What’s the last great book you read? You know what I mean, the kind of book that you wanted to take with you on vacation to read while at the beach or lake. Or maybe it’s the book you just couldn’t put down after work, or stayed up at night to finish, or wanted to share with a friend. That’s an awesome experience, isn’t it? When you just lose yourself in a book and the story stays with you way after you’ve finished the last page and closed the cover. Book designer Adam Greene wants people to have that kind of experience with the Bible. Because, let’s face it, most of us don’t. But while many of us assume the problem is either...

Do you feel called? Two things prompt this question: 1) As I’ve talked with both clergy and everyday Christians (my preferred term to lay people), I’ve been struck by a deep divide over the issue of vocation. Not about whether vocation is a great idea – who could argue that all Christians are called by God in Baptism to participate with God in caring for the world. Rather, the divide is two-fold. First, most pastors feel called by God to what they do, while most everyday Christians do not. Second, most pastors assume their people feel called, in part because they preach and teach about vocation, while most everyday Christians...

Church camps are, in my opinion, one of the treasures of the church, a treasure that is simultaneously highly valued and grossly undervalued. It’s valued by those thousands of persons who had their faith nurtured at camp, had their leadership skills strengthened at camp, and had their identity stretched and enriched at camp. At the same time, I don’t think outdoor ministries receive nearly the support they deserve from congregations or adjudicatories (synods, presbyteries, conferences, etc.) that they deserve. I understand, of course, that there are numerous demands on the dwindling resources of church bodies, but I’d argue that we...

Here’s the simple but just a little troubling question I’ve been wrestling with since participating in Luther Seminary’s recent Rethinking Faith Formation conference: Given how many other groups and movements legitimately lay claim to our allegiance today, can the Church ever expect to exert the level of influence in our lives that it once did? Let me explain: in medieval times the Church was everything and everywhere – involved in politics, in control of the banks, the arbiter of salvation (or damnation), the final authority on all matters of domestic and public life. The omnipresence of the Church has been declining for...

We tend to do a fair amount of our grocery shopping at Whole Foods. (Yes, I know the jokes about “whole paycheck,” but we’re loyal.) One of things I’ve noticed about shopping there is that whenever I can’t find something and ask for help, the employee I ask stops whatever he or she is doing to take me to the item I’m looking for. And this happens even when I say that I can find it on my own if they just tell me the isle. But they insist. Actually, they don’t insist or make a big deal of it. They just take me there. It’s clear this isn’t by accident, as this happens every single time. (And, yes, I seem to have a hard time...

Do you ever worry about your prayer life? Actually, let me phrase that another way. When on those occasional moments that you think about your prayer life, do you feel like it’s inadequate? If so, then you’re in the same boat that I am. And, as it turns out, with Frederick Buechner as well. I take some comfort in that, as Buechner is one of my favorite authors and theologians. (His book Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale is one of my favorite reads of all time, any genre, and absolutely my favorite book on preaching.) And so to hear him describe his prayers as scattered and as mumbles and to confess his own...