Author Archives: Don Follis

Thomas Merton provides a challenging perspective that encourages us to walk right out to the edge of faith at key moments in our own lives in leadership….“Cowardice keeps us double minded—hesitating between the world and God. In this hesitation, there is no true faith—faith remains an opinion. We are never certain, because we never quiteContinueContinue reading “Walking out to the edge of faith…”

To me, after 36 years of marriage, the grace of God beats all the other factors in creating a lasting marriage. Thus, I pray for young people seeking out lifelong companions today, asking that God will shower them with his grace and mercy, just as he has upon me in my marriage. I like BetsyContinueContinue reading “God’s grace is sooo crucial in marriage”

I don’t know how Judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa will rule in the Oscar Pistorius case, now nearing an end in South Africa. But I thought a story in today’s New York Times by writer Alan Colwell captured well part of the tension felt in the soul of humankind with this sentence… “But even as theContinueContinue reading “Confidence on the one hand and utter vulnerability on the other”

No worries about moving to my town…  :)All of our public buildings have now received Breastfeeding Friendly certification at either the silver or gold level by @CU_PublicHealth.— Urbana Park District (@urbanaparks) July 7, 2014

Here’s my religion column from today’s (7/06) Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette.  It wrestles with the idea that pastoring can be a lonely vocation that can lead pastors and other church leaders to put on masks and pretend to be someone they aren’t. 

I like this prayer a lot because it addresses head-on people’s 8 biggest fears… O Lord, I ask you to deliver me from the fear of the unknown future… from fear of failure … from fear of poverty … from fear of bereavement … from fear of loneliness … from fear of sickness and painContinueContinue reading “These are your greatest fears and how to prayer about them”

I’ve talked with lots of pastors who feel like failures.  Most stuff their feelings of shame and rejection and rarely talk about it, even to their spouse.  The shame they feel is too great.    Like the pastor I know who worked very hard on a sermon only to hear one of the tribal chiefs ofContinueContinue reading “We are sons and daughter of the king … with nothing to hide, nothing prove”

In the 12-step program, people can get hung-up on step 8: We made a list of all the persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.God completely forgives us for our sins, our missteps, our stupid mistakes.  But we usually (No, always!) have to go back and mend broken relationships.  DoingContinueContinue reading “There is only one kind of healer you can ever be…a wounded healer!”