There is a simplicity to Laurel Blossom’s “Red Balloon Rising” that I find strangely evocative. Perhaps it’s that we celebrated my daughter’s birthday this past week. When she was much younger part of our birthday preparations would be driving together to the...
34. Mark 15:29-32
posted by DJL
Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!” In the same way the chief priests, along with the scribes, were also mocking him among themselves and saying,...
I Don’t Know, Pt. 3
posted by DJL
This is the third post on reclaiming the power of saying “I don’t know.” In the first I suggested that when we can’t admit when we don’t know the answer, but always have to come up with one, we’re far more likely to give inaccurate information and, perhaps worse, fail to seize opportunities for learning. In the second post I suggested that we might encourage each other to admit when we have things to learn by considering the possibility that intelligence isn’t simply a measure of the stuff you know but of the stuff you know you don’t know, and therefore are eager to learn. Today I want to offer one more thing: that reclaiming...
33. 15:25-27
posted by DJL
It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. The inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” And with him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left. In case you were wondering why Jesus died, or how this teacher, preacher, and...
From Performative to Participatory Preaching
posted by DJL
ChurchNext is the website and ministry of Chris Yaw, who spent the first part of his professional life as an interviewer and broadcaster in radio and television. Now an Episcopal priest, Chris uses those same skills to interview leaders, change agents, and skilled practitioners and harvest what they know to make it available to all leaders in the church, lay and ordained. A few weeks ago Chris interviewed me – I’m not sure which of those above categories I fit into 🙂 – and he’s just posted the fruits of the conversation we had via Skype on his site. My topic: moving from performative preaching toward more participatory...