Don’t worry, if you’re not familiar with the term “digital pluralism” you’re not behind the times, out of touch, or manifestly uncultured. Trust me, I should know, as I made this term up! 🙂 What I mean by talking of digital pluralism is to recognize that we live in an era when multiple stories, worldviews, traditions, convictions, and versions of reality now circulate, and even compete, with each other largely because of the advent of digital communication. Think about it in terms of this analogy: a generation ago we had “the Big Three” in television which, truth be told, mostly featured all the...

This past summer I ended up taking an unanticipated partial sabbatical from blogging. While I had taken part or all of the summer off in previous years, this summer I had hoped actually to catch up on writing in this space and a few others after a full, hectic, and blessed first year at LTSP. Alas, that wasn’t to happen. The summer was busier, and I was more tired, than I’d anticipated and apart from the weekly “Dear Partner” posts for preachers, I ended up writing exactly nothing. Once I realized that was the way things were going to roll, I intended to start up again after Labor Day. But then classes...

I am a huge fan of This American Life. Their story-based journalism is so rich, so true, so deeply human that on any given Monday (when the new podcast drops) I will listen on the commute to or from work and will regularly be moved from raucous laughter (alone…in my car…really) to tears as they offer up these incredible slivers of light into what it means to be human. This week’s podcast is a recording of a live show they recently did at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Opera House, and while I’d commend the whole show (audio and, this week, video!), it’s really just one of the opening lines from host and producer Ira...

A few weeks ago, I asked whether the church was really declining. That may seem like an odd question, given the constant bemoaning of attendance and membership declines in mainline congregations, but I pointed to the unparalleled growth of Christianity across the rest of the globe as indicating that perhaps our vision is at times to narrow when we consider God’s work in and through the church. This time, I’d like to suggest that we also at times unnecessarily narrow our vision when thinking about God’s work through the church by limiting our imagination only to congregations. When we do this, we overlook the profound...

I found the following thoughts by Seth Godin provocative: At the congregation down the street, they’re doing things the way they’ve done them for the last few hundred years. Every week, people come, attracted by familiarity, by the family and friends around them, part of a tribe.   And just past that building is another one, a different tribe, where the tradition is more than a thousand years old.   This is not so different from that big company that used to be an internet startup, but all the original team members have long left the building. Work tomorrow has a lot in common with work yesterday, and the safety of it...