Finding Common Ground Under a Shared Sky

2026 will be my year for finally getting a newsletter off the ground. I just know it.

It’s been a while: At some point in the past few years*, you read something of mine that you liked and signed up to receive emails from me.

(*Or in the last day or so, after I made a Insta/Facebook post inviting you to sign up.)

If the details seem fuzzy… well, first of all, thanks for even opening this email. A quick reintroduction: I write for Christianity Today most frequently, but occasionally for other outlets as well, including the New York Times and The Atlantic and The Free Press. (You can find my archives with those publications by clicking those links.)

But now I’m doing what I probably should have done years ago: moving my mailing list to Substack. (This makes little difference on your end, but I think it will help me stay more connected to and in conversation with people who read my work. Plus, I’m really, really tired of social media and don’t want to depend on those algorithms to connect me to readers like you.)

Here’s what you can expect: My goal is to send a short note a couple of times a month: covering things I’m working on, questions I’m wrestling with, perspectives I’m considering, essays and books I’ve appreciated, and maybe even the occasional funny video I’ve forced my co-workers at First Pres to watch. (Seriously. Go watch that. Classic and epic journalism.)

I’m still writing a lot of dispatches from West Texas… but even if you live far from here, I hope reading my newsletter reminds you that we have a lot of common ground underneath this wide-open, shared sky.

I stopped on the side of the road, driving back roads home from OKC, to take this picture last week... no clouds. no people, no power lines… just room to breathe.

So that this isn’t just an email about sending future emails…

…I wanted to take a moment to share what I’ve been working on lately and what I have in store. (And provide unlocked links so you should be able to read for free.)

First up, something from my archives for this Sunday, which is known in more liturgical churches as Christ the King Sunday:

Christ the King Sunday is a yearly reminder that Christ is our only Lord—and that while governments rise and fall, he is Lord eternal. Last year, I wrote about how I think this is a reminder all of us need.

“History shows us how serious it is to be insufficiently serious about our allegiance to Jesus alone. Yes, we should be good citizens and respectful of authorities—but at the same time, we ought to be a little ungovernable. We obey our rulers for the sake of God, not for their own sake (1 Pet. 2:13), and when God and our rulers come into conflict, “We must obey God rather than human beings!” (Acts 5:29).

Caesar gets our respect, but Jesus gets our hearts.”

Read the full essay here: Christ Our King, Come What May

Next: A story about a most unusual gathering:

The CDC Listened to Vaccine-Hesitant Moms in My Living Room | Last spring, an editor from the New York Times called in the middle of the measles outbreak and asked me to write an OpEd about why people in more conservative communities were not getting vaccinated. Because I’ve rarely met a controversy I didn’t want to take on, I said yes please. What happened next led to some pretty nasty hate mail, but also one of the most unexpectedly delightful social gatherings I’ve ever hosted. The headline on this essay gives what that was away, but I hope you read it anyway because I think its relevant to lots of situations, especially as we try to figure out how to bridge seemingly impossible divides and come back together.

And, finally, my latest project:

Are the Public Schools Falling Apart? | Christianity Today invited me to write a series about education, exploring nationwide challenges and trends that affect all of us through the lens of what I see happening right here in Midland, Texas. The intro to the series published Thursday, and I’m about to start working on the next one: a frank and honest look at how untested, unproven, and ubiquitous technology platforms in the classroom have rapidly transformed education.

Here’s where you come in!
I’d love to hear from you about what you’re seeing in your communities. Do you sees glimmers of hope or cause for concern or a little bit of both? How has technology transformed your children’s education, for better or worse? I’d love to hear from you; reply to this email or write to me and my editors at education@christianitytoday.org.

Some final bits of housekeeping…

If you can’t find the newsletter, check your spam folder. And please mark this address as ‘not spam.’ If the newsletter isn’t in your spam folder, either, you should look in the Promotions tab.

You can always see everything on the website.

Thanks again, and please tell a few friends if you feel like it.