I believe God does call people into particular ministries and places of service. I can look backward across my own life and see moments when I knew, sometimes with remarkable clarity and sometimes only in retrospect, that God was leading me somewhere. But I wonder whether we have occasionally made the call too small.  Read More

Leadership has a great deal in common with driving through Alaska in the dark. There are things we know. There are also things we know we don't know. Those are usually manageable. If I know that I don't understand something, I can ask a question. I can read. I can research. I can call somebody who has spent his life studying wildlife and ask him how not to hit a moose.  Read More

For much of my adult life, ministry and education have crossed paths. I have stood in pulpits and classrooms and watched pastors try to understand families while teachers try to understand children. Perhaps that is why a question increasingly troubles me: Are our churches prepared for the children and families already coming through our doors?  Read More

I have worn the title long enough that I am not sure where "Pastor" ends and "Al" begins. And now, for the first time in a very long time, I am finding out.   Read More