40 years ago the Boeing 747 entered commercial service on route between New York and London. While the spectators marveled at the technological achievement-no one had seen 700,000 pounds of aluminum fly before-no one in the crowd realized that they were also witnessing a sociological revolution-no one except Juan Trippe. Trippe was president of PanAm, the first airline to purchase the massive new Boeing. The visionary businessman knew the huge plane would change air travel, but he predicted much more. Before the plane had even left the drawing board, Trippe said that the 747 would be “…a great weapon for peace, competing with intercontinental missiles for mankind’s destiny.” His remarks may have been interpreted as hyperbole in 1970, but most now agree that the Boeing 747 has been a…

I spent last week at the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta. I gave “play by play” updates from the huge event on Out of Ur. With 12,000 people in attendance, school buses and elephants entering the arena, and other bazaar antics the event was definitely something different for me.One thing I didn’t blog about, however, was the pervasive presence of compassion and social justice issues at the conference. These issues weren’t the focus of most of the speakers, but they had a very prominent role at Catalyst. Compassion International as well as an indy film about human sex trafficking were given significant time from the platform. (The applause for the film, btw, was among the loudest I heard while at the conference.) And surrounding the arena were dozens of…