The donut of discernment

WHEN WE FIRST started looking for a new church home upon moving to the Florida Panhandle, I jokingly suggested to Marcia that I’d be grading candidates…

Torqueing heads: views not news

WHEN STEPHEN Bates published If No News, Send Rumors: Anecdotes of American Journalism almost 30 years ago, the title was intended to be an indictment of…

Tea and symphony

WHEN THE BOMB went off, they put the kettle on. And so I found myself smiling through the tears I was blinking back in the departure…

No more lame excuses

FUNNY HOW YOU can read something one way for so long and then suddenly see what is old and familiar in a brand new light. Like…

The kindness of silence

I WAS SITTING in the international departure lounge at an airport on the East Coast, not long before take-off. Suddenly, I thought I heard my name…

In the desert

CHURCHES LOOKING for biblical examples of how to engage well with outsiders seem to have overlooked the “seeker insensitive model” to be found there, pioneered by…

A lesson in loss

I REMEMBER HIM every time I go to my online bank account. The security prompt asks me for the name of my first childhood friend and…

Reposting is not reporting

FOLLOWING IN THE journalistic footsteps of my grandfather, mom and dad, I heard a lot of stories about what life in the newsroom was like back…

The news has a name

HER NAME WAS Marilyn, but she was no Monroe. Her greasy hair hung lank and her shabby clothes were matched with a pair of broken-down sneakers.…

Crosswords and communication

FOR SOMEONE WHO pays the bills by working with words, I have been terrible at crossword puzzles for most of my life. And as a professional…