This post comes a day late, but I trust it will still be helpful as we reflect on the ministry and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He is celebrated by Americans as a civil rights leader, but we often forget that he was also a minister of the gospel. In fact, King told a Chicago congregation in 1967,  “Before I was a civil rights leader, I was a preacher of the gospel. This was my first calling and it still remains my greatest commitment.” It is only within this larger calling that we can make sense of his civil rights work. For King, combating the injustice of segregation and Jim Crow was part of being a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ. It was how he loved…

This true story comes from Melbourne, Australia:

 A kangaroo startled by a man walking his dog attacked the pair, pinning the pet underwater and slashing the owner in the abdomen with its hind legs.

The Australian, Chris Rickard, was in stable condition Monday after the attack, which ended when the 49-year-old elbowed the kangaroo in the throat. He said he was walking his blue heeler, Rocky, on Sunday morning when they surprised a sleeping kangaroo in Arthur’s Creek northeast of Melbourne. The dog chased the animal into a pond, when the kangaroo turned and pinned the pet underwater.

When Rickard tried to pull his dog free, the kangaroo turned on him, attacking with its hind legs and tearing a deep gash into his abdomen and across his face.

The rest of the story,…

In my role as the managing editor of Leadership Journal, I get dozens of free books from publishers nearly every week. They’re all looking for some free press, a review in the journal, a blurb on the blog, or just a little word of mouth buzz.

But when Zondervan sent me Deadly Viper Character Assassins: A Kung Fu Survival Guild for Life and Leadership by Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite, I was caught by surprise. (For the sake of full disclosure, Zondervan published my book The Divine Commodity.) Deadly Viper is about the size of a CD case, square, and clearly a very expensive book to design. Nearly every page is loaded with original artwork with a comicbook/kung fu/pan-Asian style.

I had two immediate reactions to the book. First, I can’t believe…

 I didn’t attend Wheaton College, but I do live in the town and grew up right next door in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. I have a lot of connections to the college–friends who are both staff and students. So it was fascinating to read that the school has recently confirmed that it was part of the Underground Railroad. Dr. David Maas–who I attended church with as a kid–uncovered the evidence while doing research for a book.

Apparently Blanchard Hall, the historic stone building in the center of campus, was used to hide runaway slaves on their journey. Below is part of the article from The Daily Herald.

An entry buried in a 120-year-old manuscript has confirmed what local historians long have believed: Wheaton College was a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Officials…