Here is another pre-release endorsement of An Irreligious Faith: How to Starve Religion and Feed Life. Using his own personal story as a foundation, Glenn Hager writes insightfully about this thing we call “church.” He shows that while some people may have left the church as an organization, they have… Continue reading
Here’s the first pre-release endorsement of An Irreligious Faith: How to Starve Religion and Feed Life. Try to Imagine this scene. It’s 12 Billion BC. The Father, Son and Spirit are having a beer, planning how Jesus will save the world when The Holy Spirit has an unusual revelation. “Hey… Continue reading
Most of Jesus’ miracles were healings. He healed all manner of people, all different ways, from simply speaking the words, to a touch of his robe, to forgiving sins, to applying mud to blind eyes. He noticed those who were ignored, the outcasts, the beggars, and those who were simply… Continue reading
This is an excerpt of my newest book, Free Range Faith. What’s different about this book book is that I am writing it piece-by-piece here on the blog and I am asking for your comments along the way, so it will be a better book. So please share your thoughts and experiences.… Continue reading
This post is part of the September Synchroblog, entitled, “Loving Nature: Is God Green?” Links to the other contributors articles are listed at the end of this post. The Oblivious I have some interesting mental images of how certain unnamed family members, friends, and neighbors have violated my environmental sensibilities. It’s… Continue reading
I cannot help but see the stark contrast between Jesus and present day Christianity. It is almost as if they are two different faiths… one separated, cloistered its own subculture; the other, on the streets, in the slums, and the suburbs, alike. One, trying to be holy through self-improvement and dissociation,… Continue reading
Saturday, Patty and I hung out with prize hogs, bulls, rabbits, geese, goats, turkeys, and chickens (my personal favorite). Baby pigs vigorously tugged on their mommie for their dinner in front of amazed city folk who had little knowledge of the origins of their bacon. Chicks hatched before our very eyes.… Continue reading
Traditional publishing is rapidly giving way to self-publishing, also known as, independent publishing. For the author, independent publishing means total ownership of the entire project, larger royalties, and lots of responsibility for his own success. Guy Kawasaki compares writing, publishing, and marketing a book to beginning a business. If you… Continue reading
If you read the Gospels and you didn’t have any religious background, you would swear that Jesus was doing everything he could think of to agitate the religious establishment of his day. He wasn’t the ultimate hippie or some sort of crazed rebel; he knew exactly what he was doing.… Continue reading
Writing a book is hard. It takes a lot of time, discipline, and then there are the revisions. But that may be the easiest part. Candidly, it is the only part I have already done, but I am about to launch into the publishing and marketing phases for my book,… Continue reading
The sun is making my computer screen hard to see as I sit here at our patio table in the backyard. I feel good, especially good, since I had a run of several days last week when I didn’t feel well. I was not suffering from anything physical and, as… Continue reading
In Jesus day, the Old Testament scriptures had been interpreted very legalistically. Things were spelled out to take out all of the guess work about what it meant to obey (and what counted as sin). According to the Talmud, the 6,200 page rabbinical commentary on the Old Testament, there are… Continue reading
There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed. – Ernest Hemingway The best stuff comes from our soul. Only those who have been touched deeply can touch and move others deeply. Unfortunately, we hesitate to go there. We tend to guard that… Continue reading
.Penelope loved life and lived it at full throttle. She admired her daddy, emulating his mischievous little grin and his love of ornery escapades. There was an effervescence about her that, at times, just had to bubble over like a well-shaken bottle of Coke. After 9th grade gym class, her… Continue reading
I am a novice writer, learning by doing. I thought it would be fun and instructive to bring you along on my journey. So, here is what I have been learning. Much of this stuff I have read as advice and have tried to apply. Only write about things you… Continue reading
The vast array of scandals we have experienced the last few months has captured my attention like it has for so many other Americans. Here is the scandal roundup; at least some of the bigger, more recent ones. Former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford bested Elisabeth Colbert (sister of comedian… Continue reading
The Evangelical church became a political force in the eighties. Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and James Dobson began articulating a “Christian position” on issues of national interest. Interestingly, it was always the same as the Republican position. They began with moral issues, moved on to “family values”, and eventually had… Continue reading
Over 80% of people think they should write a book, most don’t. I believe almost everybody has a story worth telling and insights worth sharing, but not everybody should write a book. Here are some reasons not to write a book: To make a lot of money. There isn’t much… Continue reading
I have seen him many times and I have discovered that he is full of surprises and is very irreligious. I saw him when I looked out at Lake Michigan yesterday from the bluff in Port Washington, Wisconsin as the sun was illuminating our massive blue inland ocean. I saw… Continue reading
You probably know that I have written a book entitled, An Irreligious Faith that is currently being edited and will be published soon. This book is the fruit of my 25-year search to find a church that is that is relevant in today’s culture, truly compassionate toward outsiders and those… Continue reading
Your blog is essentially your personal website and platform for your writing, so it needs to be appealing in three ways: visually, functionally, and content. Visual What your blog looks like is determined by two factors, your theme which sets the parameters for developing your site and your ability to… Continue reading
This post is part of a synchrobog in which we recount our favorite prank. The links to the other writer’s contributions are listed at the end of this post. After work, the kids and I met Patty at Giordano’s, a deep dish, Chicago-style pizza place in a neighboring suburb. Upon… Continue reading
Blogging is the best way I know to begin writing. The craft is learned by doing and blogging provides the discipline of writing for someone else on a regular basis. I realize the technical issues may seem a little daunting to you, so I will help you get started. Your will… Continue reading
If you have determined, perhaps, somewhat tepidly, that you want to give writing a try, where do you begin? Certainly, you can open up a new Word document and write away for your own satisfaction. However, there are two significant limitations with that approach. Not many people will read what… Continue reading
I like senior citizens, perhaps because I am well on my way to becoming one. There are some ways in which I don’t like for people to act their age. Middle-aged people and older people that talk about their ailments and complain about taxes incessantly get on my nerves. But when… Continue reading
I became a writer as a pastor who wrote sermons. For about fifteen years, I never wrote out a sermon. It was too much work and wanted to keep the presentation spontaneous and real sounding. So, I used and an extended outline. When I did begin writing sermons out, surprisingly,… Continue reading
This month’s synchroblog theme is ordinary courage. Not to be confused with heroics, ordinary courage is the act of revealing our true heart. We usually call it vulnerability. The links to other posts on the topic are located at the end of this article. The most courageous thing we will… Continue reading
I wish Peter Faulk were still living and wearing his crumbled Colombo trench coat. I would love to hear him approach a church leader at a convention and say, “Excuse me, sir. Just one more question. Did Jesus come to start a religion?” Good question, detective. Religions have their sets of… Continue reading
This month’s synchroblog focuses on helping Christians know what to do (or not do) and what to say (or not say) when others are going through times of personal tragedy. Links to the other writer’s contributions are listed at the end of the post. You will want to check them… Continue reading
This is a book that hardly anybody wants to talk about. That alone makes it important. We don’t like talking about death or “having our affairs in order,” and we really don’t like delving into financial and personal business matters that involve the likes of the IRS. When Someone Dies… Continue reading
Even during my last few years as pastor, it seemed to me we had the wrong goal for the Christian life. My Charismatic friends seemed to think it was all about powerful manifestations of God. Speaking in tongues, prophecies, and healings were all the rage. For evangelicals, it seemed to… Continue reading
I am occasionally peaking in on the NASCAR race at Talladega Super Speedway today (Sunday) and that caused me to remember that life is full of restarts. For those of you who think that motor sports are for hicks and watching it on TV is a sure way to induce… Continue reading
During those transitional years, I had a very difficult time figuring out how to do evangelism. Some of the things I have been taught seemed like they cheapened the message by making evangelism all about information and presentation. It seems like there was very little consideration for the person, my… Continue reading
Figuring out what really pisses you off and agitates you can be very insightful because our motivations and passions flow from our deepest irritants and frustrations. Here are a few of my least favorite things. (I can hear Julie Andrews in my head.) Church programs that ignore the individuals they supposedly… Continue reading
This post is part of a synchroblog, entitled: “What If?” I will publish links to the other writers’ contributions on Wednesday. Here is a little more explanation. This month we invite you to play the ‘what if’ game with us. Try to imagine that some or all of the Bible… Continue reading
When you’re stumped, when you have writer’s block; write about that. That’s a paraphrase of what Bono said about said songwriting. I can always think of something to write about. This blog is evidence of that fact. But I do feel a little flat. I feel like I need a challenge,… Continue reading
I love Jesus’ response to the women caught as she was having sex with a man that she shouldn’t have been having sex with. Scooped up from the bedroom and thrown into the middle of a mob of self-righteous men, she cowered, quivering, ready for the first rock to hit her in… Continue reading
My book, An Irreligious Faith is now in the hands of my editor. Fortunately, she is not someone that a literary agent or publisher recommended. She is a friend and a gifted writer who gets what I am trying to do with the book. Besides correcting grammar and phraseology faux pas,… Continue reading
Yesterday, I tried to remove all evidences of winter from my property. I picked up the maple sticks that had fallen in the yard, as well as the dog poop. Both had been held in the icy clutches of the snow and re-frozen snow that became ice for months. I… Continue reading
Several years ago when I read, A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren, my faith was shaken. I finished the book with far more questions than I had when I began the book. One of my struggles was how to regard the Bible. I wondered, “Is it some sort… Continue reading
Good Friday sucked. The original one was filled with brutality, torture, confusion, doubt, guilt, fear, and oppressive grief. My Good Friday began in a cemetery in a military chapel beside one of those massive fields with their row after row of tidy white grave markers of veterans. The seats in the… Continue reading
When I was a pastor, the Sunday morning service was the thing. We brainstormed, planned, practiced, studied, rehearsed, and critiqued, trying to get it just right. It consumed huge blocks of time every week. We wanted to create an impression and elicit a specific response. It was theater. There are parts… Continue reading
At one of the churches we attended, the pastoral staff frequently attended conferences. That resulted in a church that flowed on the tides of the latest trends espoused by the mega-churches and their gurus. This church was forever tweaking their mission statement, ministry names, and structures. At the newcomers’ lunches… Continue reading
“Dad” Lewis, the owner of the hardware store in town, does not have many weeks left. He is dying of lung cancer. He has always been a man of few words who was not known for his compassion. His faithful wife is worn out and exhausted from taking care of… Continue reading
Assumptions “It seems to me Democrats (Liberals) want to help people and Republicans (Conservatives) want to help people help themselves.” That’s how it was summed up by someone who was, I think, pretty wise. But when I am in a bad mood, it seems to me that liberals are paternalistic… Continue reading
This post is part of the March Synchroblog: Guns and God. Links to the other posts are listed at the end the article. Abuse I am really tired of people trying to co-op God to support their political position. Guns and God do not go together. Gun control and God… Continue reading
I am just now sending a book to the editor that should have been published by last October. There are some reasons for the delay, like, travel and other pressing events. But the main reason that it is not published is me. Honestly, sometimes I think it is crap. Sometimes,… Continue reading
Almost all of the conferences I went to as a pastor were about building the church, increasing attendance, offerings, and participation in ministries. We got it wrong! This is the overarching principle for all the shifts that I mentioned so far. It strikes at the basic purpose of the church.… Continue reading
My Uncle Bob (John R. Hager) the oldest of my Dad’s four siblings, passed away last Friday. The “R” is for Robert and everyone called him “Bob.” I have only recently learned of some of the details his full life. After high school, he helped build a naval base in the… Continue reading
At one point during a community festival of kindness event, I walked to the upper bleachers of the community center and looked down on all that was happening. Families were receiving free groceries, health screenings were happening, a whole array of agencies were on hand, along with hundreds of volunteers… Continue reading
