“I think we can relate this back to education and how we are continuing to try to strive to (pause) figure out how to create jobs right now. That is the biggest problem and I think, especially the men, are um, seen as the leaders of this and so we need to try and figure out how to create education better so we can solve this problem.” She got a second chance to answer the question with 36 hours of prep Read more.

There is a gaping hole in the middle of all of our Sunday services. We try to fill it with cool videos. We try and fill it with social justice. We try and fill it with tree hugging Christianity. We try and fill it with God is love. We try and fill it with unreal production. We try and fill it with life application. We try and fill it with smiles and winks. We try and fill it with hands raised and hearts seated. We try and fill it Read more.

Here’s the deal. After standing in a room last week with a hundred or so AMAZING people who all are “somebody” in Christendom, I realized again… It’s not who you know…It’s Who you serve. At the end of the day it is not about getting “the deal” At the end of the day it’s not about writing “the song” At the end of the day it’s not about meeting “the man” At the end of the day Read more.

I’ve got kids. 3. We homeschool them. Keds. Denim Jumpers. The whole shabang. But if they did go to a public school. It would be whatever public school this lady was teaching at. Why? Because I want teachers who don’t just say what the right thing to do is… But DO the right thing. And this lady, Carie Charlesworth, was beaten by her husband, so she left him. That’s who I want to teach my kids. But Read more.

I think we are asking the wrong question when we ask if the church is “relevant”. Screw relevant. People are done with relevant. Seriously. We are in a time a place where the world is waiting for an answer of Hope. And I can promise you this. Hope is not being sought after in relevance. Hope is being sought after in real relationships. So when you sit down in your next creative meeting, elder meeting, sermon planning meeting… Do you’re community a favor and don’t ask how you can Read more.

I am broken. I care entirely too much about what you think of me. And you care entirely too much about what I think of you. The truth is we both suck. So we admit things that suck about ourselves on our blogs and Facebooks and Twitter so that we get praised for admitting that we suck. See how broken that is? So in this brokenness of inward focused admittance of suckiness so that we don’t Read more.

I drink beer because it relaxes me. I could tell you I’m a beer taste aficionado or that I love the way it tastes. To be honest, I have acquired a taste for it. But if I was at dinner, and I was thirsty, I’d rather a glass of ice water or a freaking jug of soccer mom gatorade to quench my thirst. Beer gives me a buzz. I’m not drinking Odoul’s people. I’m assuming that Read more.

“Folks are sweatin back there right now” Los Read more.

This is taken from Skye Jethani’s “The Divine Commodity” which is required reading for any Ragamuffin. “In 1990 approximately 20% the population (of America) attended church on any given weekend. By 2004 the figure had dropped to 17%. If the trend continues, by 2050 only 11% of Americans will attend church. Although megachurches have multiplied across the fruited plains, the numbers show that Christianity in America has Read more.

[Or I have a headache in this pic...] I wonder. I wonder how many people, if we actually asked them, keep coming back to our churches because of our stellar Sunday productions. I wonder if we ask the right people. I wonder if we stopped, for a while, if people would keep coming. I wonder if we turned off the lights and pulled the band if more people would come Read more.