In the last year, our focus as an organization has become even more unified and purposeful.

If you visit this site (or any of our programs) and come away with only one thing, I hope it’s this:  What you do, each and every day, matters to God—whether it’s in a board room, behind a desk, in front of a computer, around the dinner table with your family, out in the community, or at church, God cares about it.

You see, there are two foundational truths about the human spirit that drive our working philosophy.  First, just like the Trinity, we are relational beings.  But since humanity’s fall, we’ve been in the business of messing up our relationships.  The good news is that God can heal them even as he heals us by his grace.  Those relationships affect who we are and how we navigate the world.   

The second foundational truth is this:  We’re created to glorify the Creator.  And our understanding of the Creator will certainly dictate the way we lead and direct our lives—at home, at work, in church, and in the community at large.

I’ve devoted my entire life to encouraging Christian lay people to see themselves as part of the “priesthood of all believers.”  God has given all of his people the “high calling” of serving him in every aspect of life.  For years, we’ve broadcast this good news to hundreds of thousands of individuals in our Canyon ministries, through radio messages, over the Internet, and through gatherings of business men and women. 

Yet, what we’ve done is not enough.  God is asking us to stretch ourselves.  We are taking bold steps over the next five years to strengthen what we’ve always done.  We’re also expanding into new territories.  And with help from friends and leaders, we’ve created a strong plan that outlines how we will accomplish these mighty tasks.

Ultimately, together, we will work to encourage civic and business leaders, employers and employees, parents and children, clergy and laity to embrace their high calling as a visible, incarnational witness to Christ.  As servant leaders, using the Trinity as our guide, we’ll help contribute powerfully to the realization of a Kingdom that affects far more than just Sunday—where God is a vibrant, powerful, gracious beginning-middle-and-end of everything we do each and every day.  The Message translation of Paul’s letter to Philippi says:  “Celebrate God all day every day!” (Phil. 4:4 ).

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The best move I ever made was picking my parents. They were just both fabulous people. Dad with his business genius and mother with this great social sense and the initiative to do something about it.

At the H. E. Butt Foundation, we've worked hard to keep ourselves stretched. Human needs are all the same. There is no such thing as a life of faith without pain and anguish. The essentials are patience and endurance.

The main thing is to let enough quiet soak in.

You can read more about the broad work of the H. E. Butt Foundation in a recent feature article in the San Antonio Express-News. As a bonus, the article has a companion slideshow with pictures from our Foundation Free Camp program and old video footage from the construction of Laity Lodge.

 

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Last week, I mentioned that the Wayne Oates Institute recently reprinted his book The Struggle to Be Free. They sent me a copy to review, but they have also published the entire book online.

Here's another fascinating quotation from that book. Oates tells an anecdote about John Schwab, M.D., head of the department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at the School of Medicine of the University of Louisville.

Dr. Schwab said he believed in having as few committees as possible because standing committees developed a “life of their own” and became power structures.  He preferred to have task forces do a particular job; when it was completed the task force was dissolved and the members could devote their time to students and patients rather than committee meetings!  (p. 170)

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The Wayne Oates Institute recently reprinted his book The Struggle to Be Free and sent me a copy to review. (You can read the entire book online.)

Wayne Oates was one of the "big people" in my life as a counselor and friend.  He was one of our first speakers at Laity Lodge.  It was good to make contact with him again through this remarkable book. Here is a fascinating quotation from the book that you might find interesting . . .  and challenging.

The person who commits himself or herself to the struggle to be free of pack thinking, propaganda, and party-line clichés does best to take a stand for justice for all and mercy for all.  Yet this places him or her in the role of a reconciler, a peacemaker, a negotiator, an interlocutor.  The hazard is that of being despised by all contending forces for not taking sides.  There is a quantum leap of difference between taking sides and taking a stand as a minister of reconciliation.  Jesus said:  “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matt. 5:9).  After forty-two years of this, I can say with gratitude that to know one is a child of God is a source of peace in itself.  However, my sense of sardonic or even gallows humor says:  “Yes, Lord!  But that is not all one will be called by any means!” (p. 69)

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Dwight Lacy is the Chief Financial Officer for the H. E. Butt Foundation. Last week he shared his understanding of the current financial crisis. We think he did a fantastic job explaining a complicated situation in as simple a way as possible, and we thought you might like to read it (or even share it with your friends).

In particular, he has some good words of encouragement for us toward the end of his article.

Some folks are predicting the market will come back as soon as fall 2009. It may do that. .  . . We’ve dealt with these issues before as a country. It will be a slow recovery, but we will recover.

Dwight's analysis is called How We Got Into This Mess.

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This past weekend, Michael Card led our Labor Day Retreat at Laity Lodge. I wasn't able to be there myself, but I'm told it was fantastic! Mark D. Roberts, our Theologian in Residence, wrote an insightful review of the weekend, and I wanted to share some of what Mark said.

Michael’s subject was not one that would immediately jump out at you as something you’re dying to learn more about. In six messages he addressed the issue of slavery: in the Old Testament, New Testament, and in our lives. Though he mentioned the ethical crisis of slavery in today’s world, his focus was not so much on questions of justice as it was on what it means for us to be slaves of our Heavenly Master, the one who took the form of a slave in giving himself up for us on the cross....

The main point of Michael’s study of slavery was to challenge us to consider how we can be truly free by submitting ourselves fully to Christ as our Master. The point is not bondage, not at all. It is experiencing the freedom of the Christian life, a “better freedom,” as Michael calls it. If you’re interested in what this is all about, let me point you to a new song Michael has written, called “A Better Freedom.” It is not available on one of his CDs yet, but it can be found on the “By/For” website.

You can read more of Mark Roberts' review on his website.

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Jesus had an amazing way of responding to people's questions. His answers often pierce through what's being asked to more important matters: what's on the person's heart and Jesus' own identity and mission .

For example, when a man asks Jesus to tell his brother to divide the family's inheritance with him, Jesus cautions the man to be wary of greed. Then he tells the story of the Rich Fool who dies on the very night he's contemplating his windfall profits (Luke 12:16-21).

When a Pharisee invites Jesus to dinner, a prostitute interrupts the decorous occasion by washing Jesus' feet with her tears, drying them with her hair, and anointing them with perfume. The Pharisee believes the woman's actions prove Jesus cannot be a prophet, because a prophet would never let a prostitute touch him (Luke 7:44-47).

In reply to the Pharisee's unspoken doubts, Jesus tells the story of the money lender who forgives two debts, one for five hundred denarii and the other for fifty. He then asks which person will love the money lender more.

The Pharisee replies the one who had the bigger debt canceled (Luke 7:42).

Then Jesus speaks to the Pharisee's discourteous reception of him and the Pharisee's doubts, which lie behind his behavior. He points out that the Pharisee has totally neglected the common courtesies extended to dinner guests. He has supplied no water for Jesus to wash his feet, he did not greet Jesus with a brotherly kiss, nor give him oil for his head. But the prostitute has transformed these common courtesies into profound acts of love. "Therefore I tell you," Jesus says, "her many sins are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little" (Luke 7:47).

Jesus not only answers the unspoken question of the Pharisee—"Is this man a prophet?"—by intuiting what's in the man's heart; he proclaims that he is more than a prophet by forgiving the woman's sins. In the process, he lets the Pharisee know that his own hardness of heart keeps him from being forgiven.

This pattern of questioning and transcendent response is found again and again in the Gospels, from the woman caught in adultery (John 8:3-7) to the Pharisees' question about paying taxes to Caesar (Matt. 22:17-22). Jesus knows the unworthiness of the woman's accusers and the power politics behind the tax question, and he points out to both groups that they should be most concerned about their own relationships with God.

The answer Jesus gave to the most pointed question he was ever asked contains the secret of his incomparable ability to answer the question behind the question.

In the eighth chapter of John's Gospel, the Pharisees are haranguing Jesus, questioning his authority on various grounds. Finally, in their perplexity, they come right out and ask, "Who are you?"

"Just what I have been claiming all along," Jesus replied, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one I claim to be, and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him" (John 8:28-29).

I do nothing on my own, Jesus says. I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. Jesus proclaims here that his entire ministry—everything he taught, every answer he gave to a question—originated in his communion with the Father. The Son listened to the Father, communed with the Father, and out of this communion Jesus taught. Out of this communion he answered questions spoken and unspoken.

We usually think of Jesus' communion with the Father, his prayer, in terms of specific, dramatic instances. We remember Jesus' Temptation in the Desert, his retreats to the Galilean hills, the ecstasy of the Transfiguration, and the agony of Gethsemane. But in Jesus' replies that pierce peoples' hearts and proclaim his identity and mission, we overhear another aspect of his prayer: his continual communion with the Father—his prayer without ceasing.

We might say that Jesus never had a simple, two-way conversation. The Father and the Holy Spirit were always there as well. Jesus' conversation had a Trinitarian character. He brought the Father and the Holy Spirit's witness into the midst of every conversation.

As we pray, as we listen to God, we need to bring God's presence in Christ into the midst of our own conversations with other people. And into every circumstance, as well. We are not on our own; God is with us, but God cannot make his presence felt unless we invite him into the midst of our lives.

I find that when I keep soaking myself in Scripture, consulting with Christian friends, and prayerfully waiting on the Lord, he keeps clarifying what I need to do to make my relationships right with other people. He gives me insights into troubling situations I would never have otherwise.

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Should a boss ever become personal friends with his employees?  Some management specialists say no, believing it makes tough decisions too difficult.  I understand their point, but I think differently.  The most effective organizations I've been a part of have been led by friendship teams.

My experience of people enjoying each other's company while working together began with my family.  My parents played their appropriate roles as disciplinarians and moral guides, but that did not keep them from nurturing a close family culture of friendship.  I remember walking the streets of Corpus Christi on grocery company trips—as a four or five-year-old—Dad holding one hand, Mother the other, and being swung between the two up over every curb.  What exhilaration!  The three of us (and my brother Charles and sister Eleanor as they came along) used to travel Texas highways visiting the stores—I was regularly taken out of school for a day or two on selected occasions.  My mother prepared notebooks full of poetry and special stories for us to recite and read to one another.  I will always remember Dad's booming voice declaiming, as from ancient Rome, Thomas Babington Macaulay's "Horatius": 

Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the gate:
To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his gods . . .

When I finished my schooling and was ready to begin my working life, guess what I wanted to do?   Go into the family business, of course.  And I did, first managing a new store in San Antonio and then transferring to where the headquarters had moved, from the Valley to Corpus.

The 1940's-50's Baylor—and then southwide—Youth Revivals, which launched me into our subsequent and current ministries, were a team affair.  I was the only layman—18 years old!—in a remarkable group of preacher-boys.  We toured the cities of Texas and the South together, splitting up the speaking and leadership responsibilities—just a gang of fellows boosting each other, sharing our witness to the Good News.

The lay theological movement I've been a part of since then grew through the friendship team that led the Layman's Leadership Institutes.  From 1956 - 1975 these sessions took place in a wide variety of locations, gathering key businessmen and professional people from across the nation.  Duke McCall and Billy Graham with some of his team helped us get started.  The key people were laymen themselves.  Bill Mead, head of Campbell Taggart Bakeries, was pivotal in the effort, along with Fred Smith, Sr., vice-president of Gruen Watch Company.  There were many others, like the apparel industry executive Maxie Jarman (famous for his shoes), the oil company magnate J. Howard Pew, and the pacesetting surgeon J.V.D. (Jack) Hough.  As I played a key role in the sponsorship and leadership of these sessions, I grew close to many of these men.  Every new Institute brought with it a celebration of friendship.

Reprinted from an article in the Summer 2002 Connections.

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As a boy, I traveled with my father and listened to him speak at various personnel meetings. I remember how store employees gathered around, sitting on 100-lb. sacks of pinto beans or cases of merchandise, as Dad stood and hammered at his core beliefs:

“The customer signs your paycheck. The customer is your boss. We’re in business to serve the customer.”

Much later, I realized I’d heard from Dad the deepest lessons of corporate governance. The people who produce, market, and consume useful products share no small common grace—­we serve each other in trust. Such secure, unconscious, everyday business interdependences find their deepest roots in the West’s centuries-old Judeo-Christian ethical heritage. Cut off from these vital roots, one of the most dramatic casualties is our common and mutual trust. Goodness plummets and fear, guilt, self-doubt, negativity, and distrust spread within and among us.

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One of my earliest memories is walking between my mother and father when I was perhaps three or four years old. We stepped off the sidewalk, and as we approached the upcoming curb, I hesitated. My parents, sensing my apprehension, both pulled up on my hands and swung me above the low cement ledge. They made an exhilarating little game of it with each curb we encountered. This remains a crystal clear memory for me, the pure joy of trusting the grips of my mother and father as they lifted me over those obstacles.

People tend to respond to the trust we put in them. While I do not recommend naiveté, I know that in receiving my parents’ trust, I was enabled as a man to extend similar confidence to people I serve in my family, in the business community, and through our foundation. I know that the strengthened grip of trust among people, companies, and nations is traced to affirming others.

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