By: Ivan Ostrovsky on April 18, 2025
I was about to turn 30 years old. I planned a four-day, three-night whitewater rafting trip over in California, the American River, inviting about 60 of my church members, youth, young adults, and their families. Somehow, I was able to find a spot right next to the river, with a mountain rising on the other…
By: Michael Hansen on April 18, 2025
It was another clear and crisp morning at 4 a.m. when we stumbled out of our tent and peered into the West Texas skyline to view the glow on the horizon. Ken, Jerry, and I quickly shaved and began our routine ten-minute stroll to the operational control center, where we were planning the next phase…
By: Christian Swails on April 18, 2025
It’s unsettling how much intentionality is required to spend our hours doing what we want to do. In our transcendence through the information age into now limitless potential and possibilities, creators and leaders are paralyzed by freedom. The biggest obstacles creators (entrepreneurs, knowledge workers, pastors, artists, writers, etc) face is knowing what they are supposed…
By: Linda Mendez on April 18, 2025
The Hamster Wheel: How do I get off? Since September 2024, when I decided to return to school, my days have followed a demanding rhythm. Mornings begin with waking the kids, packing lunches, getting everyone ready, and making the school drop-off, all before starting my workday by 7:30 a.m. That early start is often the only…
By: Daren Jaime on April 17, 2025
A Personal Perspective on Modern Ideologies As I sit and reflect on my current beliefs about modern ideologies, I find through my years of diverse exposure an increased commitment to worldview views. Admittedly, growing up, I was indoctrinated into an American lens deeply steeped in Western culture and context. Now with a broader scope, I…
By: Jeremiah Gómez on April 17, 2025
One of the least fun or exciting tasks—but perhaps one of the most important—I’ve completed in recent days is a crisis response plan for the church I serve as lead pastor if I’m suddenly unable to perform my duties. I know that death, incapacitation, or dismissal would be a tremendous challenge for the organization, especially…
By: David Weston on April 17, 2025
As I sat down to write this blog post on Shane Parrish’s New York Times Bestseller, Clear Thinking [1], I suddenly became quite fuzzy due to heavy ingestion of serious painkillers. I knew that many things were competing for my clarity of thought. I suddenly felt the urge to turn this ordinary moment into an…
By: Chad Warren on April 17, 2025
The human mind is both fantastic and flawed. It is capable of deep reason and dangerous delusion. In George Orwell’s 1984, the protagonist Winston Smith lives in a world where truth is not discovered but manufactured by the oppressive regime of Big Brother. The Party controls not just the actions of its citizens, but even…
By: Kari on April 17, 2025
“Why do I need to wear those?” I protested to my dad. I was about six years old, and he insisted I wear white tights before church. His reasoning? “They’ll help keep you warm in the subzero temperatures,” I remember scoffing—did he really think that thin layer of nylon would make a difference? Even then,…
By: Elysse Burns on April 17, 2025
What About Modern Ideologies? A few years ago, a rumor circulated that schools were placing litter boxes in bathrooms to accommodate students who identified as furries[1]. I wasn’t living in the United States at the time, so I didn’t track how it all unfolded. Whether true or not, it’s telling that public discourse was stirred…
By: Julie O'Hara on April 17, 2025
Previous Understanding of Ideologies Lacking a clear definition of ideologies, I tend to believe they are the belief systems of people, dissatisfied with the status quo, who take religious, political, or philosophical beliefs to extremes. Ideologies appear to be a framework that their adherents believe will set the world to rights if only everyone gets…
By: Alex Mwaura on April 17, 2025
Leadership is hard work. Particularly when you think of all the factors that go into improving one’s leadership mindset, style, and approach. Jules Glanzer, in last week’s reading, indicated that “everyone is called to serve, and some are chosen to lead.”[1] The idea of “being chosen” comes with great responsibility in not only how we…
By: Graham English on April 17, 2025
This week’s reading, The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense by Gad Saad, critically examines the prevailing worldview and approach to life that the author attributes to leftist academia. Saad posits that there is an escalating crusade in society to concoct increasingly irrational departures from reason as a signal of progressive virtue.[1]…
By: Jess Bashioum on April 16, 2025
In Clear Thinking, Shane Parrish explores biological defaults that shape human behavior. The “emotion default”[1] arises when emotions overpower rational thought, a phenomenon Dr. David Rock attributes to limbic system activation reducing prefrontal cortex function.[2] The “ego default”[3] defends self-worth and social standing, often reacting defensively, aligning with Rock’s concept of status, where threats are…
By: Debbie Owen on April 16, 2025
Special assignment: Before reading The Parasitic Mind by Gad Saad, answer these questions: What do I believe about “modern ideologies”? Why do I believe what I currently do? What are my current convictions and most deeply held beliefs and understandings based upon and why? Then do an inspectional reading. How have my beliefs been affirmed…
By: Joff Williams on April 16, 2025
I was recently presented with an opportunity to define leadership from my cohort colleague, Robert. Here’s how I chose to do so: Leadership defines what today is and influences others toward what tomorrow will be. Good leadership does so while not losing one’s own soul. It’s a work in progress and open to critique. In…
By: Adam Cheney on April 16, 2025
Pre-Reading on modern Ideologies: Let me first state that I am painting with a broad stroke here regarding modern ideologies. Secondly, let me state that I am primarily looking through a Western, American lens. There are Islamic ideologies that are also growing that I do not have space to dig into. Modernism: This ideology…
By: Ryan Thorson on April 16, 2025
Reflecting on ideologies is a little bit like reflecting on water when you’re a fish. The ideologies we ascribe to are often simply a part of our everyday lives and hard to notice unless we stop and think critically about them. As I began to think about modern ideologies, I realized that even the ability…
By: Jennifer Eckert on April 16, 2025
The Parasitic Mind by Dr. Gad Saad – My Beliefs about Modern Ideologies and Why: My belief system stands at the intersection of modernity and postmodernity, shaped by a lifetime of navigating both. As a Gen Xer, I came of age during a period of cultural transition. I absorbed values from an older, more communal…
By: Betsy on April 16, 2025
This week’s cohort zoom chat made me cry because the vision of my life bubbled up in heat inside of me. I do believe that trauma recovery should change the world and is a message that is entirely about the Kingdom of God. I really enjoy our cohort Zoom chats and the contributions everyone brings.…
