“How can we oppose evil without creating new evils and being made evil ourselves?”–Walter Wink

This is from The Paradox of Choice.
When people have no choice, life is almost unbearable. As the number of available choices increases, as it has in our consumer culture, the autonomy, control, and liberation this variety brings are powerful and positive. But as the number of choices keeps growing, negative aspects of having a multitude […]

Challenging words from Alan Roxburgh:

If we want to discern the emergent work of God, we’ve got to ask, Where are the most God-forsaken places today? Let me suggest to you, one of the most God-forsaken place for us, is the local congregation. Why? They don’t get it. They don’t understand any of this stuff. They […]

This is the best “The Way I See It” quote I’ve seen on a Starbucks cup so far:
People don’t read enough. And what reading we do is cursory, without absorbing the subtleties and nuances that lie deep within–Wow, you’ve stopped paying attention, haven’t you? People can’t even read a coffee cup without drifting off.
David Shore–Creator […]

I’m finishing up my 34th birthday.  It’s been a good one.  I’ve spent a good portion of the day reading and thinking.  Heather and I just had dinner at our favorite restaurant in the Tulsa area.  A nice piece of cheesecake and a batch of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies await.
Every year, I try to […]

My post about John Stackhouse reminded me of a passage from his book Humble Apologetics that has stuck with me for several years.  It comes at the end of a chapter on conversion.  In the chapter, he deals with our role as evangelists/apologists in the conversion process and how we can best approach/treat people who […]

Check out Fred’s interview with Mike Frost over at Wineskins.
I guess the question for my American readers, that will only make sense if you read the quote below, is do you agree with Frost? Is that day really coming for us?
More than that, one of the benefits of my being Australian is that while […]

The range of what we think and do
Is limited by what we fail to notice
And because we fail to notice
That we fail to notice
There is little we can do
To change
Until we notice
How failing to notice
Shapes our thoughts and deeds
–R. D. Laing

From How (Not) to Speak of God:
We see here that seeking God is not some provisional activity which precedes the goal of finding, but is itself evidence of having already found. Rather than being fulfilled in the presence of God, religious desire is born there. In short, a true spiritual seeking can be […]

I’m not a huge baseball fan, but I usually tune in for the World Series. I really don’t care who wins this year, but I’ve got more friends pulling for the Cards than for the Tigers. This forces me to root for the Tigers. Besides, if the Tigers are good enough for […]