On a hill above the lake of Galilee there is a chapel that sits on the site from which Jesus delivered the Beatitudes. As a boy, I had to memorize the whole passage from the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew, so I can still recite most of them. As I sat there going over each one again, I thought how idealistic they are compared to much of the common-sense exhortation we hear today about leadership and how to be a winner. Frederick Buechner put it best for me: Jesus saved for last the ones who side with heaven even when any fool can see it’s the…

As some of you know, I enjoy taking pictures – and then finding something to say.

One of my professors in seminary was Dr. James Fowler, the author of Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning. I thought of his teachings again this week while remembering a trip with donors to visit ministries in the Dominican Republic. I realized that in much the same way we mature in faith, we tend to grow as givers. We all start at the beginning, and each stage is important and necessary. In fact, we won’t develop fully if we skip a stage. I’ve learned over the years that giving is more of a team sport than an individual pursuit, so I wanted to offer my perspective…

The earliest foundations in America were established by men who had made fortunes by recognizing and capitalizing on social demographic industrial and financial changes in our country. Most were self-made and still young when accomplishing their discoveries or leveraging the new technology into enormous wealth and economic power. They were convinced they could use the same disciplines and mindsets to dispense what they had accumulated. Calling it “scientific philanthropy,” they focused their energies on solutions,  systems and large-scale issues. In “Charity Philanthropy and Civility in American History,” Judith Sealander writes, “They studied society closely, understood the dangers posed by the industrial revolution that had created their fortunes and worried publicly about the dangers. They and…

Growing up in church as a scrawny kid I was captured by stories of David slaying Goliath, Gideon defeating the Midianites, and especially Samson taking out 1,000 Philistines practically bare handed. While I loved the daring of those figures, I was also taught to be careful about the temptations of great champions: David’s moral failure and desperate attempts to cover it up, Gideon’s late-in-life slip into creating an idol and snare for his family, and the far more dramatic and colorful life of Samson and his sensational self-destruction. All of these stories served as lessons to us that great strength demands responsibility, and there is danger of misusing those gifts. The…

Walking Around Money Speaking to a group of hundreds of conservative Christian faith leaders who met with him last June, Trump made his opposition to the Johnson Amendment a key point of his well-received speech: “I think maybe that will be my greatest contribution to Christianity — and other religions — is to allow you, when you talk religious liberty, to go and speak openly, and if you like somebody or want somebody to represent you, you should have the right to do it,” he said. “You don’t have any religious freedom, if you think about it.” By now, most of you know a little about the history of the Johnson Amendment. It was proposed…

As we left church on Sunday we sang the chorus: Because He lives, I can face tomorrow, Because He lives, all fear is gone; Because I know He holds the future, And life is worth the living, Just because He lives!   Walking out I started thinking about several articles I read this week on the growing interest in survivalism and an apocalyptic mood permeating so much of our country. Probably the most interesting is in a recent The New Yorker article, “Doomsday Prep For The Super-Rich” by Evan Osnos. For what might have been quirky and even humorous a few years ago, Osnos makes a chilling case that many of the Silicon Valley elite are preparing for…

Most often as a favor to an author or publisher, I have likely read as many books about fund-raising as any other topic. Some are classics like The Seven Faces of Philanthropy by Russ Prince or Henri Nouwen’s A Spirituality of Fundraising, but most, frankly, are either focused on how to minister to major donors assuming they are sad, dysfunctional and needy people or how to quickly discern their passions to align your organization with their interests. Even though I consider Peter Harris a friend, I put aside the book he wrote with Rod Wilson, Keeping Faith in Fundraising, I received last month. But then Rod commented on one of my recent blogs, asking if I had read their book. I found it in the stack and started reading quickly so I could give him a…

“A wise person should have money in his head but not in his heart.” Jonathan Swift One of the earliest scandals around insider trading involved Ivan Boesky. While many have forgotten him he lives on through the one quote attributed to him – and his being the basis for the character of Gordon Gekko (played by Michael Douglas) in the film, Wall Street: “Greed is good.” It was one of those unforgettable (and maybe unforgiveable) lines that summed up an era in one way but signaled the advent of another that was more irresponsible and harmful than even his own. In some ways Boesky was merely a precursor – or…

Over the last 30 years I have listened to parents wrestle with how best to pass wealth to their children. But the more complicated issue arises when they have to decide which of their children is most likely to handle the blessing well and not to be hobbled with an inheritance. What is fair? What is enough to express love but not spoil? Those who deserve the most are not always easy to discern. Take the case of the Levites. The people became impatient waiting for Moses to return from meeting with God on Mt. Sinai and created a golden calf to worship. After Moses discovered what they had done he shouted, “Whoever is for the Lord, come…