Most of us have a mental picture of apathy-soft, sluggish, undependable. But what does commitment look like? Especially commitment to Christ and to the church?

Recently California pastor John MacArthur sparked heated debate with his book The Gospel According to Jesus, in which he insists that salvation does not occur apart from a living, visible commitment to Christ's lordship. His critics contend that lordship, or obedience, grows out of a relationship with Christ, but salvation does not depend upon a person's efforts to live up to biblical standards.

I won't try to resolve the issue here, but as a Chicago baseball fan, I suspect the answer will be found in the Cubs' infield-somewhere between Law (the third baseman) and Grace (the first baseman).

In church ministry, we often cover a lot of territory between the foul lines. We learn to live with the reality that people's intentions rarely are matched by their follow-through.

My wife, Susan, has served as our church's director of children's ...