I had accepted the call as senior pastor of a large congregation that had recently erected a huge, state-of-the-art building resulting in major debt. Feeling the pressures of my new responsibility—and with a strong desire to impress my parishioners—I hit the ground running. I was in the office early every day, and almost every evening I was out shepherding the flock or reaching out to ...

A few years ago, I received a phone call at my desk. A girl in the college department called to say that her car had broken down and she was stranded about two miles from the office. So, I drove over to the location and found her leaning against her car, looking flustered.

I leaned against the car next to her and asked what happened.

"Well, I was just driving down the road and it quit running," she ...

What would cause an innocent woman to welcome time behind bars? According to Maria Brunner, all it takes is her "lazy" husband and "demanding" children.

Brunner's husband is unemployed, so she supports their three young children by cleaning other people's houses. Even without a job, her husband managed to run up quite a number of unpaid parking tickets. The bill totals nearly $5,000. Mr. Brunner kept ...