It is so easy to enumerate what I am done with when it comes to religion. It is profoundly more difficult to figure out what to hang onto. I feel like I should occasionally ask myself that question to see if I am total heretic or just a free spirit. … Continue reading
John 20-21 Each mealtime has a special feeling to it. Breakfast is refreshing because it has been a long time since dinner. In our day, many people skip it or eat a pop tart on the way to work. Almost never does someone fix breakfast for you. So, when we have… Continue reading
“Follower of Jesus” is the new cooler way to say “Christian”, a word loaded with centuries of baggage that no longer seems very Christian. Yet, “follower of Jesus” sounds a little smug to me. It reminds of those church-goers in ancient Corinth who weren’t in the camp of Paul or… Continue reading
It was nearly a half of a year ago when my cousin reminded me of the “Prayer of St. Francis.” Lately, I have been reading it over nearly every day. A monk from the thirteenth century penned something so counter intuitive, so aspirational, so challenging, that I wonder if I… Continue reading
Saw this somewhere and decided to take the challenge. Jesus. Christianity is based on Jesus, not a church or a prescribed set of beliefs. Love. Christianity is based on love, loving God, loving others (especially those we do not understand), and loving ourselves (in a healthy, non-arrogant sort of way,… Continue reading
Easter is about life. It’s about the rebirth of Spring and Christ’s resurrection culminating in ultimate victory over sin, Satan, and the last enemy, death. We have been celebrating this for a couple of millennia, and we should. But there is one more slice of life that deserves celebrating…this life,… Continue reading
If you just woke up after a year in a comma, what would you think? What would you think when you ventured out to find everyone wearing a mask? What would you think when you learned that we were in the midst of a modern-day plague that has taken over… Continue reading
Every year when Christmas rolls around, I feel like I should feel something; something warm and cozy that evokes a sense of joy, gratitude, and peace. Usually, things are just too busy for me to get around to that until very late in the season. There are those moments late… Continue reading
I have had a crisis of faith. Oh, I haven’t gone completely heathen, but there have been drastic changes about how I believe and express my faith. Losing some of the simplistic, clear beliefs that I embraced for most of my life is a kind of loss that has been… Continue reading
I am looking at the edges of the earth. My panoramic view is so spectacular that it is rounded off at the edges. Even better, it’s the Gulf of Mexico. Better yet, I am sitting on the patio of the villa we have rented for the week. The warm Gulf… Continue reading
Writing is my therapy. So, as I kick back on the couch, would you mind asking me “And how does that make you feel?” every once and a while? I appreciate it. I get anxious sometimes, even depressed. I have some good runs, some for weeks, sometimes months. Other times, I… Continue reading
Honestly, I impressed myself just a couple of days ago when I said, “ I don’t need my opinions re-enforced, I need them to be challenged.” I patted myself on the back and felt very “woke.” So much goes into developing those opinions, our upbringing, our life circumstances, our friends… Continue reading
It’s demoralizing when you take a step in good faith only to find out that it was a mistake and then realize that we need to change your route. That’s where hundreds of thousands of people have found themselves in relationship to their faith and the institutional church. So, I… Continue reading
We just wished America a happy birthday. She is a magnificent lady, but she is starting to show her age. There are a few tell-tale signs that everything is not working as good as it used to. It is one of those concerns that I would like to address today.… Continue reading
The Super Bowl for Christians Only every year your team wins A big party with lavish religious productions A happy time with colorful eggs oddly laid by rabbits A celebration of new clothes and new life An empty cross and an empty tomb Hope. Life. Victory. Only this year is… Continue reading
Ever notice how the cows all face the same direction in the pasture, but there is one that didn’t seem to get the memo and is separate from the herd doing his own thing? That’s me. I dislike housing tracts where the nearly identical a dwellings are crammed in close… Continue reading
I am going to suggest what might seem like a strange, or even heretical source of spiritual authority, but first I want to consider the usual suspects. Many people are looking for something they can hitch their wagon to. They want to be able to point somewhere and say this… Continue reading
Brian Zahnd is a pastor in my hometown of St. Joseph, Missouri, and he is about the same age as me. In his newest book, Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God, Brian takes on some issues that have been mysterious and troubling for me, and countless others. The… Continue reading
For about thirty years, I have thought something was wrong with the way we practice Christianity. At first, I thought the church’s methods were out of date. They were, but that was not the problem. Then, I thought the way we did church was sad proof that we didn’t… Continue reading
I have read and written so much about matters of faith for so many years that I finally got tired of it. I felt like that’s pretty much all I have to say on the topic. In the process, I fell in love with writing and began writing about other… Continue reading
What is the most important thing in life? Is it how you treat others? Is it how well you love people? Is it living life to its fullest? Is it being true to yourself? Is it having no regrets? Is it preparing for the next life? Is it what you… Continue reading
I have thought about it many times. For over two decades, church was my life, and my employment. But I have had very little to do with the institution called “the church” for the last ten years. For most of my life, most of my friends were church friends, most… Continue reading
How do you experience community, if you don’t go to church? That’s one of the questions I am asking myself as I am trying to figure out what I believe at this point in my life; and I have an answer: like everyone else. I enjoy people and connect with… Continue reading
Happy Valentine’s Day! This is a good day for me ask myself an important question. Is it an over simplification to sum up living life in way of Jesus with the word, “love”? My beliefs and faith practices have undergone such a dramatic change over the last few years that… Continue reading
Free Range Faith is a companion memoir for people who have left the institutional church, but not the faith. Glenn Hager addresses the question, “Is there a more real and meaningful way to try to follow Jesus and express your faith without having to deal with all of the baggage… Continue reading
Interested in Jesus, but not the church? Used to go, but not anymore? Find the whole church scene irrelevant? You may be one of the 38 million individuals who stopped attending church in the last decade in The U.S. With honesty and a wry wit, Glenn Hager tells his story… Continue reading
Faith is something that you are not supposed to mess with. It’s fixed. Its propositions are anchored in history. You accept them and you’re “in.” Reject them and you’re “out.” Question them and you’re a problem. How those things are understood have undergone some changes through the centuries. Some faiths… Continue reading
What is the meaning of life? It’s an age old question with obvious ramifications, but who really spends much time thinking about it? We are usually too busy trying to keep up with requirements and expectations to think about the meaning of it all, or even how to enrich our… Continue reading
A lot of people are going to tell you that you’re nuts for trying to live out a life of faith away from the church and religious institutions. A lot of people are wrong. Churches, like people, come in all shapes and sizes. Some are so in love with their… Continue reading
“The blue” has a couple of things going for it. In the blue, you are free from the confines of the institutional ways of expressing your faith. You are free from outsourcing your faith expression to an organization. How you deal with that now is up to you. You are… Continue reading
I wondered for a long time how to summarize one hundred and eighty-two pages into a physical image. I finally got a picture in my mind that the cover artist for my first book, An Irreligious Faith, captured beautifully. On the cover is a birdcage that strangely reminds you… Continue reading
As any student taking a test will tell you, some questions are far more answerable than others. And any teacher will tell you, some answers are a better than others. It seems almost any answer we could give to a very difficult question, could be followed by a, “Yeah, but what about…”.… Continue reading
My column in the Kenosha News, last Monday: Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.— Howard Thurman What makes you feel alive? You may be able to answer quickly, or… Continue reading
Ever wonder what is behind the certainty that some Christians claim they have about things that are impossible to verify? Obviously, it takes faith to be a person of faith. But, I am thinking about folks who claim they understand God’s position on every point of doctrine and every contemporary… Continue reading
It’s tidy to reduce our faith to an intellectual exercise of systematic theology and positions on various topics. You can make a checklist to see if someone is right or wrong. It’s tidy to categorize the losers who get it wrong. You’re right, they’re wrong! Done. But love is always… Continue reading
For years I have wondered what faith in Jesus looks like, not faith in the church, or faith in Bible, or faith in doctrine, or faith in ritual, but faith in Jesus. This thing called Christianity has played fast and loose with faith in Jesus for a long, long time.… Continue reading
Here is a convenient way to decide who is “in” and who is “out,” who we will love, and who we will hate (or disregard.) Stick a label on them. We have liberals, conservatives, progressives, Calvinists, Hyper-Calvinists, moderate-Calvinists, pre-tribulationalists, post-tribulationalists, mid-tribulationalists, Armenians, fundamentalists, denominationalists, Methodists, Baptists (Southern, General, Regular, Independent,… Continue reading
Everyone likes winning. But, every time someone wins, someone, or several someones loose. The thrill of winning, usually keeps us from thinking about the losers. Victory trumps empathy. It just feels good being right. Having the right answer, being correct, being the most astute, identifying with the right group, being a… Continue reading
Another “Arizona Sun” in my yard I have turned into the family gardener. Over the last two years, we have pulled out twenty-six, huge bushes that were about forty years old and replanted those areas with things we like a lot better. One of those plants was a pretty little… Continue reading
“Responsibility” is a heavy-sounding word. But assuming personal responsibility is about freedom (a lighter-sounding word.) When you have freedom, you get responsibility along with it. If no one is mandating what to do, you need to figure it out for yourself. You need to be responsible with your freedom. You… Continue reading
God gets blamed for more stuff that anyone I know. People have claimed that God told them all manner of things, from committing murder, to all out international war, to making just plain stupid and hurtful decisions. Sometimes, God gets credit for things he didn’t do. I have heard so… Continue reading
That’s what Elle Luna’s mother used to tell her. Elle is the author of the book, The Crossroads of Should and Must, a book I own, and will soon read. What does it mean when someone says, “You should…?” Let’s take a peek at what is implied by those words.… Continue reading
What does that look like when you chisel away all of the centuries of extraneous stuff, and it’s just you and Jesus in real life? If you jettison the hierarchy, the cathedrals, the massive church campuses, the official clergy, the budgets, the billions of dollars, the stereotypes, the expectations, the… Continue reading
Life is divided into the secular and sacred. Sacred refers to the separate, the holy, something dedicated to a deity or religion. Secular refers to the common, or worldly things. How did we ever come up with that heresy? If there is anything true about the way of Jesus, it… Continue reading
It seems like atheists and fundamentalists would be at the opposite ends of spectrum of religious belief. But are they? I was forced to think about mystery and certainty when writing a a chapter for a new book. That’s when it hit me. Atheists and fundamentalists both have a fondness for… Continue reading
Modern life is lived in boxes. We live in a box, called a home, or an apartment. We get into boxes with wheels on them (Have you ever seen a Honda Element? I rest my case!) to go to boxes where we work. They are even called, cubicles. If we… Continue reading
Have you ever taken a bite out of a perfectly ripened peach that was hanging from a tree jut a short time ago? There is a certain stance you need to assume when eating a good peach, so the juice doesn’t drip all over you, but it may still run… Continue reading
I had a pastor friend whose church (Grace Church) merged with another church (New Life Church.) They called the new, joint congregation, Grace Life. I like that! What does a grace life look like? If I took this grace thing seriously, I would be at peace with myself. I would… Continue reading
I am fascinated by the myriad of ways that people express their faith within the parameters of a particular religion. In my journey of the last several years, I have connected with so many people who have gown weary of how they have been practicing their religion. Hence, the conversation… Continue reading
Jesus really messed things up! God becoming a baby, being born to an unmarried teenager, loving all of the wrong people…prostitutes, greedy cheaters, traitors, rough, angry blue collar types, beggars, deformed people, individuals with disgusting diseases, terrorists, and soldiers of the occupying super power. He deliberately reached out to people that his… Continue reading
