As I’m preparing to start a new series at Otter Creek this morning (Following Jesus), I have been thinking about this conversation I had with Brian McLaren about a year ago.

“Well . . . it’s a door . . . but it’s not a door. You know what I mean.” This is just too perfect. My friend, Adam Hill, one of the best teachers of N.T. Christianity I know, showed this to me.

Assumption: Post-moderns would never go door knocking.
Not so fast.
For the last two years, I’ve heard a whisper as I drive down Avon Road coming/going to the synagogue (a.k.a. the Rochester Church building) . . . “What does it look like to live locally for Jesus? What does it look like to live locally here, in [...]

Sometimes ministers wish for a do-over. We find ourselves in some of the most awkward conversations at some of the strangest times of the day. I recall as a graduate student in Nashville on my way to preach for a church early one Sunday morning. I was driving my little Saturn Ion from Nashville into [...]

Tonight, I ate dinner with my friend George. George is a minister from South Africa. A great thinker, George is able to make things simple without simplifying. It dawned on me as we sat down to eat dinner and watch North Carolina vs Clemson, that I don’t know how in the world I would explain [...]

I use the phrases “personal piety” and “social justice” not because I personally use them often but because I hear them used often by theologians, ministers, students, and other people interested in religious/spiritual conversations.
I’ve noticed that people who are primarily passionate about personal piety (reading the bible, devotionals, keeping a journal and other daily rituals) [...]