Rebellions do not happen overnight. After years, there is always a tipping point in either an event or a moment that precipitates them. We talk about the beginnings of the American Revolution and we know it was not simply the Boston Tea Party or the Boston Massacre, but the years of resentment over the taxes Britain imposed to maintain their troops after the French-Indian War and to increase revenue for a Parliament strapped for cash by an exploding national debt. There was a twelve-year buildup to the American Revolution. It is true for David’s son, Absalom’s rebellion as well. Look at the numbers: After the rape of his sister Tamar…

In that same interview mentioned in the blog last week the question was asked, “What is the state of what some of us call Big Philanthropy in America.” Big is usually relative, isn’t it? Not only that but bigness always faces challenges that are new. For generations in this country there were relatively few big churches. Even now, the average church size is around 100 attending. When we began Leadership Network in 1985 to focus on the growing phenomenon of large churches we could find only about 300 churches with a weekly attendance of 1,000 or more and today there are likely over 3,000 megachurches. While the issues of the…

A few weeks ago I did an interview and while much of it was on philanthropy the questions ranged across a number of topics. This first question was a good one. Does religion still have a place in what some used to call “the public square”? Yes, of course. However, it will be (and should be) what we have long referred to as “civil religion” and not a particular brand of religion. It has always been a combination of commonly held beliefs, symbols and rituals that have served as a national religion with its own sacred places and ceremonies. Truthfully, we want that. The question about religion and its influence…

In 1887, four people in Denver imagined a plan for working together in new ways to make Denver a better place. They founded a small organization to benefit 10 area health and welfare agencies while raising $21,700 that first year. That idea became the first United Way and the movement has since raised and distributed billions of dollars across the world. In an an effort to improve the way the Cleveland Trust Company did business, the company’s president, Frederick H. Goff, established in Ohio in 1914 the world’s first community foundation, The Cleveland Foundation. He combined a number of trusts managed by the bank into a single organization. The foundation…