Unpop Culture

The more things stay the same, the less they change—and that’s how I like it. Even so, and though I’ve fought the need for changing my writing modus operandi , the time has come for me to acknowledge the limitations of blogging . These days, more people are preferring to limit their online intake to social media and email subscriptions. Thus, in order to continue growing my audience, I have decided to make a change: I will be using Substack as my go-to home for new posts. This setup will allow you to more easily access my writing, as each new post will be delivered to you via email. In my very first blog post (published in January of 2006 ), I gave a few reasons for starting my own blog. With some tweaking and condensing, those reasons apply to my new venture into newsletter writing: 1) Everyone else is doing it 2) If I am to maintain my individuality, I must conform to the status quo 3) As a writer, I am motivated to hone my skills while utilizing strategic platforms 4) As an activist...

I recently came across a fascinating study by psychology professor John Hayes at Carnegie Mellon University. He evaluated pieces of music written from 1685 to 1900 by composers who are now considered successful. The focus? To answer the question, “How long after one becomes interested in music is it that one becomes world class?” Professor Hayes narrowed the selection down to 500 compositions, written by 76 different composers, all of which are performed regularly in modern times and are generally considered to be the cream of the crop. He then created a timeline for each composer’s career, seeking to determine how long they had been composing music before writing these masterpieces. Here’s what he discovered : [V]irtually every single “masterwork” was written after year ten of the composer’s career. . . . Not a single person produced incredible work without putting in a decade of practice first. Even a genius like Mozart had to work for at least ten years before he produced ...

My friend Trillia Newbell knows the term “color blind” is well intentioned, but it might cause us to miss out on the beauty of our differences. She’s written about that beauty in her newly released book, United: Captured by God’s Vision for Diversity . Shannon and I are looking forward to getting our own copy. If you care about diversity in the church—or especially if you don't—you could benefit from reading this book. To help motivate you toward that end, I asked Trillia to talk with me about the book and how she hopes it will serve the body of Christ. Q: There are many in our Western culture who would say, “I’m not prejudiced. Our church may be predominantly one race, but we love everyone. I don’t see a need for reading something like this.” What would you say to encourage someone like that to read your book? A: A lot of people are thinking we’re post racial, but until Jesus comes back we’re going to struggle with racism. Until then, you should want to know about...

I have a problem: I want to be famous. As a college student studying film and video, my “famedom” took the form of wanting to win an Oscar for my amazing abilities, purportedly for the glory of God. Hindsight is 20/20, and I can more readily see how my aspiration was really for the glory of Cap. To date, I haven’t produced an Oscar-winning film. And even though that ship has been unmoored (it’s getting ready to set sail), I still find in myself a desire to be publicly lauded and appreciated. To a certain degree, I think we all want that. (Yep, I’m dragging you all down with me on this one. I don’t want to hang out in this dirty pit alone, so welcome to the club.) Which brings us to the example of C. S. Lewis. This past November marked the 50th anniversary of Lewis’ death. A recent national conference, The Romantic Rationalist: God, Life & Imagination in the Life of C. S. Lewis , sought to explore the key to Lewis’ influence. To begin with, though, conference host John Pip...