By: Jenny Dooley on September 17, 2024
Dreaming in Black and White First off, the vulnerability of Pastor Brett Fuller in telling his story is inspiring and courageous. I appreciate his heart and patience in helping me understand a lived experience so different than mine. Reading Dreaming in Black and White is a reminder that those who experience suffering and oppression have…
By: Kim Sanford on September 17, 2024
This week we are tasked with writing a different sort of blog post, in preparation for our week in Washington D.C. Firstly, let’s dive into Jim Wallis’ book. In God’s Politics: Why the Left Gets it Wrong and the Right Doesn’t Get it, Wallis lays out his vision for a political ecosystem according to Kingdom…
By: John Fehlen on September 16, 2024
Right out of the gate…I have two honest confessions. Firstly, I did NOT incorporate Jim Wallis’ God Politics into this post (although I read it entirely and enjoyed it thoroughly…so much so that I just finished reading his latest book The False White Gospel!). My apologies to Mr. Wallis. I am deeply grateful for his…
By: Esther Edwards on September 16, 2024
As I read through the assigned readings, I found it difficult to simply do an inspectional reading. All three texts gave much to ponder regarding racial injustice, women in leadership, and the great polarizing effect of church and politics. I will start with the books written by Brett E. Fuller. I must admit, I come…
By: Dinka Utomo on September 12, 2024
The book I selected for this week’s assignment is The Imitation of Christ by Thomas Kempis. This is a Christian devotional book first composed in Medieval Latin as De Imitatione Christi (c. 1418–1427). The devotional text is divided into four books of detailed spiritual instructions: (i) “Helpful Counsels of the Spiritual Life”, (ii) “Directives for the Interior Life”, (iii) “On Interior Consolation”, and…
By: Jonita Fair-Payton on September 12, 2024
A Playbook for Power and Position! Introduction The Prince was written over five hundred years ago by Niccolo Machiavelli after his political career was brought to an abrupt end and he was imprisoned. He authored the book hoping it would help restore him to power. It is a book that can still be considered relevant…
By: Adam Harris on September 12, 2024
When I saw that Jason was requiring us to read a book over 300 years old, I was automatically taken back to Oxford when Dr. Martyn Percy asked our DLGP cohorts to name a significant work over 300 years old that is still in print. Several works were named by us before he revealed one…
By: Todd E Henley on September 12, 2024
This week, I was taken back to 1984, my senior year of high school. I remember that spring studying various religions but the only one that stood out was Taoism, because I remember thinking, this is a nice way of living. Forty years later I am so glad I read Tao Te Ching by Lao…
By: Kim Sanford on September 10, 2024
Today’s leadership lesson is brought to you by not one, but two, very old books. I enjoyed the challenge of this week’s assignment, perhaps a little too much. I went down a bit of a nerdy rabbit hole[1] and ended up skimming through four books before sitting down to write. I had to stop myself…
By: Esther Edwards on September 9, 2024
Finding a book on leadership that has been in continuous print for over 300 years is not an easy feat. Having just purchased a myriad of books for the semester, I asked my husband if he could think of any “book of old.” He immediately mentioned the Foxe’s Book of Martyrs of which he had…
By: Mathieu Yuill on September 9, 2024
Syntopical Review of Meditations: “Be One” – Leadership Lessons from Marcus Aurelius “Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.” This quote from Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations[1] gets right to the point: instead of debating what makes a good leader, simply become one. In today’s world, where leadership advice is everywhere,…
By: John Fehlen on September 9, 2024
The text I have chosen to review is Meditations, written between 170 and 180 AD by Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoic philosopher. Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy that was birthed and flourished in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. The Stoics believed that practicing…
By: Cathy Glei on September 8, 2024
Have you ever thought about your own death? The death rate is 100%. . . all of us are going to die. My mom died at an early age. On the night of her death, I slept on the floor by her bed which was strategically placed in the living room so that we could…
By: Jonita Fair-Payton on September 7, 2024
“A third thing that the Church can do in attempting to solve the race problem is to take the lead in strong Christian social action. It is not enough for the Church to be active in the ideological direction; it must also move out into the arena of social action. The first act in this…
By: Dinka Utomo on September 5, 2024
In the last few days, our country’s mass media and social media have been abuzz with news of Pope Francis’ visit. The visit of Pope Francis the highest leader of the Catholic religion to our country is a unique phenomenon. This is because the number of Catholics in our country is only around 3% of…
By: Todd E Henley on September 5, 2024
This week as I was reading Jesus and the Powers by N.T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, I received a notification on my phone from 6abc Philadelphia: “Causalities reported in shooting at Georgia high school, suspect in custody.”1 My first response was, “No, no, no.” Throughout the day, I was glued to my laptop waiting…
By: Adam Harris on September 5, 2024
Have you ever noticed that when we Christians speak about things like “the gospel,” “Jesus,” or “the kingdom of God,” it can mean very different things from one person or group to the next? We all seem to have unique ways of explaining what the gospel is, what Jesus cares about, and what the kingdom…
By: Jenny Dooley on September 4, 2024
Given the overwhelming number of global and national issues we currently face, our reading this week is a welcome signpost guiding the way. In the introduction to Jesus and the Powers, authors N.T. Wright and Michael F. Bird noted the powerful objective that undergirds their book. They write, ”… in an age of ascending autocracies,…
By: Mathieu Yuill on September 2, 2024
Reflecting on Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies by N.T. Wright and Michael F. Bird[1] feels especially relevant today, given the global challenges we face. Wright and Bird’s exploration of how Christians should navigate the political and social upheaval of our time is both sobering…
By: Cathy Glei on September 2, 2024
“The very existence of a community living like that – scandalous as it appeared to many- was the sign to the watching world that something radically new had come about, a way of life that was attractive and vibrant even as, in social and political terms, it was costly and dangerous. “ [1] Drawing attention…
