It was years ago that I met Rufus Jones—a Baptist Rufus Jones (not Rufus M. Jones the Quaker). This was the Rufus Jones who was general director of the Conservative Baptist Home Mission Society and a leader in the reawakening of evangelical social conscience. In a 1972 communication to Lewis Smedes, Jones said, “I personally think that during the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy both liberals and conservatives went to an unbiblical extreme. Both were right in what they affirmed and wrong in what they denied…each was guilty of proclaiming a partial gospel.” This is background I want to recapture on my way to the thing that brought Rufus Jones to mind.

If I Were in My Thirties—the title of a book by Rufus Jones—is what reminded me of him. It’s a book that the elder statesman wrote for young leaders. I’m thinking about If I Were in My Sixties? That’s what’s relevant to me.

For the next seven days I’m going to focus on some “if I were in my sixties” recommendation to myself.