"It's awkward and uncomfortable - like a three-legged race. I'll have to learn to walk all over again."

I nearly fell out of my chair! Frank managed an uneasy smile. We were drinking coffee with a young friend who, in an unguarded moment, was talking with disturbing pessimism about his impending marriage. Neither Frank nor I thought of marriage as a ...

The vice-presidential nomination of Sarah Palin has led to all kinds of interesting conversations in the media. And while many of those conversations raise plenty of pertinent questions, I've been struck by the underlying assumptions about what makes a person a qualified leader.

Granted, "qualified" takes on a whole new kind of weight when we're talking ...

Earlier this year, I underlined this passage out of Jonalyn Grace Fincher's book, Ruby Slippers: How the Soul of a Woman Brings Her Home:

"We say we want Christ to come in and make us new all the way to the center of our souls, but we really don't let him change this weight on women. We just settle for the feeling that this is our lot in life, hoping for better, ...

A new study of self-described "active Christian women" shows more than a quarter personally experienced sexually inappropriate behavior, and one fourth of those that experienced it said it happened in a church or ministry setting. The survey, based on answers given last fall by 779 American women to NationalChristianPoll.com, was designed to capture the range ...

A few moments ago, as I looked over my friend's Facebook status updates (if you're not on Facebook.com, these are sentences people write to tell everyone what they're doing, thinking, or feeling), I saw that each update sizzled with election fever. And what's not to be excited about?

No matter what "side" you're on, no matter which issues ...

This year's roster at Willow Creek's Leadership Summit conference includes an impressive lineup of leaders from both the ministry and secular business realms. Pastors John Burke and Efrem Smith, and Bill George (current Harvard Business prof and former CEO of Medtronic Inc.) spoke yesterday, as (of course) did Bill Hybels. Today we heard from Craig Groeschel and ...

When a position becomes available in most churches, leaders tend to contact those they know and trust for names of those they'd recommend for the job. The people we contact and those they recommend are, more often than not, people just like us in ethnic, economic, and educational background.

Consequently, the people we know recommend people they know, and by the time ...

As the daughter of academics I was encouraged to be a free-thinker, especially when it came to God. My parents were not afraid of questions because their faith was so strong in the One who gives answers. Yet I lived (and still do) a paradoxical life: A home life of free-thinking and free-discussion amongst a community of "don't rock the boaters" - the Old ...

In identifying your weaknesses, include what you need emotionally. Due to my background, I don't handle rejection well. I don't have a natural sales personality. I don't have a deep emotional reservoir and criticism causes me to crater on the inside. I do not have a bold personality where I naturally fight for my rights. I tend to back away from conflict because ...

I climbed on a bright green trolley and instantly heard calls of "Suz!"

Twenty-seven freshman girls were perched in the seats, waving. The driver put the trolley in gear. And off we went.

We traveled to a refurbished theater from the 1950s and watched an independent film. Then we hopped back on the trolley and traveled to the Music Hall of Fame. The students ...