DLGP

Doctor of Leadership in Global Perspectives: Crafting Ministry in an Interconnected World

Category: Uncategorized

The Pendulum Swing

By: on May 17, 2019

  Human history seems to reveal a constant motion, a swinging pendulum regarding many subjects. There is a propensity when people are concerned about something to move the opposite direction to correct it. Unfortunately, we often move too far the other way and end up with a similar problem on the opposite side. This metaphor…

6 responses

Untruths meets Truth

By: on May 17, 2019

This week I am preaching on loving the Lord with all of our mind. Our church is in the middle of a series on living out Jesus’ command to love God with our whole self. Beginning with Romans 12:2 which says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of…

7 responses

Coddling the Church

By: on May 17, 2019

If you want to make a point right off the bat, title your book, “The Coddling of the American Mind.” In fact, it is this message that is the main principle that my entire dissertation is being based up; is it possible that even the church as a whole has become so consumed with reaching…

14 responses

American Intelligence and Vegetables

By: on May 16, 2019

The Coddling of the American Mind.[1] A coddle is an Irish dish comprising layers of roughly sliced pork sausages and bacon rashers with sliced potatoes and onions. I initially wondered if the book title was subtle reference to the American mind being somewhat overloaded with fatty deposits with a slightly sour edge. But apparently the…

7 responses

The Uniter of Word and World

By: on May 16, 2019

Ever since I started the discipline of reading the weekly required text for the doctoral program I’m (and my cohort) in, I’ve made it a point to recommend some of the titles to my pastors. I feel comfortable doing that because my local church leaders know what my ministry passions are. It’s also my way…

8 responses

How Much Emotional Safety is Too Much?

By: on May 16, 2019

The book by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting up a Generation for Failure, was very interesting and rather entertaining and concerning all at the same time. The authors wrote the book out of concern for our youth and to dispel the…

14 responses

Everyone but me

By: on May 16, 2019

Following the rules is my thing. I am apparently custom built to be a rule follower. I cannot grasp the fullness of the saying, “rules are made to be broken.” I certainly understand what is being said, but I just cannot grasp why anyone would believe such a thing. Along with this comes the distaste…

6 responses

I Get Knocked Down…

By: on May 16, 2019

Much of what I learned about grit and resilience was learned on the rugby pitch in University. Three key deceptions are proposed by Lukianoff and Haidt as weakening the next generation in their book Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting up a Generation For Failure: “The Untruth of…

5 responses

Pressurized Parenting

By: on May 16, 2019

I was relieved to see The Coddling of the American Mind on our reading list. The first I had heard of this book was last Christmas when my brother-in-law showed it to me. He said it was a book about the “ethic of safety”. I knew immediately this book would be helpful to me. We…

6 responses

i·ro·ny1 /ˈīrənē/

By: on May 16, 2019

i·ro·ny1 /ˈīrənē/ A state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result. I’ve spent several days working on my end of year self-evaluation at the university – it’s a painfully long reflective narrative on every component of my job (this year my narrative…

6 responses

Safe Spaces within the Church: When Segregation Still Pervades the Sanctuary

By: on May 16, 2019

The beginning introduction enraptures readers on a fictitious narrative that weaves in and out of the relativistic, nationalistic, and idealistic nature of the foundation of one’s American culture. Greg Lukianoff, attorney and author[1] and Dr. Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist at New York University’s Stern School of Business[2] challenge their readers to understand that the very…

7 responses

Confirmation Bias… Trigger Warning!

By: on May 16, 2019

I have a bad habit.  I am one of those people who share news stories and articles that often have an underlying message attached.  For example, I sent my brother-in-law an article from the Mayo Clinic entitled, “Walking: Trim Your Waistline, Improve Your Health”.[1]  I have sent my wife numerous articles with encouraging lines like…

12 responses

A recovery of community

By: on May 16, 2019

In The Coddling of the American Mind, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt advance an argument against three commonly held assumptions that guide Western cultural discourse today. These are: (1) we are fragile and in need of protection; (2) our feelings must always guide our actions; and (3) we must confront and oppose the enemy without.…

10 responses

Signs of the Times

By: on May 16, 2019

Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff’s The Coddling of the American Mind examines the recent phenomenon of college age intolerance, phobias, stress, and suicide. The authors focus on three “Great Untruths” surrounding fragility, feelings, and conflict.[1] These untruths, according to Haidt and Lukianoff, are manifested in all sectors of social life and are creating division, distrust,…

6 responses

What is the greater fear?

By: on May 16, 2019

The provocative title is based on some significant assumptions. First that people reading the title will have any idea what the word coddling means and then that Americans actually have minds that can be pampered into delusion. After more than fifteen years working in higher education there is little doubt in my mind that there…

6 responses

The Continual Development of an American Parent

By: on May 16, 2019

Ever since speaking with Garfield in Hong Kong, I have been doing my best to read each of our assigned books through the lens of “how does this impact my dissertation research” and then have tried to write a weekly essay on how the reading impacts my work.  Some weeks I have done that well…

7 responses

But What Can Be Done for the iGen Generation?

By: on May 16, 2019

In general, when one willingly accepts the call of God to live and serve cross-culturally for the sake of the Kingdom, one is choosing a life of risk and adventure. Many put their lives on the line, crossing borders into places where the Gospel is outlawed and Christians are killed. It hard to imagine a…

7 responses

Lawnmower Parents

By: on May 15, 2019

HAPPY Mother’s Day! Today is Mother’s Day, and I am on a vacation airplane to San Diego with the beautiful mother of my two children. Planes aren’t a bad place for me to read our weekly book, especially with Lisa’s sleepy head resting on my shoulder. On the title page of this week’s reading, I immediately…

10 responses

Challenges Make Us Wiser.

By: on May 13, 2019

We’re in the middle of change in our ministry organization and this book could not have come at a better time. I’ve been in leadership for long to realize that change is the law of life, you simply cannot avoid it, the natural thing would be to be armed on how to successfully manage change.…

one response