Last year Rob Bell made waves with his book Love Wins which he describes as “a book about heaven, hell, and the fate of every person who has ever lived.” The waves became a tsunami when John Piper tweeted “Farewell, Rob Bell” and dismissed him as a heretic. Agree or disagree with his point of view, Bell knows how to stir conversation. And there is one thing about Love Wins we cannot dismiss- how we think about the future shapes how we live in the present.

I’ve had the benefit of interviewing Bell a number of times and have always found him thoughtful, gracious, and genuine in his pursuit of Christ. He was kind enough to talk to me once again–this time about his decision to leave his…

Last October Charles Colson made this declaration on his radio program: “I want to say this to every Christian listening to my voice: Let’s stop criticizing candidates for their religious convictions.”

Colson was responding to the rhetoric from some evangelical leaders warning their flocks not to vote for Mitt Romney, a devout Mormon. Since Romney has taken the lead in the GOP primary, with some bumps along the way, there seems to be a real effort to downplay his Mormon faith as an issue among evangelicals. I’ve read numerous articles and editorials reporting that evangelicals are indifferent to Romney’s religious beliefs, and like most other voters their highest concern is the economy and not theology.

But I’m not convinced evangelicals are embracing Romney as much as some…

Newsflash…Young adults are leaving the church. Ok, it’s not really news to anyone familiar with church attendance trends. For generations we have seen young people raised within the church depart during their later teens and twenties. But most returned once they married and had children. It’s sometimes called the “driver’s license to marriage license hiatus.”

What is new is the mountain of recent research by respected groups like Barna, Lifeway, and Pew indicating young people who leave are no longer returning. The hiatus has become an exodus. Why? David Kinnaman at Barna outlines six reasons in his research. And others have pointed out that young people are waiting much longer to get married than in the past, thereby delaying the felt-need to return to church. (Al…

To commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day this year, here’s a video clip from a talk I gave at Newsong in Irvine, California. It’s about the turning point in the Civil Rights Movements during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. How was MLK able to express love for his enemies amid constant threats and attacks on his family? How was he able to rally African Americans to a non-violent movement of civil disobedience after centuries of abuse and oppression? Historians recognize the influence of Gandhi and liberation theology on King, but they often overlook a life-changing, late night encounter he had with God in his kitchen. That was when he came to truly see this as a God-with-us world.

Tim Tebow represents America’s two great religions: Christianity and Football. But the way the young Denver Broncos’ quarterback intertwines the two has made some followers of each faith uncomfortable. His post-game interviews always begin with “I’d like to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” and he frequently drops to one knee on the field and bows his head in prayer–a posture now called Tebowing. (Check out the website featuring photos of others Tebowing in public places.)

But Tim Tebow’s behavior on the field does raise important questions about prayer and how Christians ought to practice it. Andrew Sullivan criticized Tim Tebow saying his public prayers violate Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) where he taught his followers to pray in private:…

A few years ago I was walking through Woodfield Mall, the largest one in Illinois, just before Christmas. I was disappointed to see that Santa’s grotto, where children waited in line for a brief one-on-one consultation with Mr. Claus, had been transformed into an enormous promotional display for the upcoming movie, Happy Feet.

Apparently the mall’s managers were not bothered that Santa was difficult to see among the huge images of computer generated penguins, and clearly nobody was disturbed by the geographic discrepancy–penguins only live at the South Pole and Santa resides at the North Pole. Sadder to me was the absence of the enormous Christmas tree that had stood at the center of the mall since my childhood. It appeared that Santa had sold his season,…

…I was on a train heading into downtown Chicago to visit a friend when my wife called. She was in the hospital. Something was wrong with the baby and they were prepping her for surgery. It was seven weeks before her due date, but they hoped everything would be alright. I got off the train and jumped on the next one back to Wheaton.

That night our son was born. We named him Isaac. It seemed appropriate because his birth came as a surprise just as Abraham and Sarah were joyfully surprised by the birth of their son in Genesis 21. So they named him laughter…Isaac.

Our Isaac was only four pounds, but strong and breathing well. But our joy was soon mixed with worry as his…

Last week I was visiting my friends at Newsong in Irvine, California. Dave Gibbons had invited me to speak with the community about some of the ideas in my book, With. This video is a few minutes from my message about the importance of how we see the world. Drawing from the story of Mother Teresa, I unpack why the challenges facing the church in the West are the result of neither resources nor motivation, but rather vision. And by “vision” I don’t mean the kind of organizational BHAGs that seem to occupy many ministry leaders’ thoughts these days. Instead I mean the ability to see with eyes of faith; the kind of sight granted to those minds the Holy Spirit has illuminated to see the world differently.…

A pair of architects in Belgium have created an unusual structure–a see-through church.  It’s not a functional building, but rather a piece of public art that stands ten meters high. The design consists of 100 stacked layers and 2000 columns of steel plates. From some angles it looks like a traditional church with a steeple. But change your location and the solid walls become so thin they disappear in the sunlight.

Take a look at more photos here.

The architects said they were motivated by the growing number of abandoned churches in Belgium, and the declining role of religion in the highly secularized country. They have titled their structure “Reading Between the Lines” because it “extends this idea of transparency onto the church and equally onto the…