Dear Partner in Preaching, You’ll know what to say to your congregation on this Sunday. I know that and trust that. But for what it’s worth, I’m going to share with you in this letter what I want, even need, to hear on All Saints’ Sunday this year. Our custom, of course, is to remember those who have died in the last year. And I believe that practice is, to borrow the old words, “meet, right, and salutary.” It gives us a moment to grieve those we have lost but also to move to thanksgiving for their life and, even more, for their place now among the saints gathered in the nearer presence of God. And so by all means, read the names...

I wanted to follow up on one brief element of Susan Colantuono’s TED Talk on the Missing Third of Leadership that I posted yesterday. In particular, while she was identifying the missing third – that is, the strategic, operational and financial acumen and ability to execute mission and achieve goals – I want to tarry a bit with the other two, the two elements she believes we usually focus on. She defines these two as 1) using the greatness in you to 2) bring out the greatness in others. What strikes me about this formulation is, first, it’s a great shorthand definition of leadership in general and, second, that it may take some...