By: Jay Forseth on February 28, 2019
Chapter 4 in Simple Habits for Complex Times: Powerful Practices for Leaders is titled “Create A Clear Vision for an Unclear Future.” [1] Let us pretend together that I asked Jennifer Garvey Berger and Keith Johnston to help me with VISION in my context as Conference Superintendent. The graphic above is the current vision statement for…
By: Digby Wilkinson on February 28, 2019
I was conned, misled and entrapped in the most cunning of ways. Calling a book “To Change the World” when the content of the book argues that such a thing is not possible, is a writer’s sleight-of-hand at its best.[1] Personally, the book scratched an itch that I have had for a number year. The…
By: Andrea Lathrop on February 28, 2019
I think James Davison Hunter’s To Change the World delivers on explaining the irony and tragedy of Christianity in the late modern world. As I read, I kept hoping that it would also deliver the possibility as well. And I believe it does. I agree with Hunter on his broad categories of what the Church’s response…
By: Colleen Batchelder on February 28, 2019
Jennifer Garvey Berger and Kevin Johnston, cofounders of Cultivating Leadership, and coauthors of Simple Habits for Complex Times: Powerful Practices for Leaders, challenge their readers to understand the new complexities of leadership within today’s context and present them with tangible resources to aid their organizational strategy. They dare their readers to ask the question, “How…
By: Tammy Dunahoo on February 28, 2019
These people who have stirred up trouble throughout the world have come here too, and Jason has welcomed them as guests! They are all acting against Caesar’s decrees, saying there is another king named Jesus![1] James Davison Hunter’s To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World builds on…
By: Jake Dean-Hill on February 28, 2019
This week’s book, Simple Habits for Complex Times: Powerful Practices for Leaders by Berger and Johnston, tells us that we are living in times of “VUCA”, meaning “volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.”[1] I got a kick out of the authors making an acronym out of this and organizing the book around how to actually deal…
By: Harry Edwards on February 28, 2019
In my last blog post I sought to bring to the fore some of what ails our beliefs and behaviors of Christianity in the West but more specifically in the United States today. In this post I would like to continue where I left off; and that is to offer a hopeful way forward for…
By: Dave Watermulder on February 28, 2019
My wife Lisa walked into the room the other day and saw that I was reading Simple Habits for Complex Times by Jennifer Garvey Berger and Keith Johnston. She looked at me and said, “the titles of all your books are all stressing me out!” This week’s reading fits in with many of the other books we…
By: Rhonda Davis on February 28, 2019
Every day, when I enter my office, this is the picture I see behind my desk. Both of these framed pieces were given to me by close friends after I participated in ministry events and campaigns with them. On the left is a token from a conference where I taught. It is a challenge to…
By: Jennifer Williamson on February 28, 2019
I spent last weekend facilitating the second annual Elan retreat—which was actually two parallel retreats for two cohorts of missionaries. Cohort 2 has just begun the first year of the Elan program, which is focused on spiritual formation. Their retreat was a time for learning new ways to connect with God and was aimed at…
By: Chris Pritchett on February 27, 2019
A friend of mine tells the story of a time when he visited a friend who was a jet fighter pilot. The friend took him to where he would do his training in flight simulation. The jet fighter pilot was a master, but still practiced for hours everyday in the flight simulators. They looked like…
By: Mike on February 26, 2019
Jenifer Berger and Keith Johnston’s Simple Habits for Complex Times is a courageous guide-book on how to adapt to change and lead more effectively and efficiently in a progressively chaotic and unpredictable world. Change…change, change, change…change…change, change…, change… (this is not a tax commercial, but you get the point). No! Change is not free, and…
By: Harry Fritzenschaft on February 24, 2019
“Miller analyzes how consumer culture commodifies everything, including religious practice, making it impossible to confront it head-on. His discussions on learning the origins of where a consumer product comes from and on embedding religious practices into the traditions from which they are taken are particularly helpful. Miller succeeds in moving the discussion of consumer culture…
By: Shermika Harvey on February 24, 2019
The world is changing before our eyes. Things that were once sacred has become fads changing and evolving with the time. Religion has become a counter product of the newest event or program at the local church. On any given Sunday, people can choose for an array of buffet style Christianity ranging from the traditional…
By: John Muhanji on February 24, 2019
The book by Vincent Miller has been a significant challenge to me as much as it has been a profoundly and theologically structured. What struck me most was part of its title “Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture.” I related this with our Quaker Christian Faith and Practice, and one of the essential…
By: Wallace Kamau on February 23, 2019
Edmund Burke[1], is quoted attributing the triumph of evil to the inaction of good men. For any thing good to happen or for evil to be defeated, it takes a good man to take responsibility to do something to change the situation, rather than being a passive observer. Miller[2]in writing about consumerism, takes the bold…
By: Tammy Dunahoo on February 23, 2019
Is there a way forward? What way will we take? What will be the long-term ramifications? These are questions being asked of denominations today and specifically The United Methodist Church this week at their Special Session of the General Conference. As I research the viability of flourishing denominations in the 21st Century I must consider…
By: Dan Kreiss on February 22, 2019
(Thanks to Huey Louis for the title.) Those of a certain age might remember the anti-drug campaign of the early 80s. The public service announcement begins with a frying pan on a stove top, hot and ready. An egg is cracked and plopped onto the pan resulting in an instant sound of sizzling and popping.…
By: Mary Mims on February 22, 2019
“How do you know about Gucci, Reverend Mims”, one of the youth asked me as he saw the familiar symbol on my sunglasses. “Gucci has been around way before you were born”, I responded. The real question was not how I knew about Gucci as a brand, but how did this 16-year-old, with no job,…
By: Kyle Chalko on February 22, 2019
The Scandal Of The Evangelical Mind by Mark A Noll was an interesting read for me. Mark A. Noll takes the positions that the evangelicals have not been doing enough to lead the way in progressive thought for the world. They have lagged behind the secular and catholic worlds and have rarely produced thought leaders. Noll…
