My associate Tom and I have a book coming out and here are a few of the questions we’ve frequently received. 1. Why did you write a book? We simply wanted to tell our story about what happened to us, what we know and what we learned when it comes to parish life. We definitely […]
Category: Making Church Matter
When it came to the title of our forth-coming book, Rebuilt, (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2013) the publisher and editor decided what it would be. But, we were actually delighted with their choice. Rebuilt is a word that appears dozens of times in the Bible, and is a basic exercise entrusted by God […]
In our upcoming book we devote a whole chapter to small groups, because that’s how important we think they are to parish life. And we acknowledge that they are a very hard sell in a Catholic setting (maybe they’re a hard sell in other settings too, I’ve never tried to sell them anywhere else). So […]
I was thinking that it was time to update everybody on the book. For all of you who don’t know, we’re publishing a book next month. It’s called Rebuilt (Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, Ind.) and it will be available beginning February 25. It tells the story of what happened to us, what we learned, […]
Some notes on what’s ahead this year. #1. The Book Probably the most important and consequential event in 2013 for me will be the publication of our book, Rebuilt(Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, Ind., 2013). The release date is in late February and we will be celebrating all weekend, February 23 & 24. Since the […]
It was the one night of the year when I didn’t want to stay up late. Staying up late meant delaying Santa Claus. I know that might not make sense; however, as a child I knew the sooner I went to sleep the sooner morning would come. That’s why it blew my mind when my […]
Everyone who knows me knows I am all about Christmas. I love Christmas. And I get to be pastor of THE Christmas Church. I mean, to begin with, we’re named after Christmas. And we have the biggest Christmas celebration of all (OK, St. Peter’s is bigger, and so is Rick Warren’s Church, and probably Cardinal […]
Ever since we started the miracle series, people have been stopping me, and seeking me out and e-mailing me (a minor miracle in itself, since I am somewhat inaccessible via e-mail). And they’re telling me about miracles…miracles they’re seeing or experiencing just because they’re on the look out for them this season. Apparently there are […]
The English idiom, “don’t judge a book by its cover” is a kind of moral admonition advising us not to prejudge the worth or value of anything (or anyone) based on appearances alone. Nice idea…except everybody does it, we all do it. We’re constantly doing it. Especially when it comes to books. Anyway, the process […]
In little less than a month we host our second ever church conference. Saturday, November 3 will be a great day of worship, fellowship and discipleship, as well as going deeper in ministry and mission. Al and Rob and our house band will be there with unexpected as well as familiar favorites. Chris and Kristin […]
