I think ironies make life interesting unless they become cause for cynicism. One of those ironies is our spending a full day of thanksgiving with our attention on gratitude and blessings whole families volunteering to feeding the poor at the Salvation Army or a homeless shelter and so far the retail industry has not figured out a way to turn the focus to presents cards and extravagance – other than food. Still a whole population of shoppers cannot be content with a day of rest and a consumer economy counting on a 24 hour splurge for 40% of their annual revenue cannot allow more than a single day to celebrate…

Last week I attended the annual three day Faith Angle Conference conceived and hosted by Michael Cromartie the Vice President at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.  He also directs the Evangelicals in Civic Life program as well as having served on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom from 2006-2010.  (http://eppc.org/scholars/scholarid.10/scholar.asp).  It’s my good fortune that Mike invites me to sit on the “outer circle” of observers who are there to listen but not contribute to the discussion – except during the meals and breaks!  Every year has different themes and speakers but the format is consistent.  Three presenters make remarks and then the invited journalists and scholars are…

Some things run in the family. Years ago  author Pat McMillan (http://www.theperformancefactor.com/author.html) went to my father for advice about becoming a consultant.  Dad sat him down and did his best to discourage him with all the obstacles and hardships of building a consulting business and the likelihood of failure.  Fortunately Pat listened with respect and then went and built a very successful consulting business – Team Resources.  On my part I spent the better part of a lunch dissuading a young pastor from trying to build a ministry on some wild ideas he had about an innovative ministry he described as Mosaic.  Erwin McManus did exactly the same as Pat…

My church hosted David Zahl co-author of The Gospel According to Pixar and the founder of Mockingbird (www.mbird.com) in Charlottesville Virginia where he is on staff at Christ Episcopal Church.  The premise of the book is Pixar films have created high quality films that engage not only children but adults.  Moreover “the films tell compelling stories about love forgiveness fear loneliness identity etc. that provide vivid illustrations of how the Gospel interacts with real life.”  It’s ironic of course that animated films have been the vehicle for capturing the essence of many Christian themes and more importantly the possibility of redemption for everyone.  As well David talked about the “Nazareth…

I hardly ever read books ahead of time when I travel.  I don’t know why.  Most people prepare.  I “postpare” I guess.  I’ve been reading “God’s Continent” by Philip Jenkins (http://www.firstthings.com/article/2009/02/004-the-much-exaggerated-death-of-europe-16) after coming back from our Europe trip and he says something that makes sense – in a way that concerns me about our own church in America.  What happens when the “Christian social vision” is accomplished but is detached from the church?  What happens when the way we define that vision leads the way to the demise of people being engaged in the church?  “Living in a society that tries to achieve the Christian social vision – through a…

Nat Wei took on a challenge that was probably doomed to failure – to head the Big Society initiative of Prime Minister David Cameron aimed to reduce the role of the State and get local volunteers to provide more services and “to take power away from politicians and give it to the people.”  The Prime Minister in introducing it said it was “about changing the way our country is run.  No more of a government treating everyone like children…let’s treat adults like adults and give them responsibility over their lives.”  As well it was intended to make government date more accessible and to support social enterprises co-ops and innovations in…