First Person with Wayne Shepherd

Donnita Travis, the founder of a Chicago after school club called By the Hand, talks with Wayne Shepherd about mentoring students in the name of Christ.  (click for more...) 
Website:  https://bythehand.org
In 1997, Donita Travis—then president of a Chicago advertising agency she'd co-founded with her husband—felt called by God during a prayer retreat to help kids in Chicago live an "abundant life" (John 10:10). She spent the next three years volunteering with kids from the Cabrini-Green housing projects at Moody Church while still running her agency, before leaving the business in 2000, with her husband's blessing, to found By the Hand Club, a Christ-centered after-school program. Starting with just 16 kids in a single room in March 2001, the program has grown to serve 1,800 kids (7,000 total over the years) from kindergarten through college across six clubs in four under-resourced Chicago neighborhoods, partnering with Chicago Public Schools to reach children most at risk of dropping out and caring for them holistically in mind, body, and soul. The results have been striking: a 100% high school graduation rate, 76% of graduates continuing to higher education or the military, 60% on the honor roll, over 80% growing at least a year in reading level, and 87% professing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Running on a $17 million annual budget (which includes $1 million just for busing), the organization has finished fully funded for 23 straight years and holds a four-star Charity Navigator rating. Travis closes the interview with the story of Shacola, a student removed from her home with six siblings as a first grader and raised by her aunt, Miss Alma (now a By the Hand staff member)—Shacola is now a ninth grader reading at a 12th-grade level, on full scholarship at Culver Academy, with her younger sister following in her footsteps with a scholarship of her own.
                               NEXT WEEK:  Zac Holt, The Table Ministries

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Bill Hendricks, President of the Giftedness Center and Executive Director for Christian Leadership at the Hendricks Center at Dallas Seminary, talks about finding God’s purpose.  (click for more…) 
Websites:  www.thegiftednesscenter.com 
www.hendrickscenter.dts.edu
Wayne Shepherd talks with Bill Hendricks—Executive Director for Christian Leadership at the Hendricks Center at Dallas Theological Seminary and President of the Giftedness Center, and son of the late Howard Hendricks. Bill describes taking over his father's leadership center in 2014, and his decades-long work at the Giftedness Center helping people (over 2,000 to date) discover their God-given "giftedness"—the innate design that shapes their calling. He shares his own faith story, from a childhood conversion at age four and a half after hearing the Passion story on a record, to a pivotal career-assessment session at age 30 that clarified his own gifts. Much of the conversation explores why people struggle to see their own giftedness (since we can't step outside ourselves), how storytelling and lived experience—rather than psychometric tests—reveal a person's distinctive pattern of gifting, and how Bill sees giftedness as "incarnational truth": a reflection of God's own image expressed uniquely through each person. The episode closes with references to his father's earlier appearance on the show and info on Bill's books and ministry.
                                             NEXT WEEK:  Donnita Travis
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On this 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, noted historian David McCullough joins Wayne Shepherd for Part 2 of 1776:  George Washington.   (click for more…)
Website: www.simonandschuster.com/p/david-mccullough
Recorded in 2005, this is a continuation of last week’s FIRST PERSON as the late David McCullough talked about his book, 1776, and the experiences of George Washington in that momentous year. The conversation centers on George Washington's leadership during the darkest days of the war. McCullough describes how Washington forgave Joseph Reed's disloyalty and Nathaniel Greene's costly mistake at Fort Washington, choosing loyalty and grace over punishment — a decision that deepened both men's devotion to him. He portrays Washington as a leader shaped more by character than intellect: not a brilliant orator or strategist, but someone who inspired trust through steadiness, humility, and self-sacrifice (leaving behind wealth and comfort to lead a ragged army). McCullough also highlights lesser-known figures — Henry Knox's astonishing winter trek hauling cannon from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston, and ordinary soldiers like Joseph Hodgkins and Jabez Fitch whose diaries, often scrawled on scraps of paper, McCullough treats as the "gold" of his research. The interview closes with McCullough reflecting on why he writes — to understand human sacrifice and courage — and calling Washington "the greatest American of all time," while noting the book deliberately ends with the pivotal victories at Trenton and Princeton rather than covering the full war.
                                              NEXT WEEK:  Bill Hendricks

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America at 250: Part One of a 2005 conversation as Wayne Shepherd talks with historian David McCullough about the events surrounding George Washington in 1776.  (click for more...)  
Website:  www.simonandschuster.com/p/david-mccullough
As we approach July 4th and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, in this 2005 interview noted historian David McCullough discusses his book 1776, focusing on George Washington and the desperate, pivotal year of the Revolutionary War. He emphasizes how close the Patriots came to losing — particularly during the disastrous Battle of Brooklyn — and how a providential fog allowed Washington's army to escape across the East River at night, an event he calls the most representative moment of the war's "thinnest of lines." McCullough explores how 18th-century Americans interpreted such events as the hand of God working for or against them, citing letters from Abigail Adams and contemporary newspapers. He also describes the ragged, undisciplined nature of the Continental Army, Washington's ability to recognize talent in inexperienced officers like Nathanael Greene and Henry Knox, and the eventual betrayal by his trusted aide Joseph Reed (to be covered in part two). The episode closes by noting McCullough's death in 2022 and previewing next week's continuation of the conversation.
                           NEXT WEEK:  Part two with David McCullough
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Dr. Mark Jobe talks with Wayne Shepherd about his tenure as President of Moody Bible Institute and his decision to follow God's call back to the church.  (click for more...) 
Website:  www.moodybible.org/news/2026/presidential-transition/
Also:  www.moodyradio.org/bold-steps
Dr. Jobe reflects on his seven years leading Moody, a role he didn't seek (it came as an unexpected call, and his wife encouraged him to pray about it) and accepted out of obedience rather than personal ambition. He describes balancing the full-time presidency with continuing to pastor New Life Community Church, a multi-site congregation with 25 locations and 44 services across Chicago plus 10 international sites, alongside a nonprofit serving at-risk youth. He calls the dual role a "beautiful marriage" that kept him connected to the city while leading the institute.
He's now stepping down to return full-time to pastoring, church planting, and evangelism, calling it a deepening of his calling rather than a demotion. Much of the conversation covers his urban, multiethnic ministry in Chicago, the rise of "cultural Christians" and lapsed Catholics seeking faith again, strong recent growth in conversions and baptisms (over 1,100 people in 24 months), and his direct approach encouraging unmarried couples living together to marry. He closes by citing Proverbs 3:5-6, underlined in his father's Bible, as the scripture that has most guided his life and decisions.
The interview ends noting Jobe will leave his Moody office at the end of the month, with listeners encouraged to pray for his successor as the institute's 11th president.
       NEXT WEEK:  David McCullough on George Washington and 1776
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