Growing A Generous Family

If you are reading this, you are already in process with thinking about how to create a generous legacy. I use that term intentionally—generous legacy. In our Western culture, we’ve tended to focus on pre-transition planning. This is the work of estate planners, financial planners and life insurance planners. There, the focus is on the financial assets and how to …

Empty Nest? Ha! Try this….

Families have seasons, and for us we’ve reached that season called empty nest. Our youngest flew the coop at the end of July. He had to report for pre-season soccer training. But in the weeks since then, we’ve had this crazy season of activity: we celebrated our anniversary with a weekend away we took a carload of stuff to Nashville …

Giving With Your Life

She’s from a Middle East country. She came to America on a green card. For now, she lives with us, and she’s a student at Johnson County Community College.  In their country, they hold a lottery to determine who will win a green card and earn the right to come to the United States. For foreigners, coming to the United …

What Does It Mean To Be Successful?

Most of us will never get the stage. Most of us will never share a newspaper headline, and frankly, wouldn’t want it. We’ll labor away in the relative obscurity of the day to day.

And right there is the magic—the day to day. Day after day of faithfulness. Day after day of giving your life away. Day after day of coming into divine encounters—if only I would see.

Be Generous Today

It’s Monday at Panera, and this scene is being repeated 1,000 times over across the country. People—some of them in a hurry, some of them steady, some of them with great cares—but all of them with stories. They have pasts full of pain and joy.

It’s All About The Gift

Consider it. What would happen if John 3:16 simply read, “For God so loved the world?” What if God did nothing more than love? I wonder, frankly, if the earth would have remained formless and void without substance? I wonder what would have happened if God only had good intentions?

Defining Success

I have wondered often about success. What is it? Why do we long for it, lose sleep and train endlessly to attain it? Is it the balance of a bank account? Is it our name in a headline? Is it awards, prizes or ribbons? Is it an achievement of some sort? Is there a measure that marks when you’ve arrived? Is there something that signifies that you are somehow a success?

The Wrong Way to Judge a Ministry

For years, the gold standard in ministry effectiveness has been how much is spent on administrative costs. The arbitrary standard is that if a ministry spends 10% or less on administrative costs, then they are deemed “effective.”

Think about it: low administrative costs equals effectiveness. The theory is that if 10% or less is going to administration then 90% is going to programs or direct support. Jack Shakely wrote a compelling editorial for the LA Times (April 30, 2012) where he challenges this notion. Here’s why: in trying to reach the 10% standard, many organizations have gone to great lengths to pump up their contributions—particularly in-kind contributions—to make their administrative costs look smaller.

The Cost of the Panera Gospel

Wistful. It’s the only way I can describe it. She was clearly a grandmother holding her grandchild on one of those formica top tables at Panera bread. She tried to elicit a baby “coo” as grandmothers are want to do. The child was wrapped tight in one of those fuzzy warm blankets while the mother stood in line casting backward glances at grandmother and child.

And I reflected on the privilege of that grandmother—to hold her grandchild, at Panera on a cold winter day. In my own mind, I see my kids growing up, and perhaps they will end up in distant cities or even foreign lands bearing the torch of the gospel.

12 Million More Non Profits!?

The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported that the non-profit world is expected to grow…by 12 million new organizations.

As the nearly 80 million Boomers head toward retirement, some become altruistic, and some need something to do. So they create non-profits and work on doing something good. Some will fund these non-profits themselves. Some will seek funding from others.