Reaching Out to Young Adults Will Screw Up Your Church

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May 24 52

While many churches say “we want young people” they don’t really. If young adults actually showed up and joined their church for good, the change they’d naturally bring with them would be stark, even off-putting. In fact, making a congregation welcoming for young adults necessarily means it will get less comfortable for the current members.

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Ready. Set. Speak! & Relax

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May 21 2

It was late and one chair sat empty when I got an uneasy feeling in my stomach. Looking at the panelists seated up front, I knew the speaker from the Jewish tradition, the Islamist, and the Buddhist were present. By process of elimination, I figured the other two occupying their chairs were the Hindu and [...]

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Rev. Wright Redux: A Conversation Worth Having

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May 20

Note: this piece was written in the initial hours after the NY Times story broke, but for some unknown reason did not go live on Huffington Post until this evening. So, apologies for missing the news cycle. And, also, for not addressing more recent events and commentary. Post originally published here, at HuffPost religion. I’ve [...]

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NPR, Same-sex marriage, Lutherans, & the Bible

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May 14 3

President Obama, by citing his Christian faith as contributing to his “evolution” on same-sex marriage, instigated a blip in media coverage of religion and the Bible. Many Christians have jumped at the opportunity to quote scripture and preach “Christian marriage” but it’s not a simple message. NPR’s Barbara Bradley Hagerty’s coverage May 11, “Same Bible, [...]

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Review: Rachel Wagner’s, “Godwired”

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May 10 0

This post is a final review for part of my Independent Study in Religious Communication and Digital Life at the University of North Dakota. See a description of the course here. Links to reviews of the other books I read are below. My term paper is being turned in today, and I have yet to [...]

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Mark Vitalis Hoffman on technology and the body of Christ

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May 9 3

My day has arrived to be featured on the Religion and Media Blog Tour 2012 with Professor Mark Vitalis Hoffman (website, blog), Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. (More information and a listing of all the tour stops here.) In August, LTSG, in partnership with Luther Seminary, will launch of [...]

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Pastors on Facebook…twice?!

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May 7 16

Over the past few weeks I’ve interviewed 11 pastors (well, that includes a few “church leaders” who aren’t technically “pastors”) for a paper I’m writing on pastors who use multiple Facebook accounts — one account for professional purposes and another (often more hidden account) for personal purposes. I’m still compiling my research and making it [...]

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Acts 8:26-40, Castrating Our Customs

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May 2 0

An exegetical essay of mine went up today at ON Scripture, a wonderful project of public theology hosted by Odyssey Networks. The project has a partnership with Huffington Post’s Religion work, so it also appears at that site. I’m going to start regularly posting some essays at my new Huffington Post portal which, honestly, is [...]

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Blog Tour on Religion and Media

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Apr 30 0

Today marks the start of a Blog Tour on Religion and Media organized by the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. The tour on Religion and Media will run April 30 – May 11 and is intended “to engage in a wide-ranging conversation with bloggers and their readers on issues related to religion and media.” This [...]

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