Articles

I write about theology, politics, and place and how the three are interrelated.

Small Groups and Being Human

The types of community many churches are seeking to provide are mostly not the forms of community people most need right now.
Commonplaces

Alternatives to Culture War

How to engage culture war issues without culture war methodology
Commonplaces

Haunted by Mars Hill(s)

American evangelicals are haunted by the fear of two different Mars Hills.
Commonplaces

Networks and Institutions

Our current moment is seeing a shift away from institutions as the dominant form of formalized human gatherings and toward dispersed digital networks.
Commonplaces

HR Goes to Church

When we chiefly interpret church community through the lens of human resources, the community suffers and splinters.
Commonplaces

Church and the Therapeutic, Ctd.

Further notes on the church's captivity to therapeutic rhetoric and concepts
Commonplaces

Tolkien, Marriage, Liberalism

Further notes on Tolkien and marriage
Commonplaces

Tech and Leadership

What happens when our institutional leaders are shaped primarily on digital networks?
Commonplaces

Decadence, Joe Rogan, and Non-Anxious Authority

Why authority functions differently in our gray zone moment
Commonplaces

Nine Months After Twitter

Reflections on being (mostly) off Twitter for nine months.
Commonplaces

Stop Blaming COVID

COVID isn't the reason our conferences and other large events are struggling.
Commonplaces

Where Did the College Aged Evangelicals Go?

A short video reflection on declining evangelical conference attendance
Commonplaces

Political Religion

A review of Joel Looper's excellent new book on Bonhoeffer in America
First Things

Notes on the Orbanism Essay

More reasons you shouldn't be a right wing revolutionary
Commonplaces

Orbanism and the Revolution

On why you shouldn't be a right wing revolutionary
Mere Orthodoxy