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The Future is Print: An interview with Ted Shockley, part 1 of 2
Last week I got my hands on the second edition of Eastern Shore First, the new, local, free paper in our community. People will tell you that newspapers are dying, particularly those that rely on old-fashioned print. But Ted Shockley, the visionary publisher (and writer, editor, photographer, and marketing department, among other things) of ESF… →
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Why I Took Jacob to a Wedding
I brought Jacob to a wedding last weekend. You know, Jacob the biblical heel-grabber, trickster, tent-dwelling, mama’s boy? Not usually thought of as a model for 21st century marriage ceremonies. Particularly since his own marriage history is so strange: Boy meets Girl. Boy falls in love with Girl. Boy talks to her father. Father agrees… →
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Grant’s Migraine – Tuesday Poetry
I know what caused Grant’s Appomattox migraine, not death nor politics or Sheridan’s whereabouts. It was the slant light of April nigh to the equinox. The same light troubling my eyes on this slatted porch. It should fall gentle in this season or so I advise the Crafter but instead it blotches my retina sears… →
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Guest Blogger – C. Christopher Smith: Stirring the Economic Imaginations of Churches
I’ve learned a lot about books from C. Christopher Smith. Chris is not only the editor of the Englewood Review of Books, to which I occasionally contribute. His press is also the publisher of my book, A Space for Peace in the Holy Land: Listening to Modern Israel & Palestine. He’s a great observer and interpreter… →
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Writing: “A Blessed Unrest” – An interview with Trudy Hale – part 3 of 3
Trudy Hale, editor of Streetlight magazine, and owner of The Porches writing retreat, has talked in previous segments of this interview about her love affair with the retreat house and the writing life. In this segment we continue the conversation about the compulsions of writing and the forms it takes in her life. And we come… →
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Fidget Spinners, Coffee Mugs, and the Hope of the Church
What the church really needs for revival is to be socially relevant. No, it all starts with a great music program. Wait, we need a mission statement that’s clever and quippy. How about a Bible study that offers applicable principles for everyday living? Don’t forget the giveaway mugs! There’s no end to prescriptions for turning… →
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Writing at The Porches – An interview with Trudy Hale – part 2 of 3
In the first part of my interview with Trudy Hale, editor of Streetlight magazine and owner of The Porches writing retreat, we discussed the relationship she developed with a neglected farmhouse in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge mountains. In this segment, we talk about the writing. (And all the ways we contrive not to.) The Porches… →
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What can the Rural Church Offer a Declining Community? Hope!
From the Faith & Leadership newsletter, an article by Allen T. Stanton: “In a community of decline, hope becomes countercultural. While it would be wrong to foster a false sense of optimism or to promise that manufacturing and young adults will return, the church has a unique ability to stand in the hard realities and still preach… →
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An Osage Mirror: A Review of Killers of the Flower Moon
Two-thirds of the way through this book [Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI] and I was fixing to get very disappointed. Sure, David Grann had done what his title said that he was going to do. He had thrown us into the strange wave of murders… →
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