I'd like to steal from myself this week. I've been thinking about how God can move within us and not just outside of us — change more than our minds, but transform our minds by reshaping our hearts. I remembered a story that I'd written about before, and I felt like I wanted to share it again. So here it is, a story retold. It's excerpted from Where the Light Shines Through (Brazos Press, 2005), pp, 16-18: I knew an Englishman I’ll call Reggie. He told me of an event that still puzzled him. I knew Reggie to be an intelligent and committed person in general, but in telling me this story he appeared more aware and attentive than usual, full of consciousness and sensation. Now Reggie had for some time been an active member of the SWSO (called “Sweezo”), the Socialist Workers Student Organization in Britain. His membership in this organization was a well-considered expression of his theologically...

Because of vacation, I prepared this week's Echoes entry early. As it turned out, I prepared it on the day that the official report on the Penn State athletics child sex abuse scandal prepared by former FBI Director Louis Freeh was hitting the press (July 12, 2012). As you'll remember, the case involved the now convicted coach Jerry Sandusky and those at Penn State who failed to follow up as aggressively as they should have (including legendary coach Joe Paterno). Anyone who leads programs for children must take the report seriously. Specifics of Penn State aside, anyone in that position is also well aware of how difficult it can be to protect everyone's rights in tough situations — including folks who've been accused of misconduct or crimes. Anyone following the travails of the Catholic church, or disturbing revelations about some church-related schools for Native American in the last century, or recent revelations...

In my "Echoes" entry of April 4, I outlined some ideas behind what's being called the "Missional Movement" in Protestant churches these days. Following the idea that if it's important, you oughta say it (at least) more than once, I want to talk about this some more here. But this time I want to take a little different turn, like looking at another facet of a jewel. I want to think about how we might rethink a few things about "church" in light of all of this. Theologian Brian McLaren is one of a handful of folks often quoted when the idea of "missional church" comes up. He was the morning speaker for General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) on Monday morning, July 2, in Pittsburgh. In his talk he described four thoughts about the church that are driving the missional movement. He was summarizing, so the ideas weren't all that new. But he crystalized

When I was in graduate school I stumbled across a Greek word for agreement that after a while became kind of important to me. The word is the root of our word homology. In modern use, the word has pretty much been relegated to science — biological patterns that are similar between two organisms. When you dig deeper into its Greek roots, however, homologia is not just about the goal of similarity or agreement. It also speaks of the process toward that agreement. Put simply, it's a kind of agreement that is patterned with, or predicted by, or dependent upon, or inseparable from the process of its achievement. It's basically the unity (homology) of means and ends. In a society so aggressively focused on results, measurement, calculation, ends that justify any means, winning at any cost, fear-driven achievement, individual responsibility...

During the years I was teaching preaching at a university divinity school I was often struck by how eloquent many of our students could be when describing the human condition. They would wax lyrical, find appropriate metaphors, use telling examples of life experiences, and identify with their audience in ways that kept their hearers’ attention and interest. They could use classical rhetorical moves to great effect, taking us to worlds of poverty, illness, struggle, or anxiety with surprising deftness. If there were a preaching Pulitzer for that sort of thing, I’d have had some nominees. As I took note of my students’ persuasive skills, I began to notice something else too. I began to notice that many of these same students, most of them preparing...