By: Jonita Fair-Payton on January 11, 2024
I want to share a story with you. It came to mind as I read the introduction of The Identity Trap. As I have shared in other blogs, I am a Consultant and I work with non- profit organizations, churches, and charitable foundations. During the pandemic, in July of 2020, I worked with a CEO…
By: Jonita Fair-Payton on November 1, 2023
“I firmly believe that kingdom-seeking, God-honoring, biblically rooted leadership needs to learn how to hear God’s voice. Leaders must lead from a divine center with a heart in tune with the heart of God, forming a holy partnership that results in fulfilling the purposes of God on earth.”(1) Leadership Vibrations This book was music to…
By: Jonita Fair-Payton on October 6, 2023
I must admit that I felt a little intimidated by the thought of reading Dr. Jason Swan Clark’s Dissertation. It felt weird to read his work and write about it, not sure why but it was not a task that I was anxious to complete. Perhaps it’s his over 6-foot stature or maybe the English…
By: Jonita Fair-Payton on September 14, 2023
I had a plan for my Summer. It included many trips to the beach, a quest to find the best breakfast taco (my favorite food), a moderate amount of Uber driving for my children, leisurely reading for a book club that I joined (friends from high school), drinking frozen beverages and having my age-appropriate version…
By: John Fehlen on April 24, 2023
“Whether you are an activist advocating for social and political change, a manager leading an organization, or a leader looking to shape an entire society, the need to create interconnectivity and interdependence remains essential” (Satell, 35). I’m writing this particular blog post on the three year anniversary of the day I made the difficult decision (along…
By: Jonita Fair-Payton on March 7, 2023
Oh, so much good stuff in one small book. Steal Like An Artist was the perfect feel-good read for me. I am convinced that Austin Kleon and I would be best friends if we met, and please be advised that from this point on I will refer to him as my best friend in my…
By: Mario Hood on March 12, 2020
In Confronting Christianity, author and Christian apologists Rebecca McLaughlin answers twelve hard-hitting questions that confront the Christian faith. The twelve questions are broken up into twelve chapters that form the book. McLaughlin, who holds a Ph.D. from Cambridge University and a theology degree from Oak Hill seminary in London, writes with clarity and conviction without…
By: Dylan Branson on March 9, 2020
In Simon Walker’s The Undefended Leader trilogy, Walker seeks to lay out various challenges found within leadership. In the study of leadership, the question is often trying to discern a definition of leadership that is both applicable and makes sense. Walker writes, “Leadership is about who you are, not what you know or what skills…
By: Joe Castillo on February 24, 2020
You are intelligent, liberal and well informed. He can’t understand why working-class Americans vote for Republicans. He thinks they have been duped, but he is wrong. This accusation did not see Ne from the right. It is a warning from Jonathan Haidt (New York, 1963), a social psychologist at the University of Virginia who, until…
By: Chris Pollock on September 18, 2019
Opening to the world, the beauty and artistry and history in all of its cultural diversity, continues to be a process for me. Unfathomable to recall that there was a time that I believed everyone thinks the same way and sees the world just like me, despite going to an international school growing up and…
By: Mario Hood on June 20, 2019
I absolutely love reading Tom Camacho, Mining for Gold: Developing Kingdom Leaders Through Coaching. I spoke to me on many different levels, and while it was not the most prolific academic work we have read thus far, it is powerful, practical and I would even add prophetic for where leadership is going. Camacho self…
By: Mario Hood on June 13, 2019
I have always wanted to visit the Motherland aka Great Britain as an American (and also the other Motherland for African Americans), and so I am glad that I get to do both in this program. Outside of the Queen (Royal Family), the red telephone booths, and Cambridge and Oxford, I do not know very…
By: Mario Hood on April 11, 2019
Brené Brown is an American research professor in The Graduate College of Social Work at the University of Houston and continues her excellent work towards improving the lives of people in her work, Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. Grounded in scientific research that surveyed 150 global C-suite executives, Brown’s findings are rich and…
By: Mario Hood on March 21, 2019
Ross Douthat in Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, explores the major changes that have occurred in U.S. religious life since the 1950s. Douthat is similar to David Bebbington and Karl Polanyni. Bebbington in his work, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain, deals with the historical board period that provides rich insights into the…
By: Mario Hood on February 21, 2019
As a pastor and marketer, I find Vincent Miller’s, Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture, fascinating on many levels. From the marketing perspective, it challenges the ethics of said industry when it comes to the commodification of religious symbols. Daryl McKee in the journal of marketing writes, “He (Miller) goes…
By: Mario Hood on November 29, 2018
The book, Who Needs Theology? An Invitation to the Study of God, [1] deals with a subject that can be quite cumbersome but does so practically and proficiently. Both Grenz and Olson are professional academics but wrote this book in a way that invites the causally Christian to learn at a deeper level while also…
By: Mario Hood on October 10, 2018
At first, it appears ironic that a professor of literature advocates not reading but as you dig deeper into the book and understand who Pierre Bayard is, the elation of a student skipping out on reading assignments quickly wanes. As a French based professor of literature, Pierre Bayard is an acknowledged non-reader and proud of…
By: Shawn Hart on October 26, 2017
“As visual media proliferate and as our understanding of visual cultures deepens, visual research has grown. As the field develops, so does a need for textbooks and resources at all levels.”[1] This resource proposed by Victoria Alexander has been fulfilled by Sarah Pink in your book titled, “Doing Visual Ethnography.” In this work, Pink diligently…
By: Shawn Hart on October 10, 2017
So I must say that in Pierre Bayard’s book “How to Talk about Books You Haven’t Read,” I kept finding myself conflicted over the pure irony of the message. On one hand, I wanted to not read the pages simply to prove his point, and yet on the other hand, I kept feeling as though…
By: Shawn Hart on October 5, 2017
“There is clearly no difficulty of an intellectual sort about gaining new information in a course of reading if the new facts are of the same sort as those you already know.”[1] I must admit that these words were my biggest fear with this book; in other words, what is the challenge of reading a…
