When I read an article by Seth Godin on the woes of book publishers recently, I couldn’t help but think about the similarities between the situation he describes and the challenges facing our congregations. His summary statement of the problem is striking: the challenge the big book publishers are facing is that a perfect industry is being replaced by one filled with chaos and opportunity. What does he mean by “perfect”? Simply that book publishers – and the stores that depended on them – enjoyed a monopoly on the means of producing and selling books. As he writes, Limited shelf space plus limited competitors plus...

Food is all the rage these days, especially concern about how bad so much of our food is. There’s the incredibly successful and compelling Supersize Me, the documentary following one man’s decision to eat only MacDonalds meals and the devastating effects it has on his body. More recently, HBO produced The Weight of the Nation. Today’s “Wednesday TED Talk” turns the spotlight on British chef turned media personality Jamie Oliver, who has been on a crusade for several years now to change the way we eat. More specifically, he is trying to change the way we feed our children. Oliver is one of the few folks in the...