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James Alison—a British theologian and Catholic priest whom I may not always agree with—made an interesting comment on a podcast several years ago.    I stumbled across it in the book Cross Purposes by Jonathan Rauch.   When asked to summarize in three sentences what Jesus was trying to teach us, Alison responded with three tenets:   "I think the first one would be ‘Do not be afraid.’ . . . The second one would be, ‘Imitate me.’ And the third one would be, ‘Forgive each other

Back when I was pastoring, a professional poker player attended our church regularly.     He had won national championships and various World Series of Poker events.   One weekend he caught me between services and asked, “Hey Dave, what do you think about gambling?”   “Depends on what you think about tithing,” I responded.   Okay, I agree it was flippant. And I do have some thoughts about gambling, including the oft-repeated line, “State lotteries are a tax on stupid.”   I do

I am a product of the Jesus Movement that swept across the U.S. in the early 1970s.   Many of my generation felt betrayed by how our elders and government responded to the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, the corruption of the Nixon/Agnew administration, women’s liberation, and other societal fissures.   Timothy Leary’s “tune in, turn on, drop out” mantra seemed reasonable in light of our disillusionment with institutions that appeared blind to the inevitable course of

Some years ago, we expanded our work into the faith-based nonprofit space.   The origin story of The Elemental Group was initially focused on churches, particularly those that didn’t have the resources to engage with consultancies that larger churches had.   And that’s what we did for years.   Then, at one point, a megachurch asked us to help assess the health and effectiveness of the dozens of nonprofits they supported financially. What’s more, could we not only survey and a

My friend Jim Henderson turned me on to a Substack from an astute Gen Z economics-whiz and author named Kyla Scanlon .  In This Economy? How Money and Markets Really Work ; Penguin Random House 2024   I’ve since seen her on several national interviews helping to make sense out of the economy in a way that my IQ points can handle.   Plus, I think she’s a Jesus-follower. And, by the way, from Kentucky, my country of origin. And believe me, it’s a country.   Anyway, she recent

Many decades ago, I spent some time writing down some personal mantras that I wanted to live by as a leader.    It was sort of a “leadership affirmations” list, but it meant more to me than a daily confession; I wanted to think through what would guide my life and behaviors as a leader.   I limited myself to five .   Why five? No reason.   I just find that I like to force arbitrary parameters that constrain me to consider what the  most important  items are in whatever I’m wr