Leadership

Bullies: What Defeats Them

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What does it take to defeat a bully?

Give me a minute to explain.

I have been following the writing and speaking of Victor Davis Hanson for twenty-five years. Hanson is a historian, classicist, and fellow at the Hoover Institute. He is famous for reflecting on our present circumstances in light of past people, places, ideas, and events.

In his book The Second World Wars Hanson points out what is imperative to remember about warfare. The strong appearance of power, and the willingness to employ it, might have stopped more conflicts before they began. Put simply; to deter conflict, a show of strength is necessary. Hanson states the obvious, that appeasement of enemies is nothing more than a lack of “willpower.”

To put it in very practical terms, everyone knows that the only way to stop the playground bully is to put him on his back.

It is not just strength that wins the day, it is strength of will.

Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.

 

Mark Eckel (MA English, ThM Old Testament, PhD Social Science Research) is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University.

“Give Me a Minute” is an ongoing effort to simply, clearly, and quickly explain aspects of true Truth.

Gratitude, as always, to my longtime friend, videographer, and tech guru Josh for his continued service.

 

 

 

 

Mission is God

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What is your mission?

Give me a minute to answer.

“Mission is God”

This was the answer given by a military friend when I asked the question,

“What is the most important order when in combat?”

The answer,

“Mission is God.”

I think of that remark often. When I consider what you or I or anyone does, our mission, our direct order for whatever it is we do, should be our focus. If I only think of the small part I play in God’s mission, I can feel overwhelmed, sometimes, defeated. But when I think of my mission within the larger mission, I think of what Paul said in Acts 26.22,

“I stand here testifying to both small and great, saying nothing but what Moses and the prophets have said.”

What I’ve been given to do by God in my time and place is my mission.

Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.

Mark Eckel (MA English, ThM Old Testament, PhD Social Science Research) is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University.

“Give Me a Minute” is an ongoing effort to simply, clearly, and quickly explain aspects of true Truth.

Gratitude, as always, to my longtime friend, videographer, and tech guru Josh for his continued service.

 

 

Distraction Upends Mission

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What is keeping you from your mission?

Give me a minute to consider.

Most of our choices we make are between “good” and “good.”

Distraction is the greatest enemy of any mission.

Back in 2010 I wrote about distraction, specifically focused on technology. It was then I was developing the line,

“we are changing technology so we don’t have to change.”

There are SO many “good things” we have to invest ourselves in. We are easily swayed in our thinking and doing by the next good book, good group, good activity, or good cause. We begin to focus on one idea and suddenly are detained by another idea – just as worthy – that demands our attention. We would be well served by the caution in C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. As the demon Screwtape instructs his younger protégée

“the crucial components of distraction: you will find that anything or nothing is sufficient to attract his wandering attention.”

Choose one mission and sidestep distraction.

Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.

Mark Eckel (MA English, ThM Old Testament, PhD Social Science Research) is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University.

“Give Me a Minute” is an ongoing effort to simply, clearly, and quickly explain aspects of true Truth.

Gratitude, as always, to my longtime friend, videographer, and tech guru Josh for his continued service.

 

What I Am Made To Do

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NOTE: Earlier this week I published the first in a new series of one-minute videos titled, “Give Me a Minute.”

The initial entry is “Status Viator.” The present outline here is a practical example of what I meant in the video

 

Status Viator: My Christian Walk and its Influence on

What I Am Made to Do as an Interdisciplinary Biblical Leader

Mark Eckel, MA ThM PhD, Exec Dir Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University

“Being on the way” is my lifelong condition (status viator). God’s eternal, providential plan is being disclosed as I walk along the path of my God-given life. “Roads” or “paths” are First Testament words giving the place for my feet when I am “walking” in Second Testament shoes. Saved by God’s grace at nine, I began preaching when I was thirteen, filling pulpits at sixteen, and was ordained at twenty-six. Communication abilities—writing, speaking, or teaching—have been acknowledged since my childhood. The writings of Dr. Francis Schaeffer discovered during high school cemented a perspective of common ground Christian engagement with others that has marked my life ever since.

On my Christian Walk along “The Way,” I continue to be influenced by:

Discipling I believe in “with-ness,” being incarnationally present. The disciples were changed because they had been “with Jesus.” My focus in identifying future leaders is always the same. Succession planning is the first job of every leader. My responsibility is to recognize, guide, and help others toward leadership positions within their giftedness. I believe that spending time with next generation leadership is the best investment to make.

Teaching I am an enthusiastic learner who is excited to be with others who want to learn. Both preparation to communicate and the instructional experience bring a smile to my face. I love to teach Scripture, theology, biblical worldview synthesis, leadership foundations, and interdisciplinarity. I teach biblical-interdisciplinary courses for universities. I am passionate for the subject, compassionate toward the student. I believe in relational-educational contexts. Training #nextgen Christian leaders is my ardor.

Partnering I love to discuss ideas and their application with my colleagues. As an undergraduate academic dean, I incorporated discussions for collaborative faculty reflection over interdisciplinary ideas. Reading books, critiquing films, exegeting biblical texts, creating curricula are all best done with others, lending itself to peer review. Finding like-minded people with whom to vision the future based on the past is fulfilling. 

Writing A good form of communication for me is the written word. I am a creator.  Examining and explaining a topic in ways that make sense to others, gives me joy. I take pleasure in writing study manuscripts, articles, curricula, weekly essays, peer-reviewed journal articles, and an occasional book. Warp&Woof.org and MarkEckel.com are my personal website; thousands of essays and video . Cultural engagement is a delight.

Speaking The opportunity to invest in others through direct instruction is a passion at which I excel. I love to preach and deliver lectures. I instruct groups through the process of curricular development, other audiences have learned a critical-Christian analysis with movies, still others have investigated the horror genre of literature. I teach a “Theology of” series which hones apologetic-evangelistic skills. I enjoy communicating true Truth in the marketplace of ideas with believers and unbelievers.

Mark Eckel, Center for Biblical Integration, is photographed for Environmental Headshot Day in the School of Divinity Lobby on August 28, 2024. (Photo by: Matt Reynolds)

I began to develop my own status viator around 2008. The categories are meant to indicate how I have been gifted to walk the path in this life. I have used the assignment in leadership courses, urging students to consider what gifts they have been given for the road they traverse.

Martin Luther, King Jr.

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Having one’s name changed

can mean changes in his future.

Find out why name changes matter by watching our Truth in Two.

Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

Pictures: Josh Collingwood, Snappy Goat

FULL TEXT

A Huffington Post article about Dr. Martin Luther King Junior tells the story of how King got his name. In full disclosure and attribution, much of what I quote here comes from that article, a link to which is provided at the end of this Truth in Two. Martin Luther King Jr. was given the birthname Michael King Jr. named after his preacher father. King was known as “Little Mike” throughout his childhood, but the name did not last long. Historians tracing this story, believe King’s father changed both their names after the elder King’s 1934 trip to Europe. The trip inspired the name change and forever changed history.

As the story goes, King Sr. joined a group of Baptist ministers on a tour of the Holy Land with stops in Europe. The trip culminated in a weeklong conference in Berlin, during which time the reverend visited many of the historical religious sites where Martin Luther defied the Catholic Church centuries earlier. Luther was a Catholic priest and theologian in the 16th century, at a time when the church went largely unchallenged in Germany. Martin Luther became more and more critical of his own institution, particularly the sale of indulgences. Luther’s “Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences,” later known as The Ninety-Five Theses, began what came to be known as The Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther was excommunicated for his heresy. King Sr. returned home from the trip so inspired by what he had learned, he decided to change both his and his son’s names to Martin Luther in honor of the German reformer.

Christians can remember a number of name-changes throughout biblical history beginning with Abram to Abraham ending with Saul becoming the apostle Paul. Name changes in God’s Word announced a new beginning in God’s eternal plan. As we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, we ought also to remember the Reformational origin of his name. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/martin-luther-king-jr-name_n_6481554

 

How to Know the Future

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To preserve any kind of future,

You plant what you want to harvest.

To find out how, watch our Truth in Two (full text below). Don’t miss the “Afterword”!

 

Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

Pictures: Josh Collingwood, Snappy Goat

FULL TEXT

Recently I was asked, “What do you think the future of America will be?”

Since I was talking with a farmer, my response was “seeds.”

I continued, “The biblical concept ‘you will reap what you sow’ always comes to mind. What is true for individuals is also true for institutions, organizations, and countries. What America sows, she will also reap.” What anyone desires for their future depends on the kind of planting they are doing in the present.

Any kind of future harvest one desires, depends on the seeds one is sowing now. And everyone is sowing seeds. Personally, my investment in the future comes in the form of influential ideas. My gift is as a preservatist; I am trying to conserve the great ideas and ideals passed down to me, passing those ideas on to others. It is my hope as a writer and teacher that influential ideas such as liberty, justice, courage, wisdom, and charity will influence individuals and institutions.

But the thing about sowing seed is you have to wait for the harvest. I can be pleasantly surprised by immediate results; except my view, is the long view. I believe in what Proverbs 11.18 calls “sowing seeds of righteousness” which will produce good fruit into the future.

There are times when people ask me, “Why don’t you speak on a certain social topic or examine specific cultural issues?” My response is always the same. I plant seeds of true Truth so that whatever audience hears my words, those seeds of thought will bear fruit in the lives of those who listen. When I am in my church, I teach or preach directly from Scripture. When I am in public, my declarations often come in the form of application, of biblical wisdom – direct and indirect – in my time and place; so that when I am gone, new growth will arise from those seeds. 

For Truth in Two this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth and planting seeds of truth, wherever it’s possible.

AFTERWORD It is important to say that no one can “know the future” with any surety (Ecclesiastes 11:1-6 “you never know,” 3x). Beyond that obvious statement, the Proverbial ideal is expressed in a way that one can know the future of any endeavor by knowingly planting what a person wants to harvest. If I want a crop of beans, I don’t plant radish seeds. In the same way, if I desire broadminded, thoughtful students, I plant a large garden with many points of view. The future of America, of any country, depends on what seeds are sown in the lives of an educated populace. If one is always taught their country is “bad,” young people will likely care little to defend it. If one is always told a religious group is “false,” students may assume the viewpoint has nothing to offer. If a person is always informed that one way of thinking is “wrong,” the individual will tend to belittle the perspective. The future of countries, universities, institutions, companies, or neighborhoods is based on who teaches what is taught, and how any subject is taught, in the present.

MLK Remembrance

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Honoring a memory should prompt us to

Do something about it.

Why remember Frederick Douglass to celebrate MLK? Watch our Truth in Two (full text below).

Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

Pictures: Josh Collingwood, SnappyGoat

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Over the past dozen years I have been teaching at Lancaster Bible College | Capital Seminary as a visiting professor. One of the courses I have taught is a PhD course titled, “Biblical and Theological Foundations for Ministry.” One project that is assigned is based on the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Students are asked to address the question, “What present issue will my fellows or colleagues in the future identify, later saying to me, ‘Why didn’t you address _fill-in-the-blank_?’” By reading Douglass, students are pressed to consider the future, what I call anticipatory leadership.

In 2018 I took a course titled, “Civil War Literature and Culture” from the esteemed, brilliant, Dr. Jane Schultz. It was in her course that we read primary source literature from the Civil War era. At the end of the course, I wrote my final project on the theological foundations for the abolitionist movement. You can find the link to what became a peer-reviewed journal essay in this Truth in Two. Using Frederick Douglass as one of my sources I discovered that this former slave quoted the Bible as the basis for his desire to abolish slavery. Douglass looked to the future, to see ahead, to anticipate, the abolition of America’s sin of slavery.

And now, I ask students to consider their anticipatory leadership for future generations. You can find a three-part video series titled, “What Box? Leadership” linked in this Truth in Two which asks us all to consider our future, to peak around the corner, to anticipate future consequences of ideas we promote now. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, personally thankful for the truths from Scripture, outlined by Frederick Douglass, as we celebrate on this holiday, the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

PROSPECTIVE SOCIAL LEADERSHIP QUERY:

Theological Roots of the Abolitionist Movement in Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” and Angelina Grimké’s “Appeal to the Christian Women of the South”[1]

[1] © Mark D. Eckel. Intégrité: A Journal of Faith and Learning, Fall, 2018, pp. 15-24 www.mobap.edu/integrite a peer-reviewed academic publication. The origin of the work was the final assignment for the IUPUI class “Civil War Literature and Culture” taught by Dr. Jane Schultz, Spring, 2018.

“What Box?!” Leadership, a 3-part video series on anticipatory leadership.

 

3 Leadership Essentials: Flexible, Agile & Nimble

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What sports can tell us about planning for the future

Watch our Truth in Two to find out how (full text below).

Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

Pictures: Josh Collingwood, SnappyGoat

FULL TEXT

“You have to have a good cross-over dribble.” My statement was in response to a question about adapting to new or difficult situations. For those times when things don’t go our way, I have three words for us: flexible, agile, and nimble. Develop the quick life-moves of a crossover dribble in basketball or the dexterity of a football player staying just inside the field of play while running down the sidelines.

I love to watch NFL football. One of the most exciting players to see play right now is Josh Allen, quarterback of the Buffalo Bills. He’s 6’5” 240. A great passer. A tough runner. And he is nimble. You can find video of Allen’s exploits everywhere but look in particular for those times when he jumps over a defender who is just about to tackle the quarterback. Josh Allen is a picture of nimble. Quickness wrapped in dexterity, making split second decisions.

Or consider one of the most feared pass rushers of our present era – another Buffalo Bill – Von Miller. Agile is the best word to describe him. Miller’s speed and defensive technique stymies other offenses and sacks opposing quarterbacks with ease. He is so fast he is smooth, he makes the game look easy, the essence of what it means to be agile.

And flexibility is needed for every coach who wants to succeed. My first choice for flexibility in a coach is Andy Reed of the Kansas City Chiefs. Calling the offensive signals and adjusting the gameplan for the next opponent is a necessary skill in a sport that is constantly changing.

In this coming year, when things don’t go your way, think, flexible, agile, nimble. The leader who adjusts to circumstances, to the demands of the moment, who can move quickly within the structure of his or her organizational mission, has a good cross-over leadership dribble.

For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found, in leaders everywhere.

 

 

Memorial Day and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural

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The public reading by a child

hushed the voices of everyone that day.

Find out why Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address matters for Memorial Day (full text follows).

Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

Picture Credit: Josh Collingwood, SnappyGoat

FULL TEXT

She began to read aloud. We stood, my daughter and I, inside the Lincoln Memorial in 1999. Etched to the right of the president’s statue, Chelsea read from Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. The boisterous noise of others around subsided to silence as this twelve-year-old recited the heart-rending words from a leader whose nation had been wounded by The Civil War.  Perhaps the audience was suddenly quiet out of respect for a young woman’s voice emboldened to repeat a historical text.  But I would like to think that the words themselves brought solemnity to the monument. America, torn by internal strife, reflected the soul of Abraham Lincoln.

Upon the occasion of his reelection, Lincoln chose to be generous with those who opposed him.  In part he said,

“Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange . . . but let us judge not, that we be not judged.”

Lincoln, speaking of “the providence of God” and “His appointed time” intoned,

“The Almighty has His own purposes.”

Divine judgment against the sin of slavery was clearly marked as Lincoln woefully acknowledged,

“He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came.”

President Lincoln repented,

“Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.”

Most importantly, Lincoln offered reconciliation, as he concluded,

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.”

Recalling Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address reminds us of what is most important on Memorial Day Weekend: national reconciliation. For all those who have paid with their lives to secure our freedoms, we should seek to “bind up our nation’s wounds. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, personally grateful to live in the United States of America.

 

A Fire in My Bones

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There are many uses of “fire” in the Bible.

None are more personal.

Find out why by watching or reading our Truth in Two (full text below).

 

 

Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

Picture Credit: Luke Renoe, Snappy Goat

FULL TEXT

Blaise Pascal was a famous French philosopher and mathematician of the 17th century. But today he is most famous for his writings entitled Pensées meaning “thoughts.” Pensées were Pascal’s theological writings collected after his death at the young age of 39. His conversion to Christianity was so abrupt, so transformational that Pascal devoted his final eight years to a focus on God’s work in the world. Blaise Pascal was so changed by his conversion that he wrote the word “fire” on a parchment and sewed it inside his coat, reminding him of the all-consuming fire of his internal transformation.

The word “fire” is a prominent biblical word. When God invited Moses and Israel’s elders to experience Him on Mount Sinai, Exodus 24:17 says “the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire.” “Offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire,” says the writer of Hebrews in chapter 12. Because God alone is God, Scripture often repeats the truth of Deuteronomy 4:24, “Your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” Placing our worship on anything else is considered idolatry, the trigger for God’s jealousy.

And so, in the context of worshipping false ideas, God says in Jeremiah 23:29, “Is not my word like fire?” God’s Truth consumes falsehood. How does that experience of “fire” translate into our lives? One of the great lines of Jeremiah 20 verse 9 has always motivated me. The prophet declares that he must speak God’s Word because,

“There is in my heart, as it were, a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot”

I identify with Pascal’s “fire.” I feel it every day. It is the unquenchable fire of God’s Spirit who lives in me. The Word of God is a fire in my bones, and I cannot hold it in.

For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth, with light, from the fire of God’s Truth.