Are you slow to tweet?

“Be careful” was the cryptic text I received from a respected Christian leader and a close friend after a series of politically charged tweets I posted online in 2016. “I think most people agree with you, but you need to watch the way you tweet things. You could offend some people.” He was right. So […]

For the Dignity of All

Not long ago I was speaking in Washington, D.C., at an event on human dignity and brought my daughter, who’d just turned 13. When the event was over, we had a few days to take in the nation’s capital. I wanted Grace to see as much as we could fit in, so I kept us […]

Halfway There

Just get ready,” a colleague whispered to me during a birthday party at work. “40 is great. 41 is … Well, you’ll see.” I brushed it off with a laugh. Turning 40 struck me as an accomplishment. Four decades appeared to be the perfect age—old enough not to be foolish and young enough to still […]

The Way Home: Sarah Mae on forgiving when we’ve been hurt

Sarah Mae joins me today to talk about her book The Complicated Heart: Loving Even When It Hurts. She shares her story of growing up with an alcoholic mother and how she’s learned to forgive difficult people who have hurt her. This episode of The Way Home is brought to you by The Good Book Company. […]

A New Newsletter: One Little Word

I started a weekly newsletter. This will be a bit different every week. Sometimes some humor. Sometimes an excerpt of something I’m reading. Sometimes a fresh idea or some tips on writing. You can sign up here.  

Don’t Swing for the Fences

For a lifelong Cubs fan, there was hardly a more thrilling player than Sammy Sosa. Let’s set aside, for a moment, the fact that he played during the scandal-plagued steroid era. At the time, I was a giddy baseball fan, tuning into WGN to hear every thrilling at bat in 1998, when Sosa and Mark […]

The Power of an Average Mentor

It was an inauspicious meeting, really. It took place in the corner booth at a Burger King. He, in his early 70s, a veteran pastor and church leader. Me, a young Bible college graduate and soon-to-be pastor. I was serving as a volunteer youth pastor at a struggling church in the Chicago suburbs and he […]

A Ministry of the Mundane

I’ll never forget the quiet of the church building on my first day as pastor. I had previously served on a large church staff with many action-packed weekly ministries. The building was a beehive of activity. But in my new role as pastor of a small church, it was a different experience, one my Bible-college […]

The Way Home: Jason Romano on forgiveness and redemption

He worked a dream job for Mike and Mike at ESPN for 18 years. But God stirred in his heart a new passion to share his own story, of forgiveness, of living with an alcoholic father, and of redemption. Show Notes Website: jasonromano.com and sportsspectrum.com Twitter: @JasonRomano and @Sports_Spectrum Book: Live to Forgive: Moving Forward When Those We Love […]

‘Curator’: The New Line on Your Pastor’s Job Description?

“So . . . who exactly is Tim Keller?” I can still remember when this question came from a longtime, faithful member of my church. At the time, I couldn’t believe he didn’t recognize the well-known, respected pastor of New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Had he not read The Reason for God? The Meaning of Marriage? […]

Christianity Is Not a Plastic Smile

Today Lookout Magazine published my latest piece on Christians and a theology of suffering: There is a country song I like to play around the house that always irks my wife. Josh Turner croons, “Everything is fine, fine, fine.” Angela detests it because she says that this is my go-to answer whenever there is a problem at home. […]

The Way Home: Art Rainer on Ways We Can Handle Our Money Biblically

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who enjoy doing their finances and those who don’t. For those who don’t, like, me, we need help. Art Rainer, VP of Institutional Advancement at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, has written a helpful book, The Money Challenge. Art joins me to talk about ways we can […]