Thoughts on Life, Ministry, and Writing

Kanye Found the Gospel, but He Also Found a Pastor
Knowing the People We Pastor
The last few weeks have offered plenty of takes on both Kanye West’s new album, Jesus is King, and his newfound faith. Personally, I’ve found it refreshing to be reminded that the gospel is powerful and capable of transforming any life. Honestly, it feels kind of good to be optimistic. As my social feeds are...

A Good (Definition of) Man Is Hard to Find
How We Define Manhood and Masculinity
Previous Post in This Series: The Male Malaise: Why Confusion About Masculinity is Causing Too Many Men to Disengage and Check Out The past years have seen a massive spike in debates, articles, and books on the topic of masculinity, most centered around a call to redefine what masculinity means. What does it mean to...

The Male Malaise
Why Confusion About Masculinity is Causing Too Many Men to Disengage and Check Out
Last week I got my hair cut. My barbershop has been feverishly adding locations and rebranding itself in an attempt to monopolize the cutting of all men’s hair within a 50-mile radius. As their website puts it, they are just “your traditional neighborhood barbershop and the future of men’s grooming.” The nostalgia of your grandpa’s...

CT Article: Bonhoeffer Convinced Me to Abandon My Dream
His words challenged everything I had learned about pastoral vision.
It’s hard to estimate the impact Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book, Life Together has had on my concept of pastoral ministry. And maybe no sentence has ever impacted my work more than Bonhoeffer’s, “God hates visionary dreaming.” I’m honored to have been able to share more about this passage in a recent article on Christianity Today Pastors....

God Honors Excellence But I’m Allergic to Meat
And Yes, You Read That Correctly
Can you imagine Ron Swanson waking up to discover he was suddenly allergic to meat? No steaks, no brats, no bacon, no cheeseburgers. Can you imagine his reaction? It would have made a great episode, but maybe it sounds too far fetched. Believe it or not, a meat allergy is a real thing, and I...

Žižek, Peterson, and the Christian Atheist
What Žižek gets wrong about G. K. Chesterton
This year’s debate between Jordan Peterson and Slavoj Žižek was marketed as one of the greatest intellectual debates of the century. At one point, tickets were being scalped for over $1,500 a seat. To many’s disappointment, but probably for the best, the event went off without the anticipated drama. Peterson and Žižek managed to find...

Thoughts on the New Aladdin
Self-Expression and Our Search for a Happily Ever After (Spoiler Alert)
I recently found a computer emulator for playing vintage Super Nintendo games. And who knew you could buy USB Nintendo controllers on Amazon for eight bucks. Two days of waiting for our Prime package to arrive, and I sat down to introduce my son to the video games of my childhood. The first game I...

Watching Game of Thrones
& Our Missing Theologies for Understanding It
When season eight of Game of Thrones (GOT) premiered this year, HBO estimated that 17.4 million viewers were watching. Considering GOT is one of the most pirated shows in history, that number is probably much higher. HBO has spent more than 90 million dollars marketing the final season, and experts are estimating that the finale...

Share This Article and People Will Think You’re Smart.
There's a 59% chance you'll share this article without reading it.
Round of applause for yourself. If you are reading this, you are a part of the minority these days. A 2016 study conducted by Columbia University found that 59% of the links shared on social media weren’t ever clicked by the person who shared them. That means almost 60% of the articles your friends recommended...

Moana: A New Kind of Cultural Hero
Our Salvific Obsession With Finding An Identity
This winter, Netflix officially removed Moana from its catalog of streaming movies, a devastating blow to my house with two pre-schoolers. It had easily been the most played show on our account for the better part of 2018. My kids love Moana, and I have to admit, I’ve enjoyed it too. Thankfully my kids are...