There are moments in ministry when you know, before the words even leave your mouth, that people may not stay to hear the end of the sermon. I have lived that moment. Years ago, while serving on the Southern Oregon Coast, the movement for Black Lives Matter was growing in visibility across the country. Conversations about race, justice, policing, and history were becoming louder, more public, and more divisive. Many churches avoided the topic entirely. It feels safer that way

An AI generated epic toy battle! Every so often, when I drive down 13th Street heading toward downtown Salem, Oregon, a neighboring city, I pass a house with a fenced yard that faces the street. Inside the yard are large Transformers, action figures, and dolls. Every time I pass by, they’re in different positions—locked in new poses, new standoffs, new imagined clashes. It’s clear the children who live there are staging an epic battle. Good versus evil. Heroes and villains. T