It's a shame when fellow preachers write off even the attempt to engage our culture and state, "Why bother?" It's deemed a waste to peruse contemporary influences like Marianne Williamson's Return to Love, Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth, Jonathan Demme's film Philadelphia, or to tune in to the Oprah show. Yet, these are the thought-shapers of our society.

When I was in junior high, my dad - a seminary professor and preacher - became even more of what I guess Johnston would call a one-part sociologist. He added Rolling Stone Magazine into his regular rotation of TIME and Newsweek. He wanted to weigh the lyrical stories and emotions that were floating around in the world of music. By way of the often scathing opinion pieces, he wanted to see how others were processing world events and reading cultural tides. He wanted to carefully observe and weigh the sights, sounds, and colors of the world. I know now that he subscribed to the magazine in part to understand me - though I certainly wasn't like most anyone in its pages (namely, I wasn't cool in any way, shape, or form). Even still, it helped him learn some of the deeper tones in my generational soul, and it certainly helped him see the world in which I lived, moved, and breathed (even if I was in it, but not of it, to quote the oft-quoted idea).

Funny thing is, along the way, it also helped him as a teacher and preacher of the Word. I grew up watching my father's discipline of cultural sensitivity pay off not only in shaping his parenting abilities, but also in his pastoral abilities. He became an even better preacher than before. He elevated Scripture and the Person of Christ above all else, but he could do so that much more by effectively referencing and cutting away at the anthems and idols of the day. He knew the times quite intimately, and he preached to them quite accordingly. It was a bit later that I realized how very Mars Hill-ish it all was.

Reading Rolling Stone isn't the only thing he does to keep his ear to the ground, but he would say it's one of the more crucial ones. And I have my own practices as well. I, too, read Rolling Stone ("Train up a child..."). I sometimes have to tear off the cover or toss it aside when it's a bit much, but it's worth it more than it's not. I watch movies. I do my best to read widely in fiction and nonfiction, "Christian" and nonChristian. I listen to all sorts of music, from rock to alternative to jazz to classical. I do it all with great caution, with great concern, and with this great calling in mind we call preaching.

I'm curious, what do you specifically do as a preacher to know the times intimately and preach to them accordingly? What do you read, watch, or listen to in order to be "one-part sociologist?"