Sheep & Goats returns from an unexpected paternity leave! (The paternity was expected, but the need for leave was not.) If anyone has any wise words about why I should like the new Craig Finn album, or anything else, have at it in the comments! A brief reminder of the grading scale: A “Sheep”...

We all wear them, whether we realize it or not. They tend to define us or at the very least are what other people use to define us. They get placed somewhere on our chests. They are our nametags, the things that tell others who we are. I have always hated nametags, mostly because I dislike being put...

We’ve been chanting for eight years. Standing shoulder to shoulder as our hair disappeared and our children were born, with sweat dried on our foreheads as we yearned for more of what only you gave us. Of course we knew you would never come. You don’t do encores and we admired you for it. We came...

Eight years ago tonight it was snowing in Denver, CO. I know because I was there, along with thousands of Five Iron Frenzy fans, some who had traveled from around the world. We were there to see the end of something we had loved; to experience it one final time; to put it to rest. In November, Five Iron...

  This week, I went to church. Well, I went to a church. This church. It’s Christ Church Anglican Cathedral in my hometown, Newcastle, Australia. I’ve been going to visit this church for a few months now, usually when I need some time to clear my head and sense God’s presence close...

Right up until just a few years ago, I had no idea what Gods perfect will for my life was. Like most Christians, I prayed about it a lot. I listened to sermons on it in church, and read books about how to find out what it was. One thing I do know, actually trying to do Gods will is really confusing. It’s...

Musician Chris Beland of Bend, Oregon learns that he shares more with his Facebook friend and the front man from the Flying Burrito Brothers than just a love of music… In a hallway outside an auditorium that serves as home to Antioch Church in Bend, Oregon, Chris Beland Chabot presses his spine...

At the end of Moses’ life, he stood in front of his nation and reminded his people about the terms of their covenant with God. Moses reminded his people that God didn’t choose them because of a stellar track record of getting it right. They never were able to mind their spiritual P’s and Q’s....

Much of the buzz following the 2011 Golden Globes centered around host Ricky Gervais’ delicious skewering of faux celebrity culture. But I’d like to thank Gervais for standing up and proclaiming, “Thank You to God for Making Me an Atheist.” Someone needed to skewer those “Christians” who...

Daddy was the first dead person I ever saw. A child never forgets that image of their father in uniform, dead in a shiny metal casket. I remember the bloat in his face, the result of dying in jungle heat. That swollen face made Daddy look like somebody else’s father. My daddy wasn’t a fat man. There...