Article December 21, 1998 Issue

"How to change the world"

Interview with a Methodist minister on learning to love

By Kim Shippey

Last Christmas, Dr. Kenneth W. Chalker, senior pastor of the First Methodist Church of Cleveland, wrote an article for Cleveland's daily newspaper, The Plain Dealer, under the title "How to change the world." He invited his readers to think of the relationships that are strained and often broken because someone decided to follow that fashionable slogan "Just do it!"

"Rather than transform hearts one at a time," wrote Dr. Chalker, "we go at life by marching into things and taking over. Then, we are surprised and even angry at the resistance we meet. ... Just 'doing it' makes lasting enemies when what we need is lasting friends. ... We want immediate results. But learning to love each other does not happen that way."

In a recent conversation with Dr. Chalker, we invited him to tell us how it does happen!

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