That resilient interior life is vital to face the challenges of our work. Unfortunately, as an institutional leader, inviting others into that wrestling has often been branded manipulative or unhelpful. It's a tricky balance, and I'm grateful to cite your words - since my own often aren't heard.

Thank you for this article. I've worked with Gen Z in human services work for six years, and this point rings deeply true to me.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful And since we've no place to go It doesn't show signs of stopping How I hate going out in the storm The fire is slowly dying

'Let it Snow' with all the positive lines removed

“You also now must fear one another. Under the new normal, a single student can record a class discussion, fail to protect your identity, and post it online in violation of the safeguards provided by Student Rule 24 and FERPA, dragging you & your classmates into a national scandal without consent.”

We need to hear the Gospel every day because we forget it every day.
—Martin Luther

Vice-signaling is such a great turn of phrase. Much more incisive than things like the politics of resentment and grievance

Thread

If you've read There Is No Place for Us, you'll remember that at the end of the book, after an anguished stretch of homelessness, Kara and her children finally move into an apartment at Chelsea Gardens—a run-down, aging complex in College Park. A place she hoped would be their fresh start.

Walter Breuggemann, influential biblical scholar, dies at 92 (RNS) — His books were influential primarily with clergy, but through their sermons Brueggeman’s concepts have become familiar to many churchgoers.

Walter Brueggemann, one of the most widely respected Bible scholars of the past century and author of more than 100 books of theology and biblical criticism, died today at 92.
religionnews.com/2025/06/05/w...

"The measure you use will be used against you."

A ministry shaped by conflict and grievance with the outside world has the same thing inside.

Watch it Burn Today our country (well, more specifically, the internet) is watching as a 166-year-old Louisiana plantation home burns all the way to the ground.

“I used to be a realtor and If someone is murdered in a house, nobody will touch it.

‘Bad energy,’ buyers say. ‘Dark history.’

But turn that murder into systemic, generational slavery?

Suddenly it’s charming. Suddenly it’s a showpiece.”

marykatherinebackstrom.substack.com/p/watch-it-b...

Do you think she knew your past work, or did the word "Optimism" make her think that you were leftwing?

Etched portrait of Rev. Theo. S. White, Pastor of the First Colored Presbyterian Church of New York, based on a daguerrotype made by Clark Lith, published by H. H. Garnet, Troy, NY.

Theodore Wright, civic leader, minister, graduated Princeton in 1829. He helped found the American Anti-Slavery Association & 2 New York City high schools. He was publicly outspoken advocating human rights & privately a conductor in the Underground Railroad.

"This endowment can be used by this church provided that their meeting minutes are always written in Pig Latin."

Theories of change are often used to help claim small pieces of a pie of resources -- and funders and supporters often use them as a way of trying to predict and control outcomes. They are for incremental changes.

Creative, generative forces that shape our social imagination usually come elsewhere.

I fully agree. Leadership is a joke, but power is not.

Leadership draws upon a shared sense of what is sacred or worth protecting -- values, a sense of collective direction, a common purpose.

With Trump, it's all personal, it's all about what control and dominance he can exert.

Great insights. Especially among young adults, the lack of broader intellectual engagement threatens vocational satisfaction, no matter what they do.

Not everyone is the "small magazine" type, but we all can nurture these things in coffee dates, dinner parties, meandering conversations, etc.

Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers talks about the need to reclainlm the importance of "Example" in spiritual formation. It's striking just how few we have, how much celebrity affects these patterns, in the ways @kkdumez.bsky.social and others identify so clearly.

This is a great example of Bonhoeffer's call to "simple obedience" - an ethic of "pacifism" as a principle can hide us from our command to love our neighbor. Christ and his command are sufficient for us to discern what to do.

I'm really grateful someone wrote a book about masculinity and evangelicalism to explain all of this. Have you ever met the author? 😂

There is no matter too insignificant that can't be used to celebrate the influence of Dear Leader.

But seriously, it also means that every sphere of life gets sucked in to the same relentless, exhausting pattern

It is wild that we are now in an age where journalists choose their most precious commodity to be access instead of credibility.

I also wonder, when careers are over, if journalists will reflect on their legacy as, "I got close to Trump" rather than "I shared what the public needed to know"

I wonder what that means for a generation to have such atypical role models and examples to live up to. Being a Youtube influencer, for example, is a LOT of hard work. Watching Youtube all day is a very different skillset.

In the future, the members of Gen Z who will be *really* successful will have a mindset that is very different from their generation overall.

There are many reports out there about Shedur botching interviews and interactions with NFL teams. This also has some elements of generational difference to it.

But at the end of the day, you have to first be *really good* at the main thing first. Shedur seems to have understood the modern celebrity game but missed the first part -- being an effective team player.

Celebrity today isn't just being really good at one thing. You have to cultivate a "platform" that intersects with fashion, tabloid gossip, politics, ethics, etc.

So I'm overthinking the Shedur Sanders situation -- and what it means about Gen Z and how to work with them in the future. www.tiktok.com/@bleacherrep...

Your comment actually underscores Nancy's point - that having face-to-face interactions with people is much more rewarding than, say, trying to be right on the internet.

A photo posted by Zelensky’s Presidential office shows Zelensky and Trump alone on the floor of St Peter’s Basillica in the Vatican. They are sat on two red chairs, face to face, inches apart. Zelensky is making a point, fist out. The marble floor and intricate decorations are visible all around.

Possibly the news photo of the decade.

Because so much of being a pastor in these contexts is about arguing for what seems like "common sense" more than a sense of submission / transformation from the Gospel story. All of these things are self-evident and linked together.