Criticism Avoiders Anonymous

"Hello. My name is Clark." (The people gathered in the room respond, "Hi, Clark.")

"I am a…" (Group says, "You ...

Ministry Means Problems

One big demoralizer in ministry is not having enough people to do the work. A few years ago at Leadership journal, we'd been short-staffed for three ...

Slander Destroys Churches

About 20 years ago, I said something impromptu to the new members standing in a row across the front of the church. As we received them, the Holy Spirit ...

Hold Your Judgment

A grocery store check-out clerk once wrote to advice-columnist Ann Landers to complain that she had seen people buy "luxury" food items—like ...

A Father Who Won't Affirm

In We Are Still Married, Garrison Keillor writes:

The town ball club was the Lake Wobegon Schroeders, so named because the starting nine were brothers, ...

Lincoln's Detractors Recant

The influential London Times was one of Abraham Lincoln's fiercest European critics during the Civil War. After he announced the Emancipation Proclamation, ...

Sabbath for the Tongue

In his book Sabbath Time, Tilden Edwards tells about a family with teenage children who decided, as part of their Sabbath commitments, that they would ...

General Colin Powell on Unity

General Colin Powell writes:

On the speech circuit, I tell a story that goes to the heart of America's longing. ABC correspondent Sam Donaldson was ...

Good Manners and Gratitude

I don't think I'll ever forget an incident a few years ago while I was helping a friend plant a tree at the local park. She had planted 23 trees ...

Learning to Live with Others

It is not easy living in a church community—it's full of sinful people who do all sorts of things that disturb us. But an old story from the lives ...