Thursday Thought

The back cover of a new book on prayer caught my eye.  The question is asked, “Does Prayer Work?”  The more I thought about it, the more uncomfortable it made me.  “Does prayer work?”  The question seems problematic on several fronts.   First, it seems to reduce praying to an exercise for which there is an objective measurement, as if we can assign a scholastic grading scale to our praying:  This prayer gets a “C”…but this one gets an “A”–presumably because we got exactly what we asked for.    Second, asking if prayer “works” implies that prayer itself possesses power. …

A working gun…created by a 3D printer. By now, of course, it's old news.    Eight months ago, Cody Wilson–a 25 year old University of Texas law student–set out on a mission: to make the world's first workable hand gun using only a 3D printer—a device that creates solid objects by printing layers and layers of special plastic. Turns out, Wilson succeeded in what one columnist calls the newest “Shot heard 'round the world.”    An article in Forbes points out there isn't a single shred of metal in the whole thing…except for the nail that fires the bullets.  The…

Time out for some buzzkilll.  As in, I'd like to kill a buzz word…or at least reduce its heavy usage.  Call me a skeptic or cynic if you will, but I strongly reject the stampede toward bizz babble.  You know—expressions like…. “Paradigm shift” “Tee it up” “Over the Wall” “grabbing the low hanging fruit” or… “get together and blue sky” “getting the right people in the right seats on the bus.” Now some of those are older expressions, for sure.  But one I've been seeing a lot of lately is “reach out.”  America is now practically daily overdosing on “reach…

If you've never played Jenga, you ought to give it a shot. This challenging game starts you off with a tower of wooden planks.  Each layer is made up of three planks that lay right against each other.   So it's a loose—but solid—tower to start with.  Plenty strong.   Everybody takes turns removing one of the three planks that make up a layer…and placing it on top of the tower—to make it grow taller. You quickly learn that if pulled out slowly and carefully, the tower can stand on a layer of just two…or even one plank.  The net effect,…

Are we sure we're doing church right? Let me cut to the chase.  I'm uncomfortable with the way we've divvied up the typical church service.  In an average 75 minute service, we American evangelicals typically do 5 minutes of announcements, at least 20 minutes of singing, 30-40 or more minutes of preaching.  Throw in the offering, a greeting time and benediction… and that leaves about 5 minutes for a pastoral prayer and two minutes for a closing payer.  Meaning we spend about as much time on announcements as we do on prayer. Does that strike you as out of whack? …

As I write this, the nation’s third largest city is under siege.  Or, perhaps more accurately, under sieve.  To use the adjective, “rainy” is to describe the sun as merely warm. Schools are closed. Streets are clogged.  And announcers on radio and television beg us to “Please stay home!”  But crises large and small have a way of yielding defining snapshots.  I saw one the other day. As gallon-sized drops of rain blasted the army of downtown commuters, we besieged soldiers bolted the last steps of our maneuvers toward the train station portico. Safely under the cover of stone and…

Hey interesting people—go make babies! Have I shocked you?  The words aren’t mine.  That’s an actual quote from an actual ad campaign for a national public radio station in Chicago. If you’re offended, you ought to be.  Quite apart from the crassness of the remark, the statement,” Hey interesting people—go make babies”…raises questions on several levels. First, there’s a complete lack of connection between being married and being parents.  “Hey interesting people—go make babies.” Whether that statement merely reflects societal trends or is itself causative, is a whole separate discussion.  But no biblical definition of family encourages pregnancy outside of…

A word about elections, if I may.  Oh, I know it's not November—which makes this the perfect time to say what I'm about to say. A recent mayoral election in my hometown caused the usual stir of interest—but with one twist.  One of the three candidates running for the town's top spot was reportedly a Christian, so this juiced an extra voltage of voter involvement (at least in some circles). Let me express clearly that I believe part of Christ's mandate to be salt and light is to preserve the culture and bear the image of Christ in all segments…

The Millennials are leaving the church! The Millennials are leaving the church! Seems like every blog, every book publisher is trumpeting the ecclesiastical crisis of the moment: younger folks are leaving church. We hear all about how they're sick and tired of the veneer that boomers have called Christianity…how they're weary of being “hurt” by church…ignored and even judged by the previous generation. We read surveys that highlight the mass exodus of Millennials. But I, for one, want to say, “Just hold on a minute!” It's one thing to say, “I'm in a bad marriage.” Or “I wish this relationship…

You've heard the expression, “there was an awkward silence.”   Or… “There was an uncomfortable pause in the conversation.”  Increasingly, I'm noticing that ANY silence is awkward for most people. Imagine eating out a restaurant…without music blaring in the background.  Heaven forbid we should actually be able to hear each other converse without straining.  (By the way—exactly what IS the advantage to it being so loud that you have to yell to be heard?). Or try to imagine shopping in a store without a pulsing pounding musical background that's really in the foreground.   But the assault on solitude has likewise infiltrated…