Last week I suggested that a church is something like a specialty store in the world of internet sales. To survive and thrive we need to provide two things, a community and an experience. Churches certainly provide an experience, often one that is seen as something to be endured rather than anticipated. The church has […]
Niche Market (Part 1)
In a world of Internet clearing houses and 24 hours or less delivery it is hard for a wide variety of specialty stores to survive. Everything from clothes to comic books can be bought cheaper, easier, and in far more variety than you will ever get at the mall or the local shop. Retailers of […]
Storm Damage
Today is the first day since we have lived in Ft. Wayne that I have noticed any significant storm damage on my way to work, other than from flooding. I saw a few large limbs down, one on a car. Almost like the several-times-a-week Spring storms of central Alabama. There are, no doubt, people out […]
Petitio principii
“Assuming the initial point” or “begging the question.”We are facing a moral and possibly even existential crisis in our culture. This is due largely to the breakdown of civil discourse, a breakdown that has resulted because we have forgotten how conversations work. We are no longer willing to discuss basic principals. We are unwilling to […]
Existential
This week NASA and FEMA and other abbreviations concluded their preparedness drills for an asteroid impact; it did not go very well in the end. I like apocalyptic fiction, end of the world stuff. On the one hand I like the big picture theorizing, and on the other I like stories of what humans do […]
I’m Not a (blank)-ist, but…
Language is powerful. More powerful than we often realize. The way we use language affects the way we view the world and, like it or not, betrays our innermost thoughts. In the same way the output of a computer shows how the program is working beneath the surface, so too does the way we speak. […]