Last month I sat down for breakfast with Ed Stetzer while we were both in Phoenix for a conference. Afterwards Ed “tweeted” about our meal together and commented that for some inexplicable reason “Skye isn’t on Twitter.” He gave me some playful grief about it on our drive to the conference, and others have asked why I don’t Tweet as well. So I decided it was time to finally show my cards.

First of all, I don’t believe Twitter is evil, wrong, or in any way immoral. And I’m not condemning my many friends who love to Tweet. But it’s not for me. Here are the top 10 reasons why I don’t use Twitter (not that there’s anything wrong with it).

ONE

My life really isn’t that interesting (and in most cases,…

It all started with an email from my colleague Drew Dyck asking if I had a book by Dave Ferguson. He side commented: have you ever noticed that he looks like Edward Norton? I hadn’t. Then we started thinking about other pastoral look-a-likes.

The emails went back and forth. I’ve included some of my favorites below. There were other less complementary ones that we shall leave behind. There are a few that have stumped me. For example, one would think that figures as recognizable as Rob Bell or Shane Claiborne would be easy to match. But so far I’ve had no luck. Have you got additional submissions? I have no doubt that there are more.

Below are twelve that we’ve matched so far. Feel free to add to the nonsense.…

On Goldman Sach’s religious justification of enormous profit:

“We’re very important. We help companies to grow by helping them raise capital. Companies that grow create wealth. This, in turn, allows people to have jobs that create more growth and more wealth. It’s a virtuous circle. We have a social purpose…. We are doing God’s work.” -Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sach’s chairman and chief executive

“The injunction of Jesus to love others as ourselves is an endorsement of self-interest.” -Brian Griffiths, Goldman Sach’s international adviser

On James Dobson leaving the Focus on the Family radio program and ministry:

“We’ve been getting e-mails and phone calls from people saying how much Dr. Dobson has meant to them over the years. I wouldn’t characterize it as an enormous outpouring.” -Gary Schneeberger, Focus on the Family spokesman

“Focus…

In my role as the managing editor of Leadership Journal, I get dozens of free books from publishers nearly every week. They’re all looking for some free press, a review in the journal, a blurb on the blog, or just a little word of mouth buzz.

But when Zondervan sent me Deadly Viper Character Assassins: A Kung Fu Survival Guild for Life and Leadership by Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite, I was caught by surprise. (For the sake of full disclosure, Zondervan published my book The Divine Commodity.) Deadly Viper is about the size of a CD case, square, and clearly a very expensive book to design. Nearly every page is loaded with original artwork with a comicbook/kung fu/pan-Asian style.

I had two immediate reactions to the book. First, I can’t believe…

Today I’m at Northwestern University to speak at the “Leadership for a Religiously Diverse World” conference hosted by the Interfaith Youth Core. I’ll be sitting on a panel with representatives from a number of other faiths to discuss why we believe cooperation between religions in worth the effort.

I was connected with the conference and IFYC through Eboo Patel, the president of IFYC. Eboo and I actually grew up together in Glen Ellyn, IL, and attended elementary through high school together. We lost contact after high school, but our lives took interesting parallel paths. Eboo’s parents and my father both immigrated to the US from India. And after years of exploration, Eboo came to embrace Islam and pursue issues of interfaith cooperation. I, on the other hand, committed to…

Popular “New Atheists” like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins and proving to be controversial reformers among faithful atheists. In a rift that seems more reminiscent of a church schism, traditional atheists are increasingly uncomfortable with the flame-throwing rhetoric of the new atheists.

For example, Hitchens, a columnist for Vanity Fair and author of the book God Is Not Great, told a capacity crowd at the University of Toronto, “I think religion should be treated with ridicule, hatred and contempt, and I claim that right.” His words were greeted with hoots of approval.

Religion is “sinister, dangerous and ridiculous,” Hitchens tells NPR, because it can prompt people to fly airplanes into buildings, and it promotes ignorance. Hitchens sees no reason to sugarcoat his position.

“If I said to a Protestant or Quaker…

Andy Crouch has written a wonderful piece about his reflections from the recent u2 concert in Chicago. I highly recommend reading the entire post over at the Q Blog. Andy is a great writer and his description of the stage, audience, and tone of the event is the best I’ve read. But his analysis of the concert as a cultural artifact is really brilliant. Here’s a bit:

All of which makes me glad and a bit amazed that such power has fallen, in the case of U2, into such humble hands. Bono would be the first to protest that he is anything but humble, but of course that is one of the signs of humility. For all the posturing, for all the 30-foot-high closeups on the screen, after much…

Earlier this year, we published an issue of Leadership on the theme of “Rediscovered Roots: Timeless practices that keep us grounded and bring new life.” Jonny Baker, a leader of Grace, an alternative worship community in London, wrote a fantastic article for us called “Something Old, Something New.” In the piece he discusses the transformation of worship among the young away from a purely contemporary style toward an appreciation of history, liturgy, symbol, and even tradition.

I recently came across this cartoon called “The Evolution of a Worshiper” which reminded me of Baker’s article. The ‘toon progresses from an outwardly enthusiastic (can we call it Charismatic?) style, through the reserved form of popular evangelicalism, to the cynical postmodern with iPod and goatee, to the fully liturgical high-church Anglican. Can…

The Olympics are about athletics, competition, and the power of sport to draw the nations of the world together. It’s also about politics. Would Los Angeles have gotten the Summer Games in 1984 if Moscow hadn’t hosted them in 1980? Would Beijing have hosted the games in 2008 if China wasn’t the fastest growing economy on the planet? Do you think Atlanta’s bid in 1996 was helped at all by the fact that it’s Coca-Cola’s world headquarters-one of the Olympics largest corporate sponsors?In its less celebrated moments, the International Olympic Committee has been accused of allowing political and economic influence determine its choice of host cities. Although it has sought to clean up its act, if you think the IOC is now completely incorruptible I’ve got an Illinois…

Believe it or not, in the UK “Jedi” is a religious option listed on census documents. Believe it or not, there are over 500,000 Jedi adherents around the world. Believe it or not, a Jedi in Wales is accusing a supermarket of religious discrimination. Are we flying upside down, folks? Here’s the story from Gardian.co.uk:

Daniel Jones, founder of the religion inspired by the Star Wars films, says he was humiliated and victimised for his beliefs following the incident at a Tesco store in Bangor. The 23-year-old was told the hood flouted store rules.

But the grocery empire struck back, claiming that the three best known Jedi Knights in the Star Wars movies - Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker - all appeared in public without their hoods. Jones, from Holyhead,…