched and thought-provoking book that looks at America’s capitalistic, consumerist society as sickness not salvation.  The authors cite story and statistic ad nauseam to make their point — our excessive consumption of every sort of good is not filling the void in our hearts or satisfying the hunger in our soul. [...]

An excellent assessment by John Stackhouse of the cultural response to Collins’ appointment to NIH.  Money quote: Francis Collins, former head of the Human Genome Project, has been named by President Obama to head the National Institutes of Health. What makes this news is the breathtaking idea that someone could be both a scientist and [...]

In this interesting book, Lamin Sanneh explores the nature of expanding world Christianity.  Sanneh explains how missionaries, who first took the gospel to non-western contexts in places like Africa, brought more than just Christianity.  Their efforts to educate peoples in the ways of Christianity’s God were done in conjunction with attempts to educate them in [...]

Check out this interesting commentary by Skye Jethani on consumerism in the church in this short video: I think he raises an interesting point about the assumed cultural values the medium of our church experience communicates.  If Sunday morning church experiences are dedicated to the “entertainment” and “comfort” of the parishioner, then it is no surprise [...]

Even almost sociopathic narcissism feels right at home on My Super Sweet 16.  Atlanta teen Allison tells a party planner she wants to block off part of Peachtree Street so there can be a parade for “my grand entrance.”  Peachtree is a major thoroughfare, the planner reminds her.  She responds, “My sweet 16 is more [...]

Talking about being multi-ethnic is so much more fun than actually being multi-ethnic.  I thoroughly enjoyed the conference today on Evangelicalism’s multi-ethnic future.  There were some great talks given, and a compelling case was made for a multi-cultural Evangelicalism.  From a biblical, sociological, and statistical point of view, the speakers persuasively argued that Evangelicalism must [...]