Imagine a see-saw with two children on either end. If equally matched everything goes smoothly. However, if one is bigger than the other it is hard work to keep the rhythm of back and forth. There is always an imbalance between them. In a 1924 article in the Atlantic Monthly, Lord Moulton wrote about the see-saw effect in the norms of a society. He titled it “Obedience to the Unenforceable.” Just like our see-saw there are two opposite forces acting on a society. One is complete Law where our every action is prescribed by binding rules which must be obeyed. On the opposite end is the force of total Free…

A column by David Brooks, “The Life Reports,” included this line: “‎Resilience is a major theme…I don’t think we remind young people enough that life is hard.”  The purpose of the column was to report on the thousands of responses he had received to his request for readers over 70 to send him “Life Reports” or little essays in which they evaluate their own lives. In reading them he discovered how many of them had difficult lives and one of his conclusions was the above quote.  Our young people need to be reminded more than they are about the inevitable difficulties of life for which they may not be prepared. …

“By then day had broken everywhere, but here it was still night – no, more than night.”                                  Pliny theYounger   Years ago, while serving as a counselor at youth crusades, we were trained to hand each person making a decision for Christ a pocket version of the Gospel of John. Why? Because our leaders thought it captured the love of God better than any of the other Gospels. The stories of the Samaritan woman at the well, Nicodemus, the blind beggar healed, the feeding of the five thousand, and the raising of Lazarus – as well as what may be the most famous verse in the Bible – were…

Everyone likes a mystery, especially one about the rich. My interest was piqued while reading an article by Drew Lindsay in the “Chronicle of Philanthropy.” The article’s subject is David Gundlach, the enigmatic donor who left close to $150 million to his hometown’s community foundation in Elkhart, Indiana. I began to read articles about his life – what little was known about it. In fact, it is less of a true mystery than it is a story of an unfinished quest in the life of a boy from a small town becoming rich after the sale of his company. This line from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” reminds me…

The earliest Church faced opposition from hundreds of other cults and religions. But some of the stiffest competition came from within the groups of believers themselves. You may remember Paul’s first visit to Ephesus where he discovered many were followers of the baptism of John but had heard nothing about the Holy Spirit. Paul didn’t criticize or make them feel less than Christian. He simply took them from where they were to the next step.   It is too easy to fall into the habit of discounting efforts for leading people to Christ if what they encounter first seems incomplete or superficial. I know that is the way I have…

In the years between 1845 -1849, Ireland suffered one of the most destructive famines in history. Known as The Great Hunger, over 1 million people died by mass starvation and another million or more emigrated (and often perished) in “coffin ships” to other countries. Ireland lost almost 25 percent of its population and even now has never fully recovered. Every area – economic, demographic, political and religious – was affected by the famine. Like those experiencing famines in the Old Testament, the axis of their lives was violently tilted and they did whatever was needed to survive. In the book of Amos, the prophet is told Israel will suffer a…

My father had the best definition of leadership I know: “Look back and if there are people following you then you are a leader.” All of us have known people who are leaders without having read a book or taken a course in leadership. People follow them when they say they are going somewhere. In spite of fears and hesitations they get up from what they are doing and go. Some people are born with the ability to say, “Let’s go, guys” and people fall in.  The word for that in Greek is dierchomai and it describes the way Jesus led the disciples much of the time. Just when they…

My first experience consulting for a foundation was in 1977. A friend had been giving to a televangelist and wanted to know if his major gifts to the ministry were being used appropriately. After three months of interviews and research, it was clear to me he was being taken. His heart was right but the evangelist had him in a “headlock” of sorts. Like millions of other donors he had come to believe the evangelist had a special anointing and the outlandish claims and lifestyle were all part of his appeal. He was a great builder of the Kingdom and God was moving through his ministry.  I presented my conclusions…

In 1967 film maker (and devout Christian) Irwin “Shorty” Yeaworth  produced “The Gospel Blimp” as a send-up of the craze over mass evangelism using the latest technology to reach a whole community in the most effective way possible – an inflatable blimp. They towed Bible-verse banners, “firebombing” the unchurched citizens with thousands of gospel tracts and broadcasting Christian music and programs over loudspeakers. Things unravel and the new technology ends up being just one more way of wasting money with little positive effect. But for a brief moment it is new, exciting and full of promise. Shorty was a colorful character and a periodic guest in our home. He died…

Ten years ago I was sitting at my daughter’s graduation from Fuller Seminary. Haley was just about the same age I was when graduating from Harvard Divinity forty years earlier. One significant exception  was I didn’t recall hugging the Dean of the Divinity School as she did President Richard Mouw as a reflection of deep regard for him and his extraordinary relationship with the students and faculty.  There are many other differences between her experience and the years that separated us but one thing is the same. Along with hundreds of other parents, I was taking hurried and mostly blurred pictures of our graduates hoping to capture the moment in…