This past week while traveling, I started reading James Carroll’s Christ Actually: The Son of God for the Secular Age. While I spend most of my time on planes writing – emails, mostly, occasionally a post, not nearly enough just writing – I like to have a book with me during takeoff and landing, those times when “laptop computers must be shut.” Carroll, NY Times bestselling author of Constantine’s Sword picks up in this book his exploration of the relationship between Christians and Jews. But this time it’s less historical investigation than it is personal memoir combined with some biblical study...

I love words. Working with them, sharing my thoughts through them with others, receiving ideas and inspiration from others through them. Words are powerful. And I have to confess that, because I love words, I sometimes think I have to protect them. That is, I will admit that from time to time I get frustrated by made-up words, by what is often called a neologism (literally, “a new word”). For instance, and taking an example from my own line of work, I kind of despise the word “missional.” Even though I often use it. But it bothers me. There’s an inelegance to “missional,” I would argue, that is unnecessary and unhelpful, so why...