Episode Archives

Rambo’s First Blood? Nah, Merely a Flesh Wound

Who doesn’t take a selfie with blood running down their face? 

It’s hard on a preacher to sweat.

Jerry and Beth lived across the street from the parsonage on OK 5 in Gould, Oklahoma. We became fast friends in the short time we lived in southwest Oklahoma. Late-night card … Continue reading

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It’s an Op Ed!

Religion reporting is as fraught with peril as any other specialized field of journalism.

Pastors, at least seminary-trained pastors, learn to discern the genre of the text under consideration. Reading the Psalms? It is helpful to be aware of how Hebrew Poetry works. If we simply say it is … Continue reading

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Pastoring, Lasso, and Grace

We do not lasso grace, grace lassos us.

From my latest Can We Talk?

Last month I was invited to do a breakout session for the Mockingbird Tulsa Conference. The theme was The Kindness of Grace. Father Everett told me the theme was an omage to Ted Lasso. Today’s

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Museum Pieces

What are a couple of Southern Baptists doing among the Liberals?

From my recent Substack, Can We Talk?

Taken together, these two events, the question I received in Tulsa and Marty’s trolls, led me to reformulate Voltaire’s speculation regarding Southern Baptists.

“One hundred years from my day, there will Continue reading

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Too Many Claiming Christ Are Just Admirers

Following Jesus is different.

From my latest Substack newsletter, Can We Talk?

He gestures toward the images adorning the ceiling: “I paint all this suffering, but I do not suffer myself. I make a living of it.” Franz, too, looks up, knowingly, it seems, but says nothing. The painter

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