The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell

Seldom do I recommend a book hot off the shelves, but The Tipping Point is an unusual study. The author offers theories about why mass movements happen and why they stop suddenly.

The book has certain titles for people. I end up being a Maven, someone who collects and dispenses information. Another is the Connector, like EastCoast, who knows everyone - and I mean everyone.

The Synod Minder's plea for sources is amusing. I published a 650 page book with roughly 1500 references - Thy Strong Word. The book is being read all over the world. The book is posted free on the Internet.

WELS is still selling Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure.

Around 5,000 copies of Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant sold. The book is being reprinted now.

Unlike the people who run the "conservative" synods, I have a number of earned degrees in theology. That means I defended my ideas and research before people who were not my blood relatives and did not agree with me doctrinally.

I have attended many conferences and schools, so there is a good chance that I have met or listened live to people on various required reading lists: Laurens van der Post (Prince Charles' guru - long conversation with him), Billy Graham, James Kennedy, Paul Y. Cho (shook hands with him), Krister Stendahl (also worked with his son at Yale), Herb Chilstrom, James Crumley, David Preus, Robert Preus, Jack Preus, Herman Otten, Paul McCain (invited by him to the Purple Palace), Nils Dahl, Robert Wilson, Elie Wiesel, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon (shook hands with him), Chuck Colson (shook hands with him at Wheaton), and many laity and pastors from various synods. Two of my professors at Notre Dame (Schussler-Fiorenza) are in endowed positions at Harvard University. My ethics professors were the sainted Paul L. Holmer and someone he taught, Stan Hauerwas. Stan was at Augustana and is now at Duke. I knew him at Notre Dame. Experts say he is the leading theologian in America now. Hauerwas and the late Roland Bainton are my examples in publishing a lot everywhere. I knew Bainton at Yale, attended his lectures, and got his help for my dissertation.

I probably left out quite a bit. I am just saying that I enjoy being a Maven. I will never tire of it. When I post something, it is the result of a lifetime of research, publishing, and various theological conferences.