In my new book The Vanishing Church, I tell the story about a church service I attended in college.
Young guy comes in late with his girlfriend and baby.
During Prayers of People he speaks up and says, "I lost my job and I'm not sure I can pay rent."
"Lord in your mercy, Hear our prayer."
As the service ends, an older guy comes up to that young man and says, "I own the lumber yard and you can come work with me tomorrow."
It's not magic.
It's how faith communities operate.
This is the most detailed MRI scan of an unborn baby.
At just 20 weeks, she is moving, turning her head, kicking—even standing. Her beating heart is also visible.
Human life is a miracle.
The mic cut out during O Canada at the Sabres game.
Buffalo filled every single second of silence.
Sang it word for word.
This is how you tell your neighbors you see them.
We love Canada. Don’t listen to the noise.
I've got brand new data about American religion that was collected in October of 2025.
And, folks...
The share of Americans who are non-religious has dropped for the third year in a row.
Atheists and agnostics are down to 5% each.
Those are 2014 levels.
This story is now more than 25 years old and I have told it more times than I can count, but it hits very differently today.
I was anchoring SportsCenter one afternoon and Lou Holtz was on the show. I was quite excited to talk with him, he had been an icon all of my life.
He was very friendly, asking me all about myself as we walked toward the studio to record an interview. I told him: “Actually, Coach, it’s quite exciting, my wife and I are expecting our first child in the next few weeks.”
He stopped dead in his tracks and put a finger up near my face. And I’ll never forget what he said.
“Young man, the most important thing you can do for a child is make sure every day they know how much you love their mother.”
And, just like that, he started walking again.
Our daughter was born a month later, our son came two years after that. And I have thought about what Lou Holtz said to me that day about a million times since.
RIP Coach, thanks for the best advice anyone ever gave me.
Life rarely changes in a positive way without an increase in responsibility.
That can mean taking ownership of your health or committing to a relationship or starting a business.
Whatever it is, if you want the trajectory to change, the amount of responsibility usually has to change.
My late cousin, who I adored and miss every day, once said to me: Never make fun of someone for mispronouncing a word. It means they learned it by reading.
How parents can help their children stay strong in their Christian convictions:
In a multiyear study by Fuller Seminary, researchers asked why so many young people lose their faith when they go off to college.
The researchers found one factor that was most important in whether they hold on to their convictions.
It was not what most people would think.
Join a campus Bible study? A prayer group?
Important as those things can be -- the single most important factor was whether the teens had a chance to struggle openly with their doubts and questions even before they left home:
“The more college students felt that they had the opportunity to express their doubt while they were in high school, the higher their levels of faith maturity and spiritual maturity...
Students who had the opportunity to struggle with tough questions and [even painful questions] during high school seemed to have a healthier transition into college life”—and beyond.
The Fuller study gives solid evidence that students actually grow more confident in their Christian commitment when the adults in their life—parents, pastors, teachers—guide them in grappling with the challenges posed by prevailing secular worldviews.
(from Saving Leonardo)
“When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall. If they are wrong they need your prayers all the more; and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them. That is one of the rules common to the whole house.” C.S. Lewis / Mere Christianity