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The 2016 Wilberforce Weekend
The 2016 Wilberforce Weekend: Energizing and equipping Christian leadership in the spirit of William Wilberforce is a Special Report sponsored by The Colson Center for Christian Worldview and prepared by The Washington Times Advocacy Department.
Recent Stories
Wilberforce Weekend: God loveth "re" words
There are a lot of "re" words in the Bible. Words like redemption, renew, repent, restore, resurrection, reconciliation and regeneration show up over and over throughout the Bible, especially the New Testament.
Wilberforce Weekend: To handle today's 'cultural moment,' stand firm in the Gospel story
I love Josh Bales' song based on the Lord's prayer, "Thy Kingdom Come." Do you feel like that in this cultural moment, that we know that the kingdom is coming?
Wilberforce Weekend: Understanding God's mission
You've probably been sent on a mission before. For some, it could have simply been out to the store to get some ice cream. For others, it could have been to face a deadly enemy on foreign soil.
Wilberforce Weekend: Hannah More, the 'female' Wilberforce
If you are like most people, you perhaps have never heard of Hannah More, so don't feel bad. When you're done hearing my very short discussion about her and her legacy, and why she is often called the female Wilberforce, you might, like me, come to think of Wilberforce as the female More.
Wilberforce Weekend: Museum of the Bible beckons all to 'come and see'
Since the day I was born, the Bible has played a significant role in my life. My parents taught me to love it, to cherish its principles, and to apply them to everything I did.
Wilberforce Weekend: Christian communities offer 'ballast' against violence, radicalism, insanity'
If you read Jeremiah 29:11, every high school yearbook has, "I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you, to give you a future and a hope," right? We all remember that verse. What's the context of it? Seek the good of the city. Where were those exiles? Babylon.
Wilberforce Weekend: Exposing inhumane, coercive population control
I am president of Women's Rights Without Frontiers. Our mission is to end forced abortion and the sex-selective abortion of baby girls in China.
Wilberforce Weekend: ISIS using new technology to commit medieval brutality
"Disruption" is a word of Silicon Valley currency. It's a word we use to describe an unexpected agitation of some age-old idea, a dislodging of a cog in the old system. It's primarily a technological term envisioning massive change in a short period of time with exponential results. A true disruption can shake generations on each side of it. It can rattle all that everyone knew and establish a new norm.
Wilberforce Weekend: Resist sin, and fearlessly radiate the love and life of Christ
If our faith is going to be increasingly mocked and rejected, it will negatively affect our ability to speak in the public square. What we say will be distorted or ridiculed. Communication will be difficult.
Wilberforce Weekend: 'Does the West care about us? Does the church care about us?'
The Bible has much to say about persecution, oppression. In Luke 4:18, Jesus reads to the synagogue in Nazareth from Isaiah. He said, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free."
Wilberforce Weekend:Be light!
Today's complacency is tomorrow's captivity.
Wilberforce Weekend: Restore brokenness by welcoming home the orphans
How many of you knew that we have orphans in the United States? I encounter people every day who haven't the foggiest idea that we have [100,000] orphans who need families in the United States.
Wilberforce Weekend: Strengthening our common bond in Jesus Christ
Like so many of you, the name Chuck Colson came to my consciousness in association with those troubled days of Watergate. I think we don't need to apologize for associating that period, Watergate, with Chuck Colson any more than we apologize for associating the road to Damascus with St. Paul.
Wilberforce Weekend: God's 'counterintuitive' plan to vanquish anger, fear, despair
I don't need to tell you that we live in an increasingly dark and dangerous world that something bad has happened to our world. And, given the state of our world, I find that the operational attitude of a lot of Christians, who take our world seriously and who don't see immediate solutions, is increasing despair.
Wilberforce Weekend: Live with hope, despite a world of apathy, hardened hearts
One of the reasons I am involved with the Colson Center and Colson Fellows program is because it is the heart of what I've been doing most of my life: speaking and writing on issues related to worldview....
Wilberforce Weekend: Remembering Colson and his three 'lodestars'
It was in the early 1990s when I was working on a project. I closed the door to my office and said to my secretary, "No matter who calls, I don't want to be interrupted."
Wilberforce Weekend: Recovering William Wilberforce's impact on civilization
Chuck Colson loved William Wilberforce for many reasons, and in 1988 started a Wilberforce Award to honor the individual who, as a Christian in the footsteps of Wilberforce, stood up for doing the right thing in challenging times. The first honoree was Benigno Aquino, who heroically stood up to Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos and was later assassinated by Marcos at the now-renamed Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Wilberforce Weekend: Chuck Colson: A man of faith and reason
Scarcely a day goes by when I don't remember and miss and feel the inspiring spirit of my late, beloved friend Chuck Colson. I am so sorry I can't be with all of you this evening to remember Chuck and celebrate his life and all the good that he did for all of us.
Wilberforce Weekend: A passionate leader and 'fully present' father and family man
It is truly an honor to be here, to be here together as a family ... especially in light of the 40th anniversary of Prison Fellowship and the 25th anniversary of BreakPoint. You have given our family a great gift ...
Wilberforce Weekend: Tributes from Colson Fellows
"The Colson Center's Centurion Program provided me an inspirational, foundational, and practical educational experience that was a catalyst for personal and cultural change.
Wilberforce Weekend: Tributes from Colson Fellows
"Everybody has a worldview typically revealed by how and what we do."
Wilberforce Weekend: Tributes from Colson Fellows
"I had the joy and great privilege to attend the Centurions program when it was first launched. Meeting Chuck Colson was a treat; I enjoyed his sense of humor and insight."
Wilberforce Weekend: Tributes from Colson Fellows
"The Centurions Program, now the Colson Fellows program, transformed my life. Since 1997, I've been practicing as a pediatric physical therapist in a very small, rural Indiana community."
Wilberforce Weekend: Tributes from Colson Fellows
"The Colson Fellows program was a tremendous blessing in my spiritual, personal and professional development."
Wilberforce Weekend: Five questions reveal one's worldview
Your worldview is, quite simply, your view of the world. It is your belief system — the lens through which you see all of life. Everyone has a worldview, whether they've thought it through or not.
Wilberforce Weekend: The power of a good idea
As a college president, I have often argued that ideas have consequences. For good or for ill, ideas matter. People are unavoidably blessed or cursed by their guiding principles — by the import of their ideas. In many ways, we inevitably do practice what we preach. "[That] thing a man does practically believe the thing a man does practically lay to heart, and know for certain is in all cases the primary thing for him, and creatively determines all the rest." (Carlyle).
Wilberforce Weekend: 'Resisting evil' means rising above anger
In considering the Wilberforce Weekend themes of "promoting good, resisting evil and restoring brokenness," one big thing comes to mind that's essential to accomplishing all three: giving up anger.
Wilberforce Weekend: Focusing on winning the culture, not the culture war
One of my favorite books — and one I regularly challenge private schools to make mandatory faculty reading -- is Dr. James Burnham's 1964 classic, "Suicide of the West" (Encounter Books, 2014).
