Because I love grand fiction that involves the creation of other “worlds” – Tolkien’s Middlearth or Lewis’ Narnia or Collins’ Panem – I found this animated video from TED-Ed really interesting. The question that bestselling children’s author Kate Messner seeks to answer in it is, “How do you build an alternative world that people will find believable?” Her answer has a lot to do not just with stories per se, but with us: we humans who are to the core deeply narrative creatures. Because narrative has the benefit of ordering events in a way that makes sense – that doesn’t mean it’s right, mind you, or the only way to...

Churches that stem from the Reformation have for centuries valued and cultivated an educated clergy. We have sought out persons with gifts for ministry and supported them to go to college and seminary. As a result, we have been blessed with generations of capable, profession leaders. Yet while this has benefited us as a church tremendously, one of the unintended consequences of such competent leadership has been a loss of skill and confidence among those our pastors lead. That is, because we can rely so completely on the skill of the pastor – whether to lead a Bible study, interpret Scripture, or pray – the rest of us haven’t had to...