It’s one thing to say “we’re in this together.” It’s another thing entirely to practice “belonging” and pay the kind of price required to actually broaden one’s tent; to include people who would just as soon exclude or eliminate you from the socio-cultural mix altogether. For many years now, Ben McBride has been doing the … Read More
This episode airs in February of 2020 and gyms all over the country are wrapping up their New Year’s deals to entice newcomers. It’s a poorly kept secret in the fitness world that most gyms (24 hr Fitness, Planet Fitness and the like) harvest the majority of their memberships in January and then.. come February … Read More
“Thank you,” at its root, isn’t just the acknowledgment of a goods/services exchange; it is the recognition that there is a person on the the other side of that exchange. The word “thank” shares a Latin root with the word “think.” That makes the phrase “Thank you” actually mean something more like “I think of … Read More
In a recent poll of Australians, 70% of those polled claimed to mistrust religious leaders. Of course, I don’t spend a lot of time searching Australian polling data. I saw this because I pay attention to author and missiologist Michael Frost. Michael, has spent much the past two decades tilting his ear towards those who live well beyond … Read More
In his early letters to Jesus followers the Apostle Paul regularly and specifically warned against a religious philosophy called Gnosticism. In short, Gnosticism valued immaterial things and particular devalued the human body. Over 2000 years later, it seems to me that disembodiment of various kinds continues to pose a threat, not just to a healthy … Read More
I honestly thought I had a pretty solid pace going. But I was soon passed by a group on younger men, probably from the local HighSchool. They were wearing new shoes and no shirts. I picked up the pace a bit when they passed, almost by instinct… but found myself gasping for air and once … Read More
I spend a lot of my time and energy actively imagining what the practice of faith looks like “tomorrow.” That is to say, I started creating and helping create religious culture over 25 years ago and I’m deeply invested in what the practice of faith will look like 25 years from now. I want to … Read More
The power of those who identify, translate and communicate current events is truly massive; sometimes frighteningly so. In 1978, Science fiction writer Philip K. Dick warned against the power of what he called “the media,” writing… “I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the … Read More
It can be hard to recognize the difference between being useful and being used. It’s hard to love well when the missteps that often come naturally with relationships can be held against you and sometimes threaten your job. It’s hard to be transparent and vulnerable when you know some folks will read it as weakness … Read More
Just about every morning, i snap these cuffs onto my wrist. The brown one reads “Born of a broken man but not a broken man.” Lyrics Zach de la Rocha wrote about his father and the way bad religion had twisted him. I wear it as a way to remember (and by grace, transcend) the … Read More
