• Fred's Blog

    Jonah

    Michael Gerson mentioned on Facebook this week that he is re-reading Graham Greene’s “The Power and The Glory.” It’s the story of a failed priest on the run from the police. He is friendless, homeless and searching for some sense of purpose in his life. Hiding from his calling and decisions he has made in the past he is ironically incapable of not being a priest and ministering to people – even at the risk of his life. Tormented by his own sense of guilt he spends the whole of the novel both in flight and in pursuit. It is so much like the life of Jonah. I don’t know if…

  • Fred's Blog

    Some Things Never Change

      Last month the latest report by the Johnson Center on Millennial Giving (http://www.nextgendonors.org/) was released and is both interesting and helpful. However while there are clearly significant differences in the generations ” I think it is a mistake to assume that generational differences are the most important or determinative in describing donors. There are too many other factors.  While the book was written for development professionals ” the insights are invaluable in helping gain a better understanding of your own giving as a donor and how to be more effective in your own unique style.  Doing Good Makes Sense. Communitarians give because it makes good sense to do so.…

  • Bible Studies

    Genesis 1:1-5

    1.  I don’t want to talk about all the various theories and explanations of creation this morning. Instead, I want to take a few minutes to give a perspective on the creation and then let Dr. Charley Gordon have a few minutes to do the same. 2.  We often think about the Gospel as beginning in the New Testament. It doesn’t. It begins before the beginning. The good news was part of the founding of the world and the universe. Christ did not come along afterwards in the New Testament. The first thing to see in Creation is Christ – not the creation of man. Colossians 1:15-20: 15 The Son…

  • Fred's Blog

    Your Cheating Heart

      Two nights ago I posted an article on Christian music that included this quote from Joe Bob Briggs: "Christian music is bad songs written about God by white people." My friend Steven Garber at the Washington Institute messaged me back with a piece he Steve Turner and Charlie Peacock had done at the Art House in Nashville. It began with the question “Can you sing songs shaped by the truest truths of the universe ” but in a language that the whole world can understand?” In the course of our back and forth” Steven passed along this observation from writer Walker Percy "Bad books always lie. They lie most…

  • Fred's Blog

    The Inconvenient Elder

      There has probably never been a time like today in our country for both the creation of wealth and non-profits and social entrepreneurs.We sometimes think this trend is new but it is an ancient pattern.Often you see this pattern go together “and at other times one follows the other. One of the reasons for the founding of monastic communities was that a generation of young people was turning away from the excesses of their wealthy parents.During the 12th and early 13th centuries there was something of an explosion of both wealth and the formation of informal orders within the Catholic Church. One of those” the Franciscans grew and spread…

  • Bible Studies

    Amos 7:1-17

    This morning I want to give some context for our guest teacher. I had asked her to be with us last week but she was in Houston. It turns out that this week is actually better as what she is doing and who she is are more directly related to the text. I am always glad when things work out that way. 1.  Amos 7:14: “I was neither a prophet or a prophet’s son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But The Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, “Go prophesy to my people Israel.” Two things to remember…