I have been reading some fascinating materials on generations -- sparked by and reacting to Millenials Rising by Strauss & Howe. If you are not familiar with these archetypes, Wikipedia actually offers a pretty comprehensive (even though basic) overview.

I could expound at length about the implications for the Church's approach to Youth Ministry, where Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers are designing programs for Millenials, but I will refrain.

A more personal musing for me has been on the differences i...
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My oldest child started college today. It sounds like an ordinary sentence, an ordinary occurrence. But here's what you need to know...

My oldest child is on the Autism Spectrum. You may think you know what that means but I assure you, you do not. For instance, here are some of the character traits of this child. Which one of these sounds like Autism to you?

extreme intelligence
highly developed empathy for those wounded by injustice
deeply involved in becoming a change agent to right wrongs
highl...
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Begone Spirit of Rage! You've taken up more than your share of time in my head today. Yes, things were said that I wish I could counter, What was said was unjust. It was unfair. It was wrong. But no great social ill will be righted by this feeling of angry vengeance. Its time is past. I cannot go back in time to redo the conversation. However witty, caustic and RIGHT are the comments I now wish I had made, they cannot be made now. All the eloquently angry and sweeping speeches I wish I had ma...
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The VERY long race for the Presidency is over. On election day, I posted on Twitter a simple truth about how I decided who to vote for.


Surprisingly, it was picked up and retweeted all over the place! It took me a bit to figure out why, but here's what I think:

I think we've forgotten how powerful we actually are. Think about this: 1 in 88 people in the U.S. are diagnosed as being on the Autism Spectrum -- approximate...
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If you've been reading along for a while, this story may be familiar. It's the story of my daughter's first encounter with prejudice and the ways in which it affected her.

I wrote this in June 2011:

My daughter is a dancer. She loves to sing, she loves to act--but above all these--she loves to dance. She has been dancing almost every minute of her life. She dances to the bus stop in the morning. She dances in hallways and on the playground. She turns flips and cartwheels from the bus to our do...
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This has been ringing in my mind for a month or so. Its a quote from one of my favorite movies - CLUE, starring Tim Curry, Martin Mull, Madeline Kahn and a host of other brilliant comic actors. Yes, it is a movie based on the board game. 

The line comes from Madeline Kahn's character, Mrs. White. It is revealed that she has had several husbands, all of whom have died under suspicious circumstances. When she is asked, "What was your husband like?", she replies:

             "He was always a stup...
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My Aspie Son... Those three words begin so many conversations in my head, in my work, in my writing. My oldest child, my teenager, my boy. The one who only started sleeping all night by himself THIS YEAR at age 15. The one who still needs my complete attention every morning just to get him dressed and out the door.

My Aspie Son... If I say it, and you know anything at all about Autism and the Spectrum, you probably already have a vision of him. You may be way off in many ways, but you probably...
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Autism--Dads: nothing to be ashamed about

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Guest Blogger Seth Fowler is co-author (with wife Melanie) of the newly released book : Look at My Eyes, available for order here from Brown Publishing. Read more about the Fowlers on their site by clicking here.

I often hear my 5-year-old son with autism as "being inside a box."  I get that.  He's in there somewhere...he reacts, he can speak a little bit, he feels and he knows when things are not how they should be.  So it's not like he's just a shell of a person with nothing going on inside....

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Just a quick note on a small revelation I had this week. I started on twitter (never thought I'd like it, but I REALLY do) and discovered what a great place it is to network for the Rhythms of Grace ministry. It really is wonderfully comforting to endure a major meltdown from my Aspie son, only to see someone else tweeting that the same thing is going on in their life at that very moment! Real time communications are amazing.

Now maybe this isn't a revelation for anyone else, but as I started ...
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I recently read an old, old article by Frederica Matthewes-Green. Here is a link to it: click here.  It got me thinking and praying on the promise of being known by God, even from before we were formed.

I tell volunteers to be prepared for a different kind of joy when they work with autism spectrum children.

The payoff for most of us in children or youth ministry is seeing these young people grow in the Lord -- seeing their enjoyment of programs, an increase in knowledge, a growing awareness of...
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