Dear Partner in Preaching, Anyone interested in talking about prejudice and racism this Sunday? What about gay marriage? My guess is that a few – probably a very few – of us can’t wait to talk about just these things because they are passions of ours. My other guess is that most of us would rather not. And that we’ve got lots of very good reasons not to. These issues are too controversial, too painful, too divisive. And, perhaps above and beyond these reasons, we know that people don’t come to church to talk about these things. But here’s the thing: People are talking about them. With friends, with family members, with...

I count myself among the lucky in that I stumbled upon Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games shortly after it was published and so had a chance to read it, love it, and recommend it to others way before the film buzz. (Of course, that also meant that I had to wait a full year in between each of the successive two volumes!) Since then, I’ve been wondering about the phenomenal appeal of this book. Not only is it tremendously popular but it’s been one of the stories that has most stayed with me in recent years (indeed, I’ve read it a couple of times now). I’ve also been wondering about how we might read it with our kids (both in our families...

Helicopter parents. We’ve been hearing about them for a few years now. These are the parents that “swoop in” – hence the name – to check in on, and take care of, their kids even after they go to college and, more recently, enter the workforce. They have become the new norm for colleges to contend with – checking up on their kids’ food, dorm conditions, performance, and more. Indeed, the term “in loco parentis” (Latin for “in the place of parents”) seems all but obsolete as part of the description of college officials, as the parents never seem to be absent for long. Except that by and large these parents aren’t there...