After a few emails and comments, I realized that I could have been much clearer on the difference between transformation and tweaking things. One question in particular was most helpful and ran, in several forms, something like this: Isn’t there a time for tweaking? Or, can tweaking things prepare for transformation. In short, the reply to the former is “absolutely,” while the reply to the latter is “rarely.” Both answers hinge completely on the nature of your context. When the context is relatively stable, even though there may be significant changes and challenges at hand, the task is to figure out what has not been working in an...

Everyone wants transformational change. Congregations, the church at large, companies, public schools, the government, colleges and seminaries… The list could go on. Two reasons, I think, explain this desire. First, we know that a lot of the ways “we’ve always done it” aren’t working anymore. Whether it’s the way our congregations are run, our seminaries educate leaders, our companies make a profit in a way that serves customers and is environmentally sustainable, our government functions, etc. – we have this deep sense and suspicion that just enough has changed in our world that we also need to change – really change – to...

With a little luck, I’ll get home later today after four wonderful but crazy trips strung together, multiple (okay, too many!) take-offs and landings with a sinus infection, cold and/or inclement weather just about everywhere I travelled, and several delayed and/or cancelled flights. Because of the aforementioned, I haven’t had as much time as I’d like to work on the blog over the last two weeks, but I did come across this charming video briefly illustrating the history of St. Valentine, for whom this day is named. Truth be told, almost nothing is known for certain about Valentine, but given that history is far more about stories than...

Vocation – the belief that all of God’s people are called to lives of purpose, service, and meaning – has always been one of the most important theological convictions to me. But, as I’ve learned through several years of research funded by the Lilly Endowment, it is also one of the least understood or actualized. Many, many of our people who listen to teaching and preaching about vocation regularly nevertheless report that they do not feel called. That is, they do not see their work and play and volunteering and everyday relationships as things of particular concern to God and the church, let alone view them as arenas of God’s...