John J. Timmerman was a father, grandfather, great-grandfather, friend, a teacher's teacher, a master stylist, a fine literary critic, a good and fair-minded chairman, a fine writer, and above all, an exemplary Christian.  Perhaps telling the story of my long acquaintance with him will give some particulars to nail down these assertions.My first acquaintance with John J. Timmerman was when I sat, on my first day at Grand Rapids Christian High School, in a freshman class. The door opened and…

"Call Lewis Scudder," the late-April memo read.  He "says he has a really neat idea" to share with you.  My dear friend lives in Limassol, Cyprus, seven time zones ahead of Holland, Michigan, and by the time I received the memo, Lew was long-since asleep.  My curiosity was whetted, however, so I contacted him.  Come to Beirut, he challenged me, and present a paper at a conference there.  In six weeks.  With that unexpected bidding, I was launched into a…

"When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after," wrote Blaise Pascal, "I am frightened, and am astonished at being here rather than there." (Pensées, 205)  The seventeenth-century mathematician and philosopher expressed a point of view shared by the Psalmist (Psalm 8:3-9), though without the Psalmist's confidence in the Creator's providence. The vision of life under the aspect of eternity, sub specie aeternitatis, is one reflected on by poets, saints, philosophers, and…

With the proliferation of books today on the subject of leadership, it's no wonder that some of us feel overwhelmed and confused by all the competing notions of "Christian" leadership. Whether we're a minister or a CEO, leadership gurus are positively clamoring for an opportunity to help us discern our particular leadership "style" or cultivate the characteristics of an "effective" leader. Add to all this the decidedly nebulous notion of "biblical" leadership, and the result is less than clear, to…