It seems like the relative demise of denominations is in the air. Several significant blog posts and articles have been published recently that move forward the argument I made a few weeks ago that denominations may be on the way out, though in somewhat different directions. Before engaging those, though, I want to clarify one thing: I’m not in any sense anti-denominational. That is, I still think denominations do a lot of great work, particularly when it comes to organizing both the needs and strengths of their thousands of congregations. Which means that when it comes to everything from training leaders for the church to organizing...

I can’t embed this video, I can only direct you to it. But I hope you click the link, give the 90 seconds it takes to watch it, and then send it on to others. It’s incredible. The video is a powerful and inspiring preview of the coming Paralympics Games in London later this summer. The Paralympics, if you are not yet familiar with them, is an international competition that includes athletes with motion disabilities, cognitive impairment, blindness, cerebral palsy, and amputations, among other things. The first organized competitions were started by some disabled veterans of World War II and have grown over the last half-century...

In recent weeks we’ve considered happiness from a variety of perspectives: what makes us happy, what doesn’t, and why we’re so bad at distinguishing between the two. Sometimes the insights offered have been surprising: turns out that getting more stuff or making loads of money doesn’t make us happy, while giving money away does. In this TEDTalk, Dan Pink — author of one of my favorites books in recent years, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future — offers another surprise: contrary to popular wisdom, we are rarely motivated or made happy by the traditional rewards and carrots of...

If you’re at all familiar with Peter Rollins’ work, you know that he is one of the church’s more provocative writers and thinkers. Author of How (Not) to Speak of God and Insurrection: To Believe Is Human To Doubt, Divine, Pete is particularly gifted at shocking us into looking at our lives and the gospel – and especially our lives in light of the gospel! – in a new way. In this video from the great folks at Work of the People, Pete says the church reminds him a little too much of a crack house. That is, people take drugs to escape their pain – they’ve ended a relationship, didn’t get the job...