The artist, the educator and the therapist walk different paths in different ways, but those paths meet at an intersection where the street sign says: You must change your life.For we do not go to the artist, the educator or the therapist to remain the same; we go to them to be given the vision and the tools to go on, and to go on is always to change. ~Michael Ventura, “Teacher as Healer” I think Michael Ventura’s words could be applied to preachers as well, but I wonder if preachers sometimes forget. Preachers may worry, that is, not simply about what expectations people bring to their sermons, but in this age of declining...

Karl Barth on occasion referred to “secular parables,” cultural artifacts produced by non-Christians (or Christians not attempting to point directly to their faith) that nevertheless bore witness to the truth of the God we know best through Jesus. I love that phrase. Which is a little odd, as I’m not normally a huge fan of the sacred-secular distinction. Often that distinction is used in a way that feels to me very limiting and, moreover, I’ve often wondered just what is not sacred to the God who comes in Jesus to redeem in love. Be that as it may, I still love that phrase. Perhaps it’s because Barth, one of the most influential...