Third grade literacy is key to success in the classroom and beyond | Opinion

“No matter how dramatic the end result, good-to-great transformations never happen in one fell swoop. In building a great company or enterprise, there is no single defining action, no grand program, no one killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, no miracle moment. Rather, the process resembles relentlessly pushing a giant, heavy flywheel, turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough, and beyond.” ... Read More

Anti-gun violence activist Fred Guttenberg tears into President Trump: ‘You must be removed’

The president made light of a burglary of the Baltimore home of U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the African American congressman who is chairman of the House Oversight Committee, which has been investigating the Trump administration. Trump started tweeting anti-Cummings messages on Saturday. The burglary, which just got news media attention, happened before Trump started criticizing the congressman. ... Read More

UPDATED: Cool things to do during hot August in Miami, Lauderdale, Boca and other SoFlo cities

Rickey Smiley, the comedian who has turned his stand-up into a cottage industry, will host a night of up-and-coming comics from South Florida with “Pompano Stand Up Live!” Smiley not only has his mega-popular syndicated morning radio show in more than 60 markets (locally on WEDR-FM/99 Jamz), but is also a regular on the syndicated TV show “Dish Nation” (locally on WBFS-TV/My33). He has released eight comedy albums and made star-making turns on television shows such as “Comic... Read More

Sen. Rick Scott is right: ‘Moscow Mitch’ McConnell needs to go | Steve Bousquet

It’s long past time for “Moscow Mitch” McConnell to retire from the U.S. Senate, gallop off into the sunset and go back to Kentucky. Proverbially speaking, of course. Everybody knows most senators never leave D.C. They become lobbyists, profiting a second time off the insider knowledge they gained at our expense by holding a public trust. ... Read More

The Gulf Stream is slowing down. That could mean rising seas and a hotter Florida

“If the Gulf Stream strengthens, you can think of that sort of sweeping the water away from the coast more rapidly and that tends to suppress sea level,” said Ben Kirtman, professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. “So a strong Gulf Stream is a good thing. And if the Gulf Stream weakens, just the opposite happens. It’s not sweeping away the water as much, and so sea level rises. If the Gulf Stream weakens, it... Read More

Bonhoeffer Convinced Me to Abandon My Dream

His words challenged everything I had learned about pastoral vision. In a seminary class on leadership, the professor gave us each the assignment of designing a church. We had to write out a mission statement, vision statement, values, and beliefs. I worked hard on it but received a B. Apparently, I overused the word gospel. The professor's note explained that the word was not contextualized enough for the post-Christian city I had identified as the location for this imaginary church... Read More

Rural Youth Ministry: Are We Ready for the Next Wave?: Part 2

We need to close the gap between younger and older generations. In Part 1, I talked about the Jesus Movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s that helped increase the youth ministry movement around the nation. The rural youth ministry that I oversee began as a result of this movement. In some ways, I believe that we are starting to see a new movement of God happening within the youth, but in looking back at what happened during the last movement, I think we need to prepare for this new wave... Read More

World Vision Helped Evangelicals Become Social Activists—Within Limits

A new history tracks the uneasy alliance between the organization and its core supporters. When World Vision responded to the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa, it didn’t tell supporters. The work wasn’t secret, exactly, but the organization also didn’t publicize what it was doing. It didn’t know how to publicize it, how to get evangelical donors to care about this particular crisis, AIDS in Africa. AIDS meant sex. AIDS was icky. It was associated with homosexuality, sexual... Read More