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 become a bona-fide winter hater. I didn’t used to mind it much, but after weathering sixty-three of them, I have had it with winter. Short days, slippery roads, and snow blowing the driveway give me no joy. My body aches more. I eat more. I sleep more. I… 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
The view from the mayor’s office on the third floor of the municipal building is impressive. Harbor Park is on full display on one side and downtown on the other. It is just high enough to be grand, but not so high that you can’t see a lot of detail… Continue reading
How does a follower of Christ respond to a President Donald Trump? What is the role of church in the age of Trump? The evangelical leaders who endorsed Trump looked oblivious and uncaring because he so obviously violated Christian values and even common decency back when he was candidate Trump.… Continue reading
This question is probably more important than you realize, because it applies to more than novels and screenplays. It’s a question that rolls around in my mind from time to time since I have a written a novel and am writing another. Hopefully, before long I will have the courage,… 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
I felt alive yesterday. Today, too, for that matter. By the way, just because you are alive, doesn’t mean you feel alive. Our winter has been mild. It snowed a few times in December and was quite cold, but January and February have been odd months; mild, thirties and forties… 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
Aunt Twila squealed when she hugged you. Really, it was her hearing aid that squealed. She was profoundly hard of hearing from a childhood illness and had just a bit of a speech impediment, as a result. As my mother-in-law was high strung and industrious, her sister, Twila, was laid… Continue reading
He was a little short guy who always sported a mischievous grin and always carried a few hundred dollar bills in his wallet. While generally a quiet person, he was not afraid to speak his mind when he decided it was necessary to do so. A repository of homespun wisdom, he would often preface… Continue reading
Off hand I can’t recall much I learned in high school. I suppose if someone quizzed me I might be surprised what all I did remember. But forty-five years later, I certainly remember two teachers. Mr. Blakely was a very intellectual and savvy sort of guy. He taught International Relations… Continue reading
Dan Stika lives a full life doing the things he loves and giving back to the community. He has lived in Kenosha for all of his seventy-six years. After he retired, Dan decided to obtain his undergrad degree. He enjoyed the experience so much that he went on to get… Continue reading
Unfortunately, I believed some myths about downtown Kenosha. Maybe, you have, too. Downtown is not dead. It is a vibrant, entrepreneurial business community. If you haven’t been there for awhile, then revisit your downtown. Catch lunch at Loula’s or the Buzz Café. Plan a night out enjoy dinner at Wine… 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
The inauguration ceremony just wrapped up, but many Americans feel the nightmare is just beginning. About the same number of citizens, think they have finally been heard. How in the world can this nation find a way forward when one half disdains, belittles, and shuts out the other half, and… Continue reading
Honky Tonk Romance is an excerpt from my novel-in-the making about identity theft. It’s a side story that adds a little background information about one our private investigators as he and his mentor fly from Tampa to Nashville. At an unseemly hour I met Jeff at his place and we took his… Continue reading
Here are a couple of short excerpts from a novel I have been working on. The first one sets up the story of a private detective’s first day on the job, fulfilling his state mandated internship working with a seasoned investigator. Together they meet their new client at a classy… Continue reading
There seemed to be a collective sigh of relief as 2016 wound down last Saturday. Good riddance weird and surprisingly awful chunk of time. Thirty-three percent of Americans felt the nation got worse over the course of the year. The Top Ten news stories of 2016 were: U.S. election Brexit… Continue reading
Here is my column in the Kenosha News published October 16th. I am writing from my hometown, St. Joseph, Missouri. Yesterday, I was honored to have a small role in the memorial service for my favorite uncle. The day before, my mom and I began hospice care for my ninety-year-old… Continue reading
Sometimes life gets our attention. In fact, it may be God who is getting our attention. Sometimes something happens that forces us out of our regular pattern of activity and causes us to reflect. I’m there right now. My dad’s death was a big part of the things that got… Continue reading
Wisconsin has something special to offer to the rest of the world, besides the Packers and cheese. It is the supper club capital of the world. While these dimly-lit destinations from decades gone by are an upper Midwest phenomenon, Wisconsin hosts by far the largest concentration. The Badger State is… Continue reading
Tomorrow is the big day when Americans will vote for a terrible person so the other more terrible person does not win. The political parties, the media, and the special interests got what they wanted. They have propagandized people so their supporters think those who differ with them are idiots.… Continue reading
I am openly proclaiming my total and complete lack of support for Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton. Clinton has proven herself to be untrustworthy and Trump and proven himself to be reprehensible. Though every election is touted to be historic, this one certainly is. It is historic in relationship to… Continue reading
Here are the remarks that I shared at my Dad’s funeral on October 25th. My Dad did things right. If he took on a job, he did it right. He would give attention to detail and put in the time required to complete the task to the very best of… Continue reading
Just a few weeks ago, my wife and I were living in the paradise that is the gulf coast of southern Florida. We spent ten days living on the beach of a little known barrier island that is one of the last remaining pieces of “Old Florida.” “Old Florida”… Continue reading
Have you ever surprised yourself? What I am really talking about is change. I usually fight change, but appreciate it in retrospect. I used to think that art museums and galleries were a waste of time. Now I am the one who who moves the slowest when we visit one.… Continue reading
The cicadas have been singing their song. Somehow it reminds me of the summers of my youth. Everyday it gets to the eighties or nineties. That’s very unusual here in the upper Midwest near the shores of Lake Michigan, but it has been normal this year. When the inhabitants of… Continue reading
It’s a good idea to keep our eyes, ears, and minds open because beauty, truth, and insight will pop up in strange places. On of those strange places was the May 26th episode of comedian Craig Ferguson’s History Channel show, Join or Die. Craig hosts a panel of colorful characters… Continue reading
There was no verbal response. I simple shook my head back-and-forth in shock and sorrow as the details were unfolding about the shooting at the Orlando nightclub. It is the same response I had upon hearing of the Sandy Hook shooting deaths of the twenty 6 and 7-year-old children.… Continue reading
It’s not easy living in paradise. I am confronted with decisions, like are we going to hang out on the beach, go fishing, or go for a little drive to gawk at multi-million dollar coastal homes. Maybe I will do a little writing from our porch overlooking the Gulf of Mexico.… 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
Originality… Is not rewarded. We teach people to follow the rules (the ones that are already there.) I have had a lot of ideas that some people really hated because they felt threatened by how things may change for them, and that was more important to them than how they… Continue reading
It’s a good thing to evolve, to change, to adapt, to develop, to grow. The alternative is to stay exactly the same. There are some people would say there is great virtue is staying the same. Talk of evolving is unappreciated heresy. They already have things all figured out, so… Continue reading
I love legalized lying. You may know it by a different name; fiction writing. I didn’t even use to like to write, but caught the bug when I was a pastor and needed a public presentation (sermon, talk) every week. I had fun trying to figure out how connect ancient… 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
I am not not depressed or feeling all is lost, but I am disappointed by many things that I have been taught to hold dear. I am disappointed by a church (meant in the institutional and local sense) that equates propping up an organization with following Jesus. It acquired too… Continue reading
“It’s a great day in America.” That’s how, Craig Fergusson, former host of the Late Late Show, usually began his ad-libbed comedy monologue. After all, the Scottish immigrant became an American citizen by choice. But it’s not; i.e., a great day in America. It’s a dark day in the U.S.A. I… Continue reading
I love watching and reading biographies of musicians and bands. Their stories usually follow a similar progression. They have an “it” factor. “It” is raw talent, a singular devotion, a stage presence, or a coolness that is just right for the times. More likely, it is a combination of all of… Continue reading
I recently celebrated my sixty-second birthday. Those words, sixty-second, seem incredibly foreign to me. I feel like I ought to be in my mid forties or even younger. Part of me doesn’t mind being sixty-two at all. Part of me can’t believe that I am sixty-two. I don’t know what happened.… Continue reading
I know. The two most written about topics on the internet, and the two most divisive. But usually about once a week I write about what ever is on my mind, and that’s what’s on my mind. I figure, it’s cheap therapy. For most of my life I have… Continue reading
As I get older, I have a hard telling if I am getting wiser or just crankier, more discerning or just out of touch. Nowhere is that more apparent than in my taste in music. I once heard Justin Hayward (front man of The Moody Blues and solo artist) say… Continue reading
I don’t like being told what to think. Who does? It’s a domineering for someone to be so convinced they are right, that they believe that you and everyone else must get in lockstep with their way of thinking. If you don’t; you’re inferior. That attitude is arrogant, disrespectful, and… 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
Do you know someone who complains about a physical malady, but refuses to go to the doctor? That reminds me of what is happening to our nation. Our maladies are well known in experiential terms, but they continue on an on, because we don’t want to go to the doctor… Continue reading
Living in “the now” is a big challenge for many of us. I love those year-end-review TV shows and newspaper articles. Even though I lived it, I always forget so much of what happened and I am informed for the first time about some of the important events of the previous twelve months.… 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
My world is already split in two. Most of my Internet friends lean liberal, and most of my real life friends are conservatives. I vacillate between perspectives, and sometimes, opt out, in frustration of a broken system. Please, pull back from the fray for a moment. Let’s get an aerial… 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
