As the Lutheran scholar Martin Marty once observed, people these days who are civil often lack strong convictions, and people with strong religious convictions often are not very civil.

  Most of us are first made to read Shakespeare before we have enough life experience to even partially understand it. It wasn’t until I was teaching King Lear in senior English at Stony Brook – and had a daughter of my own – before I realized that King Lear was so much about his relationship with his daughters and his desperate attempt to pass off responsibility without giving up privilege. It was the tragic tale of a father demanding love and honor – things that could only be earned. Years went by and I didn’t reread King Lear until much later when I was co-teaching “The Wise Art of…

Dr. John Stott’s last bit of advice to his assistant before he died was simply this, “Do the hard thing.” “Uncle John” believed that choosing the easy trail, the road most taken, and the path of least resistance can only end in mediocrity – even if it comes with praise. I experienced firsthand John Stott doing the hard thing. He arrived late at night from London to talk with a group of pastors the next day. I met with John to let him know we designed the meeting to allow him the freedom of no preparation; he had only to reflect on what he had already written. When I told…

He sat down, paused before he spoke, and then said, “It's too much for me to give thanks. I cannot be thankful for this. I will never be thankful for this.”

  There are times I understand how pastors feel when people ask them what they do the rest of the week because the only time they see them is on Sunday. The Gathering conference could at least qualify as a revival because it lasts four days, but people sometimes ask me how we spend our time after we pack up our tent and go home. We go fishing. Every morning we get up, put on our waders, sling the creel over our shoulder and get out in the stream. Now you know. We cast for ideas, people, topics, different perspectives and practical applications to bring to The Gathering. We look…

Family: “We are involved with a start-up ministry and have made a public pledge based on the sale of a property. Is there any way we can get credit for the full sale price but not put the entire amount in the gift? We want to make the list of major donors but hold back part of the proceeds.” Advisor: “I think we can do that. We’ll just set up some instruments that are a bit complicated but create the impression you’ve given the full amount. We can hide the rest in a trust or claim some expenses that will be invisible to everyone but you. No problem.” This conversation…

Maybe it's both as Winston Churchill said. “This is no time for ease and comfort. It is a time to dare and endure.”

Hillary Clinton stirred up some dust in her interview in The Atlantic by saying, “Great nations need organizing principles and ‘don't do stupid stuff’