In his epic six-volume memoir of the Second World War, Winston Churchill recounted the highs and lows that marked his years as British Prime Minister. By the fall of 1941, his nation stood almost singlehandedly against the might of Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s Italy, and Imperial Japan. Churchill’s call was to “keep the seas open and ourselves alive.” Realistically, the situation… Read more »
Want to steer away from controversy at your next dinner engagement? Avoid three topics: Politics, religion, and what constitutes the best drinking water. Bottled or tap? Spring-fed or snow melt? Brand names or generic? Isn’t it all just water? Perrier launched the bottled water craze by putting a few ounces of “imported” H20 into a fancy bottle and selling it… Read more »
When Tim Keller and his wife Kathy launched a new church in Manhattan a few decades ago, they knew it would be a draining endeavor. Keller, who struggles with work addiction, had discerned that his life would be seriously out of balance for at least the first three years. That meant he would be working at a pace that he… Read more »
Author and evangelist Tony Campolo was once invited to speak at a small Pentecostal college in eastern Pennsylvania. Before the chapel service, several of the faculty members took Tony into a side room to pray with him. Tony got down on his knees and six men put their hands on his head and began to pray. Now Pentecostal prayers can… Read more »
When I was growing up, some of the older boys in my school used to taunt me: “Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o!” It appears they were right, because it’s all come horribly true. I’m old. My name is McDonald. And I do indeed live on a farm – a small horse farm about a half-hour’s drive from downtown Indianapolis. … Read more »
Norman Borlaug may be the most remarkable person you’ve never heard of. The American agronomist, who died in 2009 at the age of 95, revolutionized global food supplies. In the words of former Minnesota Senator Rudy Boschwitz, “Norman Borlaug is the first person in history to save a billion human lives.” Hunger has always stalked humanity. In France alone between… Read more »
According to Greek mythology, the seemingly invincible warrior Achilles was saddled with the original Achilles heel. His mother Thetis, in an effort to endow her infant with immortality, had dipped him into the river Styx. Unfortunately, his left heel never made it into the water. That’s the place where she had been holding him. Having one small point of vulnerability… Read more »
“The Lrod is naer to the broknehreated and svaes the crsuehd in siprit.” (Psalm 34:18) If you copy the words above as written, your spell-checker will throw a hissy fit. What’s interesting is that our brains have no problem making sense of them. Researchers at Cambridge have confirmed that as long as the first letter is first and the last… Read more »
No one remembers the first person who said it, but it really is a great line: God may have gotten his people out of Egypt, but his next job was far tougher: getting Egypt out of his people. According to the book of Exodus, there was nothing simple or easy about the task that God entrusted to Moses. This fearful… Read more »
Congregational leaders are currently wrestling with a question that no one alive has ever had to face: When the pandemic is finally behind us, will church attenders come back to church? There are good reasons for believing that the New Normal will not look exactly like the Old Normal. Long before America was driven indoors by social distancing, mask-wearing, and… Read more »
