Tag: Religion

The “C” in the YMCA: as Obstacle, Offense, and Opportunity

A humble reflection on the role of Christian emphasis in the future of a successful YMCA striving to live out its mission of putting Christian principles into practice through equitable programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all.

Every generation of YMCA leaders are stewards of the Y they receive, often amidst the challenges and turbulence of their time.

The YMCA they entered into on that first day of membership and employment must adapt to unexpected changes in their communities and culture.

Being a nationwide organization this often looks and feels complex since the Y finds itself in over ten thousand different cultures/communities across the USA.

As the YMCA strives to authentically and resiliently respond to the crises of our times, especially as it marshals all of its institutional strength and resources to equitably build up people in spirit, mind and body, it must remember: where did this wealth of capacity to love, care and serve come from?

What were the leaders doing in the generations prior to us that made these possibilities a reality?

What has the Y been becoming since 1844, who did we come from, what have been our failures and successes, our learning curves that have gotten us to this crucial moment?

As complex as the YMCA is, I’m going to try to make a general case for why the “C” in our name has been and can still be central to our future success, still a vital source for our DIG work.

I acknowledge up front that the “C” can also be a highly combustible reality that obviously still causes merited concern by some; but, I believe it also can be the fire we need to fulfill our mission and cause amongst those struggling the most in our communities for generations to come.

“C” as OBSTACLE

First, for some in the YMCA, the “Christian” in our name is an obstacle.

This is a sentiment of Christians in our movement as well as those of other traditions.

It’s easy to notice the Christians with loud voices who resist equity in our communities, ignore and/or undermine the “for all” in our YMCA mission.

It’d be easy to list off Christians you know who seem to be obstacles to equity, to our core values, to our mission, to our work to be an anti-racist, multicultural organization.

It might be you don’t even really know any Christians at your Y, you just know what you have seen or heard elsewhere convinces you that the “C” is an obstacle to progress and success.

It can also become easy to presume that if we removed Christian emphasis from the Y, we’d have less obstacles to equity, diversity and inclusion. That might have some truth to it.

But: what is also true is the untold Christians in the Y who are passionate advocates for DIG work because of their Christian faith.

Faith is a key dimension of diversity, and for many in our Y movement a powerful motivation for humbly and faithfully persevering in the diverse, inclusive, global work of the Y.

Be that as it may, it’s obvious that Christians in the Y have racked up a long list of examples of being an obstacle to the flourishing of all.

For this we must confess our sins, repent, make amends where we can, and do better.

“C” as OFFENSIVE

Secondly: It’d be irresponsible to overlook the fact that some within our Y movement see the “C” as more than an obstacle, they also see it as an offense.

And who can blame them?

The historically obvious sins of Christians and their institutions in the USA leave much disgust in our souls.

Not only the failures of the faith in the past, but the egregious racism and violence of Christians today give plenty of ammunition to justify the belief that we are an offense.

With the public offensiveness of many high profile Christians, along with the thousands of every day offenses committed by people of the faith, it’s not without evidence that the suppression or removal of the Christian name and identity is supported.

Why keep an offensive culture in our name as we strive to focus intensely on becoming an anti-racist, multicultural organization?

It’s tough to make a defense against the offensiveness of Christianity in light of the many negative realities revealed in history and the current headlines.

It’s tough also because there is an essential offensive nature to Christianity as evidenced by the crucifixion of Jesus we read about in the Gospels of the New Testament.

For all the good that Jesus did, for all of his teachings on love and forgiveness in the kingdom of God, he was still killed by the ruling authorities under the accusations of political sedition and religious blasphemy – intertwined realities that reveal the intense offense Christ Jesus generated among people with power and the crowds.

It’s one thing for Christians to be offensive because they act like privileged jerks with thin-skin, it’s another for Christians to offend when they insist on abiding by the way of Jesus and his kingdom of atonement and reconciliation.

So yes, there are definitely toxic Christians that give the “C” a bad name, and there have been times when Christians in the Y gave offense by their faith-fullness to Christ Jesus.

My hunch is that the majority of offensiveness that is noticed in the Y towards Christians is due to the unrepentant meanness and arrogance of how some put their faith into practice. That is worth objecting to.

For all the ways we Christians have been offensive due to our sins, we must confess and repent of this too, make amends where we can, and do better.

“C” as OPPORTUNITY

Third: For me, I think it’s worth considering, in my humble opinion, of ways the “C” can be an opportunity to build equity in spirit, mind and body, for all.

What is the work of anti-racism if it’s not spiritual work?

If it was merely a matter of educating the mind, or enforcing bodily complicity to anti-racist principles, we’d have achieved more progress by now.

But isn’t equity first an attitude before it’s an action, a belief as much as it is behavior?

Don’t we want people to want to be inclusive, not just open to multicultural friendships because of peer pressure or economic coercion?

So if you are going to draw on spiritual resources to fuel anti-racist work, why would you cut out or suppress or ignore our “C” in our name, which is one of the strongest sources of spiritual energy in our American heritage and social fabric?

I’m not going to try and make a case for whether or not the USA is a Christian nation, but I think it’s unhelpful to overlook or downplay the Christian energies that have shaped and are still central to our culture, for good and for bad.

Religion is resurgent in the world, and the rest of the world sees the USA as still one of the most religious nations in the planet.

So, rather than suppress the powerful reality of religion in the Y, we need to bring it out into the open so that we can openly benefit from the remarkable resources it brings to people, as well as maturely and truthfully critique and correct what corrodes flourishing for all.

Cancelling the “C” in our name misses an opportunity to reinvigorate our dimensions of diversity, especially the dynamic and pervasive role of faith and religion.

The majority of Americans still identify with Christianity, and it is likely that percentage is higher within the Y, especially in light of its highly public brand recognition as the Young Men’s Christian Association.

Rather than rebrand as a secular institution, let’s resource the richly complex “C” to inspire “for all” in an increasing religiously pluralistic society.

Let’s face it, many Christians within the Y are embarrassed by the negative obstacles and nefarious offensiveness of the “C” as embodied by some members and staff.

I’ve found that many Christians in the Y are frustrated with the kind of “C” that they see, and aren’t sure what a better version could look like in these pluralistic times.

So instead of experimenting with fresh expressions of an inclusive Christianity, they unfortunately let the heart of the Y wither.

If we are honest, though, some if not many of the great YMCA DIG work, some of our greatest and most inclusive leaders in the Y are beautiful Christians doing God’s work in wonderful ways.

And it is their Christian faith which shapes and fuels what they do in an irreplaceable way.

To minimize or downplay their “C” in the “for all” work they are championing is too miss the opportunity to lift this up as a way to inspire a new imagination for how inclusive Christianity can be a vital dimension of diversity.

You see the “C” you are looking for.

Let’s look for opportunities to responsibly live out and respect faith as a key dimension of diversity.

What does that mean for the Y?

It means not only honestly critiquing the moral and ethical failures of the YMCA in the past as a Christian-based organization, but to also draw on the best of our Christian foundation and heritage, to use the real ways we have cared deeply for people as a Christian-based organization as a resource for current and future equity work.

What can we learn from Christians like George Williams on lifting up young men lost in the urban-industrial wastelands?

What can we learn from John R. Mott, an American and global Christian who pioneered ecumenical work as well as innovative multi-faith initiatives?

What can we learn from Rev. Martin Luther King on nonviolent Christian reconciliation work amidst racial and social injustices?

And so many more YMCA Christian men and women, old and young, who can re-inspire a “thick C” that celebrates and nourishes a very diverse, inclusive and global Christian faith in the Y, which then is a seed-bed for loving multi-faith and multicultural work that is anti-racist, equitable, beautiful, true, just and good.

YMCA OF THE USA & THE WORLD “C”

The YMCA was and is a crucial player in the global church community to lift up the practical value of religious diversity and inclusion – we helped start the World Council of Churches.

We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. The Y still has rich resources to draw on for ways the “C” in our name can make us more welcoming, more equitable, more hospitable, more open “for all.”

An example: The World YMCA logo still includes the John 17:21 Bible reference in its logo; its at the heart of the triangle in our logo.

The prayer of Jesus that it highlights is crucial to the foundational motivations of those who breathed life into the Y in 1844.

And it is still a deeply powerful prayer on the lips and in the hearts of millions of Christians yet today throughout the whole earth and in the YMCA here in the USA.

Christ Jesus, on the night he was to be betrayed and killed by his own people, prayed for the unity of those who would believe in him in the decades and centuries to come.

Christ Jesus also prayed that all those who believed would be in deep union with God.

If you’re a Christian, isn’t that still a compelling vision for the Y – that through all of the many good programs and initiatives we have done since 1844 – that it can still be a contribution to Christians becoming more in union with our loving, caring, and sacrificial Lord Jesus Christ?

With our rich legacy already in that work, why would we end it – if we don’t reinvigorate that work, who else is there like us to pick up that task?

And if you’re not of the Christian faith, would you want the Y to downplay even more it’s influence on Christians to become more equitable and inclusive?

If the Y doesn’t do that work with Christians, who will?

Another example: Challenge 21 is a creative and compelling strategy of the World YMCA to let the “C” nourish its work while expanding the ways they strive for love and justice “for all.”

There is much the American Y can learn from Challenge 21 and our global friends in this complex work.

In fact it was cross-cultural experiences that invigorated spiritual and social transformation for George Williams (from rural to urban), John R. Mott (from America to the World), Martin Luther King (from Atlanta to India) and many others in the Y.

More examples: Who was it that decided to let women join the Young Men’s Christian Association? Christians.

Who was it that decided to lessen the strict Christian church attendance requirements for membership in the YMCA? Christians.

Who was it that decided to let Jewish and Muslim young men join the Y? Christians.

Who was it that decided to let Catholic Christians join the Y? Protestant Christians.

Who was it that decided to let non-Christians to join the Y? Christians.

Who was it that resisted all these decisions? Yes, obviously other Christians in the Y.

So which Christians do you want to pay the most attention to? The ones who resist adapting to inclusivity, or the ones that work for it.

RELIGION & the SECULAR

The real struggle of the “C” in the Y is not between secularism and Christianity, it’s mostly just between Christians.

Christians in general have stumbled through the rapid changes in our culture, especially as it has become more secular and religiously pluralistic.

The myth of secularism is that it is a “neutral” space created so that different kinds of Christians can cooperate in a public way, and then this gets extended to those of other faith and religious traditions, or those with none.

Secularism, however, is about a “negative peace” between Christians, and between those of different or no faiths, unable to unravel antagonisms, and succumbing to cultural and political entropy.

Christian Ecumenism is a “positive peace” between Christians, a constructive engagement for mutual understanding and collaboration; this is also a key foundation for Christians to participate in multi-faith and multicultural friendships in a pluralistic and secular society.

So if the Y is going to dig deeper into its DIG work, especially in its focus on religion and faith as a powerful dimension of diversity, we ought to get as much wisdom as we can on how it can be a constructive source for YMCA Christian ecumenical work and multi-faith work.

The “C” needs DIG as much as our DIG work needs a vital and bravely humble “C”.

What you suppress becomes more powerful, but in a toxic way.

It seems to me that the YMCA has struggled for the past fifty years on what to do with the “C” – it seems to have slowly suppressed it from public view, trying to be more secular, yet causing yet more consternation and antagonisms along the way.

The “C” will always be part of the YMCA – so can we transition from a “negative peace” in the Y to a “positive peace” where religion and faith can openly be lived and discussed?

Or will the “C” continue to be the elephant in the room, an unmovable obstacle, an enduring offense?

Let’s not suppress the “C” in the Y, let’s embrace the opportunity in front of us and learn how it can become a public and healthy part of our cause and mission as we become an anti-racist, multicultural organization in spirit, mind and body in the USA and the World.

For me, our current emphasis on equity and justice is a crucial way the Y is still inspired by the prayer of Jesus: “that all may be one.”

FEEDBACK

There is much that can be critiqued and questioned in my attempt to make a case for the opportunity the “C” gives the Y to flourish for all.

Did I make too little of the ways the Christian name is an obstacle and an offense?

I’d be very open to reactions that point out realities I’m missing, or ways to strengthen the way forward.

The Ecclesia of the New Testament and the YMCA / by Emil Brunner

Professor Brunner is considered one of the greatest European Christian theologians in the early to mid 20th century. His enormous and brilliant influence on the YMCA is revealed in this essay he penned, inspired by his friendship with John R. Mott, to encourage and guide the Y in their faithfulness to Christ amidst a radically swift-changing post-war culture in Britain, Germany, and America.


The posted article below is an excerpt by Emil Brunner from Toward Our Second Century, a report of the plenary meeting of the World’s Committee of the Young Men’s Christian Organization at Geneva, Switzerland in July, 1953. Archived by the World Alliance YMCA

A theological advisor to the Y.M.C.A. in 1948.

————————-

“From its very beginning the YMCA has set great store by the fact that it is not a church.

It has rather exhorted its members to join a church. This conception and policy has stood the test and will remain the same in the future.

The ecumenical movement, however, and more especially the creation of the World Council of Churches, has required a re-thinking which, of course, has to start from and be based upon the New Testament.

If we read without prejudice what the New Testament says about Ecclesia, we see that this word signifies a reality which resembles the YMCA at least as much as today’s so-called churches.

The bodies which generally are recognized as “churches” are at least as different from the Ecclesia of the New Testament as the YMCA.

For Ecclesia is nothing else than a brotherhood of people bound together with Jesus Christ and with each other by the Holy Spirit and leading their daily life in such fellowship.

The Ecclesia is described to us as a common life under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, a common life in Faith, in Hope, and in Love, where what we are used to calling characteristic features of a church, “ecclesiastical” institutions, ecclesiastical offices, ecclesiastical actives do not play an essential role.

The following points deserve attention:

  1. There is no distinction between priests and laymen, but the whole community is “a priestly people”, everybody is expected to to act in a priestly manner.
  2. There is no sacrificial rite, but on the contrary: by the sacrifice of Christ all other sacrifices are done away forever, whereas everybody, each member of the community, is supposed to dedicate his or her life to God as an acceptable sacrifice.
  3. Each member of the community is called upon for service in the community. There is no difference between “active” and “passive” members, but, as each organ within a living organism exercises its function to the benefit of the whole, thus everybody within the Ecclesia is an organ fit for a function of which a “service” is expected and rendered. Non-active members have to be regarded as non-functioning dead organs and be cut off.
  4. There are certainly special Sunday meetings of the community for “worship”. But again, what matters most is that everybody contributes to the edification of the community, that nobody is passed over because some want to monopolize speaking.
  5. But these Sunday meetings of the community are not called Divine Service. On the contrary the daily life of the individual Christians, who dedicate their life to God as sacrifice, explicitly receive this title. Therefore, everyday life in the service of men in love is the genuine divine service.
  6. For this reason there is such a gulf, characteristic of our ecclesiastical life, between “Divine Service and Everyday Life”, between a “spiritual” and a “profane” realm outside. Everything is “spiritual” – even the most secular thing, if it is done united with Christ; then also eating and drinking then also trivial everyday work is “spiritual” if it is done “in Christ”.

If therefore the members of a YMCA by their faith are really united with Christ and the love which is flowing out of this faith unites them with the fellow members that they feel as brethren, and if these members regard their activities as service to Christ and to the brethren and sacrifice their lives in this service, they are Ecclesia as well as any church.

This insight is of utmost importance because it permits us to conceive our “secular” work, be it in sports groups, in professional evening classes, in manual work of the Boy’s Town in Indian slums, as spiritual work, as “church work in the meaning of the New Testament.”

Not the subject itself, Bible Study or sports, but the motive for the one as for the other: to serve Christ and to serve the brother, constitutes the difference between spiritual and non-spiritual; not the affiliation to a certain church makes our work Christian, but the belonging to Christ of each worker.

On the other hand, this insight makes us independent from the principle of “practical success.”

There are other organizations today, UNO, UNESCO, international emergency organizations or individual governments, doing the same as we do, seen from the outside, doing it even better than we can because of more money available to them.

Yet it is quite another thing, as it does not spring forth from the source of love of Christ and therefore is not realized in the same spirit.

Our social work does not have its value in itself, but as a demonstration of the love of Christ.

We are not a YMCA because of the model swimming pools available to everyone, but because we build and use a swimming pool to bring the love of Christ to young men.

The YMCA has little importance as an institution of welfare.

The YMCA either is a form of Ecclesia or it is nothing.

If it is not Ecclesia it is useless, amateurish duplicate of public welfare institutions.

Thus we arrive at this peculiar statement: the YMCA is inwardly Ecclesia, church in the meaning of the New Testament; outwardly it is a welfare institution for young people of all nations.

The fact that it unites this interior with this exterior makes its character and is the basis of its peculiar, incomparable activity.

There are, therefore, two dangerous deviations which may cause the YMCA to miss its destiny.

The first: that it loses its soul, that it ceases to be Ecclesia.

The second: that it loses its particular body, that it becomes a mere institution of one of the churches, a “church youth group” whose main purpose is Bible study.

The first one is wrong extraversion, the second a wrong intraversion.

In the first case, the YMCA ceases to be Christian; in the second case it ceases to be YMCA.

The centenary of the year 1955 must help each local and national YMCA all over the world to grasp this insight of the homogeneousness of body and soul and to win back the soul which the YMCA has lost in many places.

There is less danger for the exterior, for the “body” of the YMCA; for this exterior social service is evident to everybody and can be started rather easily.

The main danger is the first, the loss of the Christian soul, the character as Ecclesia.

The most important task of the Ecclesia in the New Testament is to make Christ known to all men.

Therefore the most important task of the YMCA is to win the youth of our time for Christ. Youth for Christ, Christ for Youth.

Whether this is done by swimming pools, evening classes, sports training or Bible and Prayer Meetings is not the main question.

What matters only is the aim that young people come into a living contact with Christ.

This, however, can only happen if the Bible is read, where it is preached; and where experiences are shared in a heartfelt, sincere, brotherly manner.

The soul of the YMCA cannot live without being nurtured and purified by the sources of faith.

We may imagine the ideal YMCA a society of young people looking very worldly, open to everybody, which is attractive by its activities for young people and renders service to them. But while it looks rather worldly from the outside, the leading men inside are eager to speak to the young people of Jesus Christ as soon as they ask: why are you doing that? why are you so kind to us? why are you interested in just me?

To proclaim the message of Jesus Christ with a few words in such moments, to explain what actually is a YMCA – that is the proper aim.

The YMCA is a proof that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is no “religion” but the love of men based upon the love of God.

Therefore it is possible to bear witness to Christ by simple exterior services.

Where there is real love towards men, there Christ is at work; where Christ really is at work, there is genuine love towards men.

The foundation of Ecclesia is God’s Love in Jesus Christ, received and accepted by human hearts.

There is no need for a creed, even the Paris Basis, a model of brevity.

Who loves Christ and is willing to obey Him belongs to it. Who does not love Him and does not obey Him does not belong to it.

The love of Christ is the sole criterion; the unquestionable manifestation of this love to Christ is love to the brethren, willingness to serve the brethren.

Therefore the “Christian Religion” is something so simple, something so ecclesiastical, something so laymen-like.

That is why the YMCA has such an extraordinarily good chance to serve Christ.

The churches have their particular values and services and the YMCA cannot do better than remain on a good relationship with them all.

They certainly have much to give to their members which the YMCA cannot provide.

But, it is able to give the most essential to young people if its soul, its hidden innermost, is the communion with Christ, which moves it to act and guides it, that is to say if it really is a kind of Ecclesia.”

———————————

Professor Brunner is considered one of the greatest European Christian theologians in the early to mid 20th century. His enormous and brilliant influence on the YMCA is revealed in this essay he penned, inspired by his friendship with John R. Mott, to encourage and guide the Y in their faithfulness to Christ amidst a radically swift-changing post-war culture in Britain, Germany, and America.

For a very brief overview of Emil Brunner’s life, Christian ministry and theological significance, read this overview by the Study Centre for Faith and Society.

For more about the brilliant and compelling writings of Emil Brunner, read this review by Roger Olsen.

For more in depth exploration of Dr. Brunner’s scholarship, read this paper by Alister McGrath.

For a fuller account of Emil Brunner’s writings and their helpfulness yet today, check out this book by Dr. McGrath.
Click here for the story behind this 1900 YMCA that met in a Skagway, Alaska Presbyterian church.

“Lessons I Have Learned In Christian Work” – by John R. Mott of the YMCA

These original 15 leadership lessons from 1948 by John R. Mott were copied from a 2006 publication written by Christian YMCA leaders; each chapter is a modern reflection and application of Mott’s YMCA lessons and experiences.

Who is John R. Mott? Why does he still matter to the Y? What can we learn from him today about leadership, spirituality, peace-making, Christian ministry, and serving amidst severe adversity?

Below are brief excerpts about his extraordinarily significant life regarding his being awarded in 1946 the Nobel Peace Prize, as well as his brilliant lifelong Christian ecumenical mission work. The main feature of this post is to highlight Mott’s 15 leadership lessons, referenced from a 2006 YMCA Christian leadership book.

Mott seems to have been mothballed, memory of his achievements have become marginalized; yet: we need to retrieve as much wisdom from him as possible in light of the “old” conflicts re-erupting in our culture and to which the YMCA is adapting still…

“Friendship among Christians Brings Peace”

“The Peace Prize for 1946 was awarded to the head of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), the American John Raleigh Mott, who according to the Nobel Committee had contributed to the creation of a peace-promoting religious brotherhood across national boundaries.”

“Mott grew up in a settler family in Iowa, strongly influenced by Puritan ideals, and took a bachelor’s degree in history at Cornell University. As a student Mott received a religious call to spread the Gospel, after which he devoted most of his life to the YMCA, to missionary activities, and ecumenical work.”

“As general-secretary of the International Committee of the YMCA and president of YMCA’s World Committee, Mott sought to advance understanding and reconciliation. He organized youth exchanges, set up study groups, and arranged international youth camps. Mott was at the same time a leading figure in the field of international Christian student and missionary cooperation, and took part during both World Wars in relief work for prisoners of war. He criticised the oppression of colonial peoples and was a pioneer in the struggle against racial discrimination.”

The Nobel Peace Prize 1946 was divided equally between Emily Greene Balch “for her lifelong work for the cause of peace” and John Raleigh Mott “for his contribution to the creation of a peace-promoting religious brotherhood across national boundaries.”

After a lifetime in Christian work and extensive travel in eighty-three nations, I would suggest for your consideration fifteen basic lessons that I have learned:

from remarks by John R. Mott at the North American Association of YMCA Secretaries meeting, May 25, 1948 Grand Rapids, Michigan
  1. Jesus Christ is the Foundation: He provides the direction and the zest for life. If we understand his teachings and his personality, he will make his own impression on our lives and it will be revolutionary.
  2. Rule by the Heart: People are reached “via the heart” – There is no substitute for love and kindness and sympathy.
  3. Study priorities: No human can do all the good to be done in the world. We need to list and study our own priorities daily.
  4. We Can Trust Others: We can afford great acts of trust. I can testify that I have never had others disappoint me.
  5. Study and Promote the Use of the Bible: It has been said that the cause of all evil is the lack of interest in religious writing. If I were to stay longer, I would give a frontline place to reawakening interest in the religious writings of Christianity. There is nothing to take their place.
  6. The Discipline of Prayer is Essential: “He departed a stone’s cast beyond the Apostles, and kneeled down and prayed.” I need only to say that we must make prayer one of the primary objectives of this brotherhood.
  7. Do “Multiplying” Work: “He that does the work is not as profitably employed as he who multiplies the doers.” Enlisting volunteers is one of our greatest tasks.
  8. Use the “Heroic Appeal”: A heroic appeal often gets a heroic response. It is good to have difficulties because it calls out the most in you, it drives you to get the cooperation of others, it drives you to God.
  9. Strategy Is Important: There are strategic points which if captured, make easy all that lies behind them. There are strategic classes and strategic races, strategic times, strategic methods, strategic places. We must know what they are.
  10. We need to Get into the Field: You cannot develop a Christian from an office chair. We need to be out meeting and dealing with personalities.
  11. Small Groups are of Great Value: Christ sent them out “two by two.” At one time, he had five disciples, at another time three, another time eleven, and at another, twelve. Why did Christ attach importance to small groups? I long ago decided that it was wise to follow Christ in this method.
  12. Adolescence is a Crucial Time: If I had my life to live over I would spend much time on the adolescents age group. These are the habit forming years, the years of determining life attitude and tendencies, the years of creativeness.
  13. Don’t Overlook Old People: Here is wisdom and experience for our asking. Here, also, is a group to whom we must give kindness and affection.
  14. Emphasize the Immediate: We need to live under the spell of immediacy. What other time will there be? What other generations than the present can we work with?
  15. Be Attentive Unto God: “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.” And, “My soul, be silent unto God,” say what I mean. We must put out other sounds – noises of selfish ambition – prepare ourselves to say, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”
These 15 lessons from John R. Mott were copied from this 2006 publication written by Christian YMCA leaders. Each chapter is a modern reflection and application of Mott’s YMCA experiences; featured are extraordinary Y leaders I’ve befriended: Eric Ellsworth, David Byrd, Tim Joyce, and Paul McEntire – purchase your copy online today!

And more about Mott the missionary leader:

“Born shortly after the American Civil War, which ended in 1865, his life spanned almost ninety years, ending in 1955 when Dwight Eisenhower was president.
During his life Mott interacted with eight American presidents, most notably Woodrow Wilson, who called him “one of the most nobly useful men in the world.”
When Mott declined to succeed Wilson as president of Princeton University, Wilson commented, “Mr. Mott can’t afford to take the presidency of a great university; Mr. Mott occupies a certain spiritual presidency in the spiritual university of the world.”
Although he declined several diplomatic positions, he did serve on Wilson’s Root Commission to Russia in 1917 and became the president’s most trusted advisor on Russian affairs.
In 1946, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work.”
[Gordon R. Doss, John R. Mott, 1865-1955: Mission Leader Extraordinaire]