Articles & Writings
The Washington Institute seeks to provide an array of resources to help nurture thinking about the wider world and and the joyful responsibility that is ours to history and to the world as we explore our common life together.
Articles & Writings
CAPITALISM WITH A CONSCIENCE: Charles Dickens, Karl Marx, the Tiananmen Square Leaders, and You
Articles | Garber(This winter the week between Christmas and New Years Eve brought 17,000 students and others to the Urbana Convention. For decades it was held at the University of Illinois campus in Urbana/Champaign, but has now moved to downtown St. Louis. Steve Garber was asked to speak several times, once being "the final charge" for the students in the Business as Mission Track. This is his address.)
Two years ago this week I was in India, visiting two of our children who were working there that year. We didn’t see everything, at all. But we did travel through the south, in Tamil Nadu and Kerala—and of course in our seeing and hearing and smelling, were keenly aware that we were in a very different world.
How Much is Too Much?, or Wrestling with the Place of Culture in Devotional Life
Articles | Umhau“I was born in a house with the television always on,” sing David Byrne and the Talking Heads in their song Love for Sale. What could be truer than that for most of us? Yet even with the television blaring (and sometimes because of the television blaring), we manage to hear God’s voice in the culture…because He’s everywhere, and not only in a monastery.
We know that, but we also feel a certain tension. Christians live in a gap between “Be still and know that I am God” and Marshall McLuhan’s “the medium is the message.” I for one often feel the pinch, wondering how to mind the gap.
Is it a Map or a Compass?
Articles | BaldaWe came across some challenging ideas from The Three Tasks of Leadership: Worldly Wisdom for Pastoral Leaders, edited by Eric Jacobsen. The book is built around one of Max De Pree's well-known statements:
The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant and a debtor.
As the highly successful CEO of the Herman Miller Company, author of excellent leadership books, and longtime board chair at Fuller Seminary, his legacy is firmly fixed. His life and work have touched many, and his results have been lasting—perhaps because he has had a core purpose, a sense of direction for his life journey.
A CHURCH OF GREAT GRACE AND GREAT TRUTH: The Call to the Convocation of Anglicans in North America
Articles | GarberPerhaps your images of Switzerland are forever formed by “The Sound of Music.” Or maybe you’ve walked through its meadows and across its mountains yourself, astounded by its beauty. A few years ago my wife and I spent a week there, hiking and biking, and had a wonderful time together, drawing in as deeply as we could the vastness of its Alpine glory. What drew us in particular was the importance of visiting our daughter in a little village in the Alps, which for more than 50 years has been the home to a community called L’Abri; she had spent several years there during her 20s, moving from being a student to being a staff member, what they call a worker.
One day I asked about a Wi-Fi connection, and she told me that the little Protestant church in the village was a good place, saying that a nearby chalet might provide me a way into the wider world. So I walked that direction . . .
A Reason for Being
Articles | GarberFor people who care about America and its history—past, present, and future -- the stakes are not small, for the church and for the culture. It is for this reason that The Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation, and Culture has come into being. With a vision that is at the same time very local and embodied, and very national and international, we are a network of men and women who are learning about the meaning of vocation, of what it means to hear God as he calls people to care for the world in his name. We believe it is a strategic place to begin— seeking the renewal of our common life as we do so.
A Wound in My Heart Has Been Healed
Articles | GarberOn Kenya, Kazakhstan, and K Street too
Why is it that when we pray together as the people of God gathered for worship on Sunday, we regularly pray for our missionaries in Kenya and Kazakhstan, but not for our attorneys on K Street?
Blood Water Mission: One band's journey from Nashville to Africa
Articles | GarberWhy is it that some people see themselves as implicated in the way the world is, and isn’t? in the way things are, and ought to be? There is nothing in the record deal signed by the Jars of Clay that requires them to care about the complexities of Africa, particularly about the structural problems that are horribly difficult and so very long-term. There are no cheap fixes. Only deep commitment, a sense of responsibility marked by love, will do.
Building to Last
Articles | TerrillOn the popular Discovery Channel show Dirty Jobs, Mike Rowe, the star and narrator, travels to serve in some of the most back-breaking, grungy jobs one could imagine-jobs few of us would ever consider taking, even for one week. Some of his assignments have included road kill cleaner, mosquito control operator, turkey inseminator and sewer inspector.
Mike reminds us that our jobs can tire us, frustrate us and even slime us. Yet, our work can also make us feel most alive: being creative, building and serving.
Christ in the Marketplace
Articles | BartholomewWhen people hear my story I am often asked, “How did you go from seminary to business?” While at Regent I studied the original language for the word “ministry” which comes from the root word for “service.” In a very real sense all of us in this room perform a service, a ministry, in the marketplace everyday.
Coming Alongside
Articles | Bruner“The greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the one who serves.” (Luke 22:26)
As a brash young college student, I attended a lecture by Ramsey Clark, former United States attorney general under JFK and LBJ, and a leading peace and civil rights activist. After the talk, I approached him to see if we could meet for coffee (as I said, I was young and brash). To his associates' shock, he said, "How about tomorrow for breakfast?"
