Author Archives: Don Follis

If you’re around long enough, and are willing to genuinely engage with people and not be a total recluse, you will discover people that don’t like you.  Imagine that?Not only that.  These very people may be friends who love you and enjoy going out to dinner with you.  They talk behind your back, sometimes quiteContinueContinue reading “Who cares what people say about you…”

I agree with Portland writer Tony Kriz who recently said:”God has promised to “never leave or forsake” us (Heb. 13:5). But that’s his real presence—not his felt presence. The truth is we can’t guarantee that people will always sense God’s presence. And I fear we have created a culture of pretending in the church. OurContinueContinue reading “There’s God’s real presence, and there’s God’s felt presence…”

Seventy years ago today German Jesuit Alfred Delp was executed by the Nazi state in the final few months justAlfred Delp S.J.before Nazi Germany fell to the Allied troops in 1945.  Delp is considered a significant figure in Catholic resistance to Nazism.Here is a reading of his final letter before his execution … 70 years agoContinueContinue reading “A letter to his German Jesuits before his execution”

In today’s Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette column, I muse about what it means to read the Bible regularly anyway.  I think regular Bible reading is very important for Jesus followers.  But I ask what exactly is it we are trying to accomplish with this discipline anyway?

Years ago I was coaching a co-ed park district soccer team of 1st and 2nd graders.  One Saturday morning before a game I gathered the team in a huddle just before we started.  One little girl came running up late.  She said, “I just got out of bed.”Her hair was a mess.  She was wearingContinueContinue reading “Breathing grace on those around you!”

I not only had lots of appointments counseling and mentoring pastors and leaders during the week, I experienced lots of interesting emotions … surrounding Martin Luther King Day and activities following during the week.** … I started the week attending the city-wide Martin Luther-King, Jr. prayer breakfast on Monday, held at the Vineyard Church ofContinueContinue reading “Observations from a full week starting with Martin Luther King Day”

“If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness.” –Victor Hugo, Les Miserables—– “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstoneContinueContinue reading “The one who causes the darkness…”

How do you confront people?  Sometimes you really do have to talk with people face to face.  That scares people and they often avoid it, sometimes at all costs.But look at what Jesus says in Matthew 18.If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. Matthew 18:15So what do you think? Does showingContinueContinue reading “How about a little winsomeness in approaching those with whom we have conflict?”