I never thought I would be defending Pastor Greg Laurie but some of you are getting completely out of hand and somebody needs to say something. Let me start with the basic facts that a lot of people spreading this story have either not read or are choosing to ignore. Greg Laurie was not charged...
My Observations
Trump Always Knew
This final term was never going to look like the first one. I told people years ago – when Trump comes back he is going to do things that are not popular. Things that make even his supporters uncomfortable. Things that look reckless on the surface and calculated underneath. The first term he had to...
The Uncommon Man
The Audience You Never Had
One of the things I tell men is that they have to be able to do what is right for the family without an audience. That is harder than it sounds. Because everything in us wants acknowledgment. Not applause necessarily. Just someone noticing. Someone saying — I see what you are carrying. I see how...
Letters To Nobody
What A Church Without Fear Looks Like
I want to end this series with something that is not a complaint. Everything I have written in this second half has named something wrong. Fear as a control mechanism. Mistranslation as doctrine. The silencing of honest questions. The weaponization of scripture against the people it was supposed to free. Those things are real and...
The Writing Life
What Comes Next
I want to tell you where the Black Water series is going. Not everything. Some of it has to stay in the manuscript until you read it. But enough so you understand that what I built in the first book was a foundation and what comes next is the structure that goes on top of...
Letters To Nobody
What I Have Seen In The Church
I want to tell you something that happened in a conversation I had with a minister. I am not going to name him. Not to protect him — to stay focused on the pattern rather than the person, because the pattern is what matters and the pattern is not unique to him. We were discussing...
My Observations
The Moses Nobody Wanted
Church folks, go ahead and clutch your pearls. I will wait. I am making this comparison anyway because I think it is worth making and I think more people feel it than will say it out loud. Remember Moses? God chose him. Not because the people voted for him. Not because a committee reviewed his...
Let me clear something up before anyone twists this into something it is not. I do not like everything Trump does. I do not understand everything Trump does. My car is supposed to run on 87 octane. The manual says 87. I put in 87, and the engine sputters like the Ultimate Warrior cutting a...
Letters To Nobody
The Congregation That Learned To Be Silent
It does not happen all at once. Nobody announces that questions are no longer welcome. Nobody posts a sign that says — leave your honest doubts at the door. It happens gradually. Through a series of small corrections. A subtle shaming here. A side comment there. An eyebrow from the pulpit when someone pushes back....
The Writing Life
What I Know Now That I Did Not Know In 2018
In December of 2018 I pushed a publish button and thought the hard part was over. I had written the book. I had formatted it. I had a cover. I had a title that felt right. I had done the thing that most people who say they want to write a book never actually do...