Breaking Radio Silence

Breaking radio silence. The end of summer just got away from me. It’s not that I stopped existing. It’s not that even stopped caring. It just got away from me. But it’s a deviation from the norm that has re-initiated my drive to keep writing. I was leaving a conference in Asheville, North Carolina to […]

An Empty Toolbox

“Someone help! I’m choking. I… can’t… breathe!” These words pierced the cacophony of conversations—a myriad of voices at a local restaurant—each forced to talk louder than the next to be heard over the live music and other conversations swirling about the room full of happy patrons at tables. Yet, above the indistinguishable chatter of people […]

Neighbor Your Neighbor

“Let’s all go around and say our name, and our favorite thing about our neighborhood.” Ice-breakers are perpetually awkward. Not the high school-first-homecoming-don’t-know-where-to-put-my-hands-slow-dance sort of awkward… but they are undoubtedly uncomfortable. Nevertheless, the “say something about your neighborhood” tactic is one I routinely employ at the on-going conversations on missional engagement that I am invited […]

Crocodile Church

My house was a zoo growing up. No really… like, a literal zoo. My dad, for reasons I still don’t know, developed a passion for collecting animals—a passion for animals that I can thankfully say rubbed off on me. However, my dad’s propensity toward animals favored the cold-blooded, rare, potentially lethal (and, consequently, those in […]

Playing with Our Food: A Sharp Look at the Church

[Disclaimer: This post is provocative and likely controversial.] As a child, my dad lied to me. At each meal, I would find a myriad of less-than-desirable foods on my plate. Under my dad’s tutelage, I’d be encouraged to ingest pears, cantaloupe, and beets alike with the promise that they were “nature’s candy.” My mind would […]

Mourning is a Gift

I want to suggest that God wants us to mourn. This may seem like a provocative statement to make—especially in the landscape of the Church’s subtle insistence that the merit of following Jesus is based on his faithfulness to take one’s problems away. After all, isn’t the culminating vision of the Kingdom one in which […]

Panhandling for Value

If you’ve spent any time in the city, any city for that matter, then you have no doubt seen this image. Hordes of people make their way from one location to another. They clamor from the stadium to the car. They meander from one bar to the next. To be honest, the origins and destinations […]

Putting the Bowl Back on the Table

For four years running, I have gathered with my friends at the same dark bar every Wednesday night at the same time. It’s a dark bar. It’s a dirty bar. I would dare describe it as an ugly bar. But it is not a sleazy bar. The dimly lit room is cozy. The peanut shells […]