This past Sunday we took the unusual step of distributing and completing a survey during our worship gathering.At all four services, we took ten minutes and worshipped by completing a snapshot questionnaire that helps us gauge where we are most (and least) effective...
Having grown up in Texas and lived most of my adult life in North Carolina, I've had no small amount of exposure to Southern Rock.It's not my favorite genre of music by a long shot. It's also not very easy to define.I mean, who exactly qualifies as a Southern...
I peeked in at the NFL Draft Coverage on a couple of different occasions this past weekend.As you would expect, there was bloviating galore from the experts on which teams were winners in the draft, which were losers; which prospects are can't miss and which are...
As many of you know the bible's division into chapters and verses is a much later addition to the Scriptural texts. You can read the story of how the medieval church gradually implemented these reader aids here.Because that work came at least 1,000 years after...
Bill Simmons, who is a Boston-bred, ESPN-based author and columnist, has written the definitive history of the NBA with his The Book Of Basketball.In this, the quickest 800 page read of my life, Simmons is in turn unfiltered, poignant, statistical, profane,...
Heath Bradley is a teaching pastor and emerging scholar based out of the Pulaski Heights UMC in Little Rock, Arkansas.We have become cyber-friends and he invited me to use this blog to review his new book, Flames Of Love: Hell & Universal Salvation.So, here...
This post reveals two things: 1) I am a perennial English major (dream job other than the dream job I have: wearing tweed jackets with elbow patches & teaching English lit somewhere; 2) I am technologically inept. The hardcover/paperback distinctions...
During yesterday's message, I read a quote from New York Times columnist David Brooks.That in itself is not that unusual, as from time to time I'll read an item about the subject at hand from any number of scholars, observers, pastors, and thinkers.This particular...
Shows that are better as re-runs than they ever were as first-runs:Gilligan's IslandLaw & OrderLeave It To BeaverLaw & Order Criminal IntentI Dream Of JeanieLaw & Order SVUThe MunstersLaw & Order LA Saved By The BellLaw & Order Crosby Still...
In her memoir Lots Of Candles, Plenty Of Cake, Anna Quindlen offers these reflections on marriage, longevity, and parenting:If a marriage is to endure over time, it has to be because both people within it have tacitly acknowledged something that young lovers might...