About the Book
"Great by Choice" by Jim Collins explores why some companies thrive in uncertain and chaotic environments while others falter. The book presents research-based strategies and practices that successful companies follow, such as disciplined decision-making, consistent innovation, and a focus on long-term goals. Collins and co-author Morten T. Hansen draw on historical and contemporary examples to provide valuable insights for businesses looking to achieve sustained success.
Kathryn Kuhlman
Kathryn Johanna Kuhlman was born on May 9, 1907, in Concordia, Missouri. Her parents were German and she was one of four children. Her mother was a harsh disciplinarian, who showed little love or affection. On the other hand, she had an extremely close and loving relationship with her father. She would describe, as a small child how, her father would come home from work and she would hang on his leg and cling to him. She often said that her relationship with God the Father was extremely real because of her relationship with her own father.
Kuhlman was converted, when she was 14, at an evangelistic meeting held in a small Methodist church. When she was 16 she graduated from high school, which only went to tenth grade in their town. He older sister Myrtle had married an itinerant evangelist, Everett B. Parrott. They spent their time traveling and asked that Kathryn could join them for the summer. Her parents agreed and she went to Oregon to help out. She worked with them, and often gave her testimony. When the summer was over she wanted to stay, and the couple agreed. She ended up working with them for five years.
The evangelistic team was made up of four people, Everette, Myrtle, Kathryn, and pianists named Helen Gulliford. In 1928 Everette missed a meeting in Boise, Idaho. Myrtle and Kathryn preached to cover for Everette. The pastor of the church encouraged Kathryn to step out on her own. Helen agreed to join her. Her first sermon was in a run-down pool hall in Boise, Idaho. The team covered Idaho, Utah, and Colorado for the following five years. In 1933 they moved into Pueblo, Colorado. They set up in an abandoned Montgomery Ward warehouse. They stayed there for six months.
Denver, being a much bigger city, was the next stop. They moved several times but ended up in a paper company's warehouse, which they named the Kuhlman Revival Tabernacle. Then in 1935 they moved once more to an abandoned truck garage they named the Denver Revival Tabernacle. Kathryn was seeing a lot of success in Denver. The church grew to about 2000 members. She began a radio show called "Smiling Through" and invited speakers from all over the country. One of them was Phil Kerr who taught on divine healing. In 1935 another invited evangelist was Burroughs Waltrip.
Waltrip was bad news for Kuhlman. He was a charismatic, handsome man several years older than she was. There was an immediate attraction, and one family claims to have seen the couple embracing in 1935, but he was married and had two children. Waltrip left Denver and went home to Austin, Texas, but the relationship simmered between Kuhlman and Waltrip. In 1937 he was invited back to Denver to take the pulpit for two months. Shortly after he divorced his wife and abandoned his two sons. He then spread the story that his wife had left him. He moved to Mason City, Iowa, where he told everyone he was single, and started a new ministry. Waltrip raised pledges of $70,000 to build a ministry building called Radio Chapel. It was state of the art with a disappearing pulpit and an art deco style. He appeared to be a successful and dynamic preacher.
There was an ongoing relationship between Kuhlman and Waltrip, and they married in September 1938. Kuhlman was naive about the consequences of her choices and the marriage was a disaster. She announced to her church that she and Waltrip were married and they would go between Denver and Mason City preaching at their two churches. Most of the people in her congregation left due to her relationship with Waltrip. She gave up her church in Denver, lost some of her closest associates, and moved to Mason City. Waltrip's success turned out to be a pipe dream as well. The Radio Chapel was completed in June of 1938. By October 1938 Waltrip could not meet his debts. In December Waltrip was demanding a higher salary, even with the shortfall in income. His Board of Directors quit and left him to deal with the finances. His solution was not to pay the mortgage or debts on the Chapel. Radio Chapel went into bankruptcy. Waltrip's last sermon was in May 1939. The Waltrips were on their own. Kathryn's happy vision of she and her husband flying back and forth between Denver and Mason City with a successful preaching careers was utterly demolished.
The next few years were very hard for the couple. They embarked on the road as traveling evangelists, primarily staying in the Midwest. They were not accepted in many places due to their marriage history. Initial advertisements listed Waltrip as the primary evangelist. Then occasionally Mrs. Waltrip was also mentioned. By the early 1940s Kathryn Kuhlman Waltrip was given equal billing. Finally by the mid-1940s Kathryn was using only Kathryn Kuhlman in meetings where she was the primary speaker. In 1944 Kuhlman went on an evangelistic tour on the east coast without Waltrip. It may have been a conscious decision to leave him, or she may also have taken the opportunity to reassess her life. It appears to have been more gradual as Waltrip wrote about them as a couple as late as 1946. Kuhlman never returned to Waltrip and they eventually divorced in 1947. She left her marriage behind and from then on acted as if it never existed in the first place.
In 1946 Kuhlman was asked to speak in Franklin, Pennsylvania. She was well received and decided to stay in the area. Kuhlman began preaching on radio broadcasts in Oil City, Pennsylvania. These became so popular they were picked up in Pittsburgh, and she was preaching throughout the area. She began to preach about the healing power of God. In 1947 a woman was healed of a tumor while listening to Kuhlman preach. Several Sundays later a man was also healed while she was teaching on the Holy Spirit. She was now convinced of God's healing work. One important thing to note is the context and timing of this breakout period in Kuhlman's life. 1947 was the beginning of the Healing Revival (sometimes referred to as the Latter Rain Revival) that would last for the next 10 years. What was happening in Kuhlman's meetings was breaking out across the United States. It was in this time frame that the Voice of Healing Ministry was established and men like William Branham, Oral Roberts, A.A. Allen and many others were propelled onto the public stage. Kuhlman was not associated with those groups, but stepped into the flow of what God's Spirit was doing across the nation and the world.
In 1948 Kuhlman held a series of meetings at Carnegie Hall in Pittsburgh. She eventually moved to Pittsburgh in 1950, and continued to hold meetings at Carnegie Hall until 1971. She was used by God to bring the charismatic message to many denominational churches, including the Catholic Church. (She received a lot of criticism over this and was accused of being a closet Catholic.) These were her best known years. Her style was flamboyant. She would hold her famous miracle services and the auditorium was filled to capacity every time. She was on radio and television shows. She was ordained in 1968 by the Evangelical Church Alliance. Hundreds of people were healed in her meetings, and even while listening to her on the radio or television. People she prayed for would often be hit with the power of God and be "slain in the Spirit." Kuhlman never claimed that she was the healer. She always pointed people to Jesus as their healer.
Kuhlman had been diagnosed with a heart problem in 1955. She kept a very busy schedule and overworked herself, especially in the 1970's. She traveled back and forth from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles frequently, as well as taking trips around the world. Her heart was enlarged and Kuhlman died on February 20, 1976, in Tulsa, following open-heart surgery. Videos of some of her services are still available and continue to be popular today.
triune decision-making - how god guides tough choices
When we face a big decision, sometimes the decision-making process can feel more like a game show than a guided path. We can easily slip into the thinking that God is hosting “Let’s Make a Deal,” where we have to choose one of a slew of suitcases, hoping we pick the right one. When we face multiple doors and potential pathways, the freedom to choose can feel like crippling anxiety and pressure. Thankfully, our God does not play games with us, nor does he leave us to our own devices when making decisions. Contrary to popular belief, decisions are not puzzles to solve, but privileges to steward with the guidance of our triune God. Triune Guidance God offers triune guidance to his children as we face the decisions of life, from the minute to the monumental. Rather than stand far off from us, watching as we make decisions in consternation, he comes near to us, offering to guide us gently through a process that ultimately leads to more of himself. “Contrary to popular belief, decisions are not puzzles to solve, but privileges to steward.” As the Father who stands outside of time, God knows all that will happen and assures us that none of his plans will be thwarted (Isaiah 14:27; Job 42:2). He providentially steers all of creation, even the decisions of humans made in his image, working all things according to his everlasting and good purposes (Ephesians 1:11; Romans 8:28). He knows the number of hairs on our heads, the length of our days, and the tears we shed as we wrestle to make decisions (Luke 12:7; Psalm 139:16; Psalm 56:8). As the Son who stepped into time, Jesus is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:1–3). He knows what it feels like to live within the limits of time and space, as he made decisions daily during his time on earth. While the first Adam led the way into disastrous, self-centered decision-making, as the second Adam, Christ always made decisions in light of the goodness of his Father (Romans 6:17–21). His perfect decisions cleared the path so that we can make our present decisions in the presence of the triune God. As the Spirit who makes his home within us, the Holy Spirit guides us into all truth, convicting us of our selfish propensities and pointing us to God’s promises as we make decisions (John 16:12–15). He offers us comfort and peace when we feel dizzied by the sheer amount of decisions we make daily. Triune Perspective In addition to these timeless truths that anchor our souls in the sea of decisions, a Trinitarian perspective can also serve as a practical help in the process. When we face decisions large or small, we are limited by our own perspective as embodied creatures. We simply cannot see or imagine all the possible angles, try as we may. God does not live within these limitations. As John Frame wisely notes, God “sees all things from every possible perspective” ( Theology in Three Dimensions , 4–5). While the Trinity is a unity (meaning all of God does all that God does), Frame’s triperspectivalism creates a framework that helps us approach complex truths from three different angles or perspectives within the Trinity. The normative, the situational, and the existential perspectives (which correlate to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) can serve as different entry points for considering decisions. The normative  perspective relates to God’s authority. God acts as our loving authority, providing principles and revealing truths by which we can understand the normative human experience. As Creator and Father, God sets the standards by which his creatures operate best in his world. When we approach a decision from the normative perspective, we ask, “What does God’s word say about the decision set before me?” The situational  perspective relates to God’s control. Through his eternal Word, God perfectly controls and orders the movement of every proton and every person. If God is in complete control over all things (which he is), then we can trust that he has perfectly ordered our present circumstances with their opportunities, challenges, and limitations. When we approach a decision from the situational perspective, we assess the realities and circumstances in which we find ourselves. The existential  perspective relates to God’s presence. The triune God has always sought to be close to his people, and by the Holy Spirit, he now lives within every believer. He is closer than even the air we breathe. The Spirit searches and permeates the deep waters of human hearts and personalities (1 Corinthians 2:10–13; Proverbs 20:5). When we approach a decision from the existential perspective, then, we are asking more internal questions about personal desires and feelings. Three Perspectives in Action If we can get past the length of the word triperspectivalism , we will begin to see the depth of practical wisdom we can glean from this approach to decisions. For example, when a couple is praying through a potential marriage, walking through the decision from the normative, the situational, and the existential can provide helpful insight. In Scripture, God is clear that marriage is between a man and a woman and that believers are to be equally yoked spiritually ( normative ). If the couple’s friends and family are not opposed to the union, and present circumstances seem to allow it ( situational ), the couple is then free to consider whether they desire to commit to each other in the covenant of marriage ( existential ). Let’s consider a different example. A young couple is eager to grow their family and has prayed and processed through adoption. They know that physical adoption is one of the most powerful pictures of the spiritual adoption we have received through Christ into the household of God (normative). They have been going through the prerequisite steps of training, they have conducted a home study, and they have even begun to check out agencies. There are countless options in their county, all of which they are able to pursue (situational); however, they both feel especially pulled toward the foster-care system, even though they know it will likely present unique challenges (existential). While God is pleased with all forms of adoption, they plan to forgo international and private adoption after much praying and processing within their local church. “God promises to use the decision-making process as a means to make us more like him and to give us more of him.” Finally, let’s look at a more ordinary, everyday decision through these three perspectives. A child has been invited to play in a sports tournament on a Sunday. The family has already prioritized worship in the local church (normative). The child knows that he will miss the first game because attendance at worship is a high point of the family’s weekly rhythms; however, he really wants to play in the afternoon game (existential). The parent of another player offers a ride to the second game that does not interfere with the rest of the plans for the day (situational). The parents are left to discuss what the child thinks is the best way to serve as a team member (existential). Guided Process to More of God When we are facing a significant decision, it is natural to be overwhelmed at the various paths set before us. But no matter which of the potential pathways you choose, remember that Jesus has opened up the most significant pathway for us already: he has opened up the path to fellowship with God through his own body (John 14:6). He has not left us alone to see how we fare in our decisions, as if he were a game show host. Rather, he takes us by the hand and leads us toward glory (Psalm 73:23–24). And along the way, he promises to use the decision-making process as a means to make us more like him and to give us more of him, who is our great reward (Genesis 15:1).
