I have been seriously remiss with regard to my promise a week or two ago to write a bit more about Theodor Seuss Geisel, the beloved author better known as Dr. Suess. But while I won’t fulfill that promise in full, I will share just a bit about one of his most famous creations. Geisel, as you may know, thought that children’s books – particularly those designed to encourage reading – where a bit of a travesty: dull, unimaginative, boring. (And if you ever had to sit down with the “Dick and Jane” stories you’ll know what he meant!). And so he set out to rectify matters by taking a basic set of 225 vocabulary words that were the...

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...

Describing Christian ministry as “relational” is not new. Since at least the 1970s, church leaders and authors have been inviting us to more relational ministry. But what kind of relationship did this paradigm assume? That’s the very important question that Andrew Root asks at the outset of his new book, The Relational Pastor: Sharing in Christ by Sharing Ourselves. [A quick but important disclosure: Andy is a colleague and good friend, and we’ve discussed many of the elements of the book while running together through our neighborhood. So I’m more than a little predisposed to recommend his book. Nevertheless, I really do think...

Fourth Friday Film Forum: Silver Linings Playbook To be a person, my friend Andy Root says in his wonderful new book The Relational Pastor, is to be broken. Most of us probably don’t like the sound of that too much, but there is surprising power and freedom in admitting it’s true. For once we stop trying constantly to pretend that we have it all together, that life is just as we want it to be, and that we don’t really need anyone else, then we can open ourselves up to the power of authentic and transformative relationship. While I’ll review Andy’s book more thoroughly soon, I thought of it as I prepared to write about what was one...

Because I love grand fiction that involves the creation of other “worlds” – Tolkien’s Middlearth or Lewis’ Narnia or Collins’ Panem – I found this animated video from TED-Ed really interesting. The question that bestselling children’s author Kate Messner seeks to answer in it is, “How do you build an alternative world that people will find believable?” Her answer has a lot to do not just with stories per se, but with us: we humans who are to the core deeply narrative creatures. Because narrative has the benefit of ordering events in a way that makes sense – that doesn’t mean it’s right, mind you, or the only way to...

I’ve always been something of a “quiet” Aaron Rodgers fan. Quiet simply because, having lived in the Twin Cities for the past thirteen years, I root heart and soul for the Vikings and, well, Rodgers quarterbacks the Vikings’ arch rival Green Bay. But still, after the Vikings, when it comes to the NFC North Conference, I root for the Packers. (Not only do I think you should root for your rivals if they beat you and go into post season play – you only look better if they succeed 🙂 – but I love that Green Bay is owned by the fans.) More than that, I thought Rodgers endured a lot during the post-Brett Farve years and handled it...