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My latest column at Christian Week:

When Dan MacDonald was a law student living in London, Ontario, he attended his first church. The church was traditional, both culturally and theologically. They taught the Bible, but the church had its own culture. MacDonald had to learn that culture before he could fit in.

MacDonald later moved to Brampton, Ontario, and joined a church that was shifting from a traditional model to a seeker one. This church remained conservative theologically but became more flexible in its methodology. It became less theological and more pragmatic. It was easy for those who were not used to church to fit in.

Another recent column at Christian Week:

It's hard sometimes not to be cynical. An example is when I attend Christian pastoral and leadership conferences. Conferences are everywhere, and after a while they all seem the same.

I struggle with a few things: overly emotive songs, relatively little Biblical content, and an overemphasis on pragmatism. I never used to approach conferences with dread, but years of attending these events have taken their toll, and I find myself a tough attendee these days.

Late in February, I attended the Revive Your Soul conference in Toronto, sponsored by Tyndale University College and Seminary. It's billed as "a personal spiritual and renewal conference for pastors and leaders." The conference lineup looked good. I've heard recordings from past years that were helpful, so I decided to attend.

A recent column at Christian Week:

A couple of years ago I became disappointed with books critiquing the emerging church. The emerging church has been an easy target for some time, but most of the critiques seemed to be focused on one or two writers, simplistic, and sometimes even mean.

The emerging church's influence has grown, and it may have even gone mainstream. Even grandmothers are watching Rob Bell's Nooma videos and reading Blue Like Jazz or A New Kind of Christian. This year I've started to read predictions that the emerging church is beginning to recede. Yet I've never found a critique that fit. A good critique would need to be provocative yet respectful, conversational and funny, thoughtful and yet accessible. I've never found one like this - until now.

My latest column at Christian Week:

David Hansen, a pastor and author, says that his predecessor's library haunts him. When his predecessor left the church, he left the ministry and his library. "His library told the story of his ministry," Hansen writes. Every trend of the decade of his ministry was represented. "The movements he followed actually had little if any effect on his ministry, except in a fatal way: ultimately he confused Christian movements with following Christ."

I've been in ministry long enough to see the trends reflected in my library too. I've also witnessed the look in people's eyes when they feel another trend coming. Weekly, sometimes daily, I get mailings and read articles about the next new thing.

I've recently sensed less of an appetite for the latest trend. Many are experiencing the disruption that comes as they experience tension with church as we've always known it. Instead of reacting with quick fixes, though, some are moving toward real change.

A feature I wrote for the Ontario edition of Christian Week last December:

"I heard all the warnings from my friends," says Bruxy Cavey, teaching pastor at The Meeting House, a large church in Oakville. "I was told it's a time waster." But Cavey signed up for Facebook anyway, in part to promote his book The End of Religion. Now, Cavey has over 1,500 Facebook friends. One of his Facebook groups has become too successful. "I have a plan," he writes, "which involves shrinking this group to less than 1,000 people," which will remove restrictions placed on larger groups.

This is Facebook, one of many social network utilities. Others include MySpace, LinkedIn, Bebo, and even MyChurch. They are online communities for people who share interests or activities, allowing them to interact with friends. They are becoming popular, and not only with younger people. They are also being used within churches and Christian ministries.

"It's an extra option," Cavey explains. "It is another way to connect." Through Facebook, people can ask questions, express opinions, share media, and invite others to events. "There are people who are struggling, who may lack community," says Cavey. "It may serve a purpose for them."

My latest column at Christian Week:

One of the themes we hear a lot about at Christmas is incarnational ministry. Just as Jesus took on flesh and became God with us, it is important for his followers to leave the church buildings and become part of the neighborhoods in which they live.

This is an important theme, but there's another Christmas theme that is less common but just important. It's the theme of weakness. Jesus came to earth not in a position of strength, but in startling weakness. God the Son became completely dependent on a young couple for his basic needs. He did not grow up in a centre of power. When offered power, he consistently walked away. Even when he faced death, his refusal to respond with power is stunning. Jesus taught us that God often works most powerfully in what appears to be weakness.

My latest column at Christian Week:

Sixty years ago, Carl Henry, "the father of modern fundamentalism," wrote a book expressing concern with the direction of evangelicalism. Reading Henry's book, The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism, is like reading something written for today.

"For the first protracted period in history," he wrote, "evangelical Christianity stands divorced from the great social reform movements." Evangelicals (then an interchangeable term with fundamentalists) were passionate about evangelism, he wrote, but indifferent toward global evils like poverty and injustice.

My latest column at Christian Week:

Ask the average Canadian what they need for Christmas, and the answer for most has to be "nothing." You'd never know it, though, if you visited a mall parking lot in December. Visa estimates that Canadians spend some $20 billion at Christmas.

Every year I talk to more people who are uncomfortable with what Christmas has become. Last year one pastor did something about it.

Rick McKinley is pastor of Imago Dei Community in Portland. "Every Christmas it happens," McKinley says. "I get excited for the celebration of Jesus' birth - that moment in history when all of Scripture came to life! And then I get depressed; inundated with commercials of what new gadget to buy, people in mad rushes to get more stuff, credit cards opening up sinkholes that people will be climbing out of for months to come, and newscasters telling us that fights are breaking out at Wal-Mart over the last X-Box 360."

My latest column at Christian Week:

Alan Hirsch, author of The Forgotten Ways, argues that people in our culture generally have good perceptions of God, Jesus, and spirituality, but have very negative perceptions of church. Speaking near Toronto in late June, Hirsch argued that churches that are doing the best in places like Australia and Canada follow the contemporary church growth model, but even this approach appeals to only 12-15% of the population. God is using this model, Hirsch said, but it is limited in its effectiveness and will never reach a large proportion of the population.

I wrote this article in 2002, and it appeared in the September-October 2004 issue of Preaching, but I've never published it online. It's received new life recently because I was quoted in an article on sermon plagiarism that appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution - an article that's good, but that overstated my own history on the topic.

In any case, here's my original column.

We were recently notified that one of X’s messages was reproduced on your website. While we are delighted that you use our material, I need to remind you that our sermons are copyright protected content and may not be distributed or reproduced (in whole or in part) beyond your immediate congregation without our permission and without proper attribution to the author. As such, we would ask that you remove this message, along with any other sermons you may have reproduced there which are based on X’s outlines. Thank you in advance for your immediate attention to this request.

I had to admit it when I received this e-mail. Like it or not, I had become what I had always condemned – a sermon thief. I was the Winona Ryder of preachers.

I’m now a sermon thief in recovery. Here is some of what I learned along the way.