The ongoing pain for so many in our culture today has led some to adapt the stock greeting “How are you doing?”/ “I’m fine” into something more honest, more vulnerable, more reflective of the moment. “Frankly, I don’t know how I am doing until I...
Where is the tipping point between doing faithful work on behalf of your church and thinking it all depends on you? Not just you individually, but your whole board? You don’t want to let your fellow congregants down and you certainly don’t want to let...
In the 1910s and 1920s, four of the most influential figures of their era—Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs—began taking yearly camping trips together. They called themselves “The Vagabonds.” Imagine it: the man who perfected the assembly line, the genius of electric light, the...
“When you’re explaining, you’re losing.” Politicians of all stripes like to use this simple statement, often attributed to Ronald Reagan, as a guide to commanding attention and winning votes. A 2024 survey asked over 3,000 new car buyers how much a test-drive entered into their car-buying...
The purpose of a beehive isn’t to produce honey. Honey is the by-product of a healthy hive. -Seth Godin When you joined your church board, you may have been told – with all sincerity – that your job is to produce honey. Well, not the sticky sweet essence...
Conversations with church leaders these days often turn to Gen Z (those aged 13-28) and the inevitable question, How do we get them engaged in our church? Sometimes we get to hear what their congregations have already tried, including the use of screens, innovations in...
Restaurants are returning to candles. Real candles – not the pretend kind with the fake flame, but the waxy kind with the live flame – the live flame you have to light by hand, and re-light by hand when it goes out, and watch very...
In the Gospel of Mark’s version of the Feeding of the 5000, before Jesus blesses the loaves and fishes, he invites the vast crowd to sit down in smaller groups (Mark 6:39-40). Why the interim step? There are thousands to feed. Why bother with small...
The movie Amadeus features a memorable scene in which Emperor Joseph II approaches Mozart after the premiere of his opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail and awkwardly suggests that Mozart uses “too many notes.” A perplexed Mozart responds, “There are just as many notes as...