The Gift of Disillusionment | Acton Lecture Series

Around the world, discouragement erodes the vitality of Christian organizations. Visionaries often succumb to cynicism. Zealous advocates give up. Leaders coast as their passion for the cause grows cold.

Grounded in deep research, The Gift of Disillusionment: Enduring Hope for Leaders After Idealism Fades invites followers of Jesus to sustain hope in long-term service. It’s about moving past the false hope of idealism and the faint hope of disillusionment to discover true Christian hope.

You will gain encouragement through the study of the book of Jeremiah, which is woven throughout The Gift of Disillusionment, as the authors Peter Greer and Chris Horst explore how the Lord prophetically met and sustained Jeremiah during his lifetime of faithfulness despite nothing going as he had hoped. Glean further inspiration by reading the stories of Christian leaders from Zimbabwe, Haiti, Guatemala, Poland, Palestine, the Philippines, India, Zambia, and Lebanon, for this is the moment when we need the global Church’s perspective and influence.

If you’re a Christian leader on the ragged edge of despair, don’t give up and don’t check out. These are confounding and perilous days, yet God’s sustaining presence can bring joy, hope, and encouragement even amid heartache and disappointment.

The Acton Institute is a think-tank whose mission is to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles.
This direction recognizes the benefits of a limited government, but also the beneficent consequences of a free market. It embraces an objective framework of moral values, but also recognizes and appreciates the subjective nature of economic value. It views justice as a duty of all to give the one his due but, more importantly, as an individual obligation to serve the common good and not just his own needs and wants.
In order to promote a more profound understanding of the coming together of faith and liberty, Acton involves members of religious, business, and academic spheres in its various seminars, publications, and academic activities. It is our hope that by demonstrating the compatibility of faith, liberty, and free economic activity, religious leaders and entrepreneurs can contribute by helping to shape a society that is secure, free, and virtuous.

Peter Greer is the president and CEO of HOPE International, a global Christ-centered economic development organization serving throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Prior to joining HOPE, Peter worked internationally as a microfinance adviser in Cambodia and Zimbabwe and as managing director for Urwego Bank in Rwanda. He received a B.S. in international business from Messiah University and an MPP in political and economic development from Harvard's Kennedy School. Peter’s favorite part of his job is spending time with the entrepreneurs HOPE serves—whether harvesting coffee with farmers in Rwanda, dancing alongside savings groups in Haiti, or visiting the greenhouses of entrepreneurs in Ukraine. As an advocate for the Church’s role in missions and alleviating extreme poverty, Peter has co-authored over 10 books, including Mission Drift (selected as a 2015 Book Award Winner from Christianity Today), Rooting for Rivals (selected as a 2019 Leadership Resource of the Year in Outreach magazine), The Spiritual Danger of Doing Good (selected as one of the top 40 books on poverty by WORLD magazine) and Created to Flourish (which his mom reviewed with five stars and a smiley face emoji). Currently, Peter serves as the entrepreneur-in-residence at Messiah College and as a Praxis Venture Partner. More important than his role at HOPE is his role as husband to Laurel and dad to Keith, Liliana, Myles, and London. While his sports loyalties remain in New England, Peter and his family live in Lancaster, PA.

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