If you’d told me even four months ago if I would be really looking forward to the return of AMC’s The Walking Dead for the second half of its fifth season, I would have thought you were crazy. I couldn’t, quite frankly, figure out the growing cultural fascination with zombies. Really? Slow moving, mindless creatures that eat whatever living thing they can find and can only be killed with a terminal shot to the brain? I just didn’t get it. But then one friend kept mentioning what a great show it was, and another told me that if I could get through the first episode with lots of shooting zombies in the head, I’d be hooked. And,...

Dear Partner in Preaching, Well, it was another thrilling match-up. All the players had prepared well, sparing no expense in terms of time and effort. The stakes were high; the competition was fierce; and the whole world watched…. And, no, I’m not talking about the Super Bowl, but rather the Super Bowl commercials! I have to admit, though, that as much as I found the Budweiser puppy endearing and the Katie Couric/Bryant Gumble BMW commercial clever, nothing really equaled the uplifting quality of last year’s Duracell commercial featuring Derrick Coleman of the Seattle Seahawks. Do you remember that one? At a young age, Derrick lost his...

In any endeavor you attempt, there are always limitations. Sometimes there are the limitations of the context and circumstances, sometimes of the actors. But there are always limitations. Which isn’t always a bad thing. Limitations set boundaries, define the terms of engagement, and can actually promote creativity. What I find interesting about limitations, however, is how often we set them without even knowing it. And often these kinds of limitations are artificial, at best, and often both unnecessary and unhelpful. This kind of limitation is not likely to be productive because it prematurely closes down possibilities and restricts our...

I’ll start with a confession: for the better part of the last five years I’ve been losing confidence in preaching. This isn’t a commentary on the preaching I’ve been hearing, I should be clear, as I’ve been quite fortunate to worship in several congregations with engaging preachers. Rather, it’s preaching in general in which I’ve lost confidence, my own preaching included. Why? Two main reasons. First, as I look around at the culture, the form and shape of our preaching seems increasingly out of touch. In a culture that is increasingly participatory, our preaching is still primarily a monologue. In a culture passionate about...