. >> dorothy bass has collaborated with dykstra on several books. >> craig lives and has a very powerful sense that god upholds us in mercy, and that to live in awareness of that and a response to that is just the best thing there is. and it's the way to full humanity. >> it is this kind of life that dykstra, citing the new testament, wants to invite. >> what we really hope for, for people of faith and indeed for all people, is the gift of life abundant and our text just talked about it. a kind of life and a way of life given by god, received in gratitude and lived out in vocation as a response to god's calling. >> as dykstra cleaned out his office recently, he and his friends were asked to assess the success of the endowment's religious grant making over the past 20 years. has it helped people flourish, slow down the mainline decline? >> the first thing i'd say he's done most effectively is change the tone how christians in america think about the future. by making it more focused around hope, around possibilities, around excellence, around a way of life abundant. >> especially mainline