By: Phil Goldsberry on September 17, 2015
As a young twenty-year-old pastor I was trying hard to “do” and “be” what others wanted. That was a lot of expectation to live up to. Most of the men on my Board were old enough to be my grandfather. I had graduated from Bible College, served as an Associate Pastor and Youth Pastor. I…
By: Pablo Morales on September 17, 2015
“What in the world! Is this a mistake? Wasn’t this book on critical thinking supposed to be a thick book like the others? Did I order the wrong book from Amazon? What could possibly be in this little booklet?” After this initial impression of the book, I looked at the index, took a general look…
By: Aaron Cole on September 17, 2015
The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking – Concepts and Tools by Richard Paul and Linda Elders is my kind of read. I loved how direct and to the point this book was. It said more in a few pages than most attempt in hundreds of pages. I found myself reading, processing, and reading some more.…
By: Colleen Batchelder on September 17, 2015
“Dig!” John’s voice echoed off the nearby cliffs. We all reached in – determined to steer the raft through the roaring rapids. Each wave crested above our heads; challenging our grip with each forceful blow. “We’re digging. We’re digging.” We muttered. Disgruntled looks shot across the small boat. We were tired. We were frustrated. We…
By: Aaron Peterson on September 17, 2015
In 1985 Sting released a single titled, “Russians.” While reading through Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts & Tools by Elder, I couldn’t stop singing the line from the song, “I hope the Russians love their children too.” By describing his dream, Sting was also challenging his hearers to practice critical thinking. As Elder states,…
By: Marc Andresen on September 17, 2015
I think we may be uncovering something of what our D Min faculty wants for us. It LOOKS like we’re learning how to read actively, analytically, and critically. But I think this is a ruse. We’re actually learning to be WRITERS with those traits and skills. Ok – so I have my tongue firmly planted…
By: Phillip Struckmeyer on September 17, 2015
The Failure of “Niceness” I happened to be sitting in a restaurant in Sacramento, California with a man by the name of Paul Borden. Paul Borden was a church health and growth consultant who’s name and work was rapidly spreading across The Wesleyan Church denominiation. His work with churches was fast, furious, and produced direct…
By: Jon Spellman on September 16, 2015
“Kinder, gentler” American leaders… Is that what we need more of? Do we need leaders who are just real thoughtful and ponderous, you know, consensus seekers leading from the middle? I guess the answer to that is, if we’re happy with the overall direction of the leadership trends in America, YES! But if we look…
By: Dawnel Volzke on September 16, 2015
Edwin Friedman’s book, A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix[1], sheds light on what I believe to be a major leadership crisis in today’s churches and organizations. Lately I’ve noticed that there has been so much emphasis placed on servant leadership, gaining consensus, and cultural sensitivity, that people in leadership roles…
By: Claire Appiah on September 15, 2015
Cultivating Critical Thinking Systematically In Critical Thinking: Concepts and Tools, Richard Paul and Linda Elder have put together a miniature (and I do mean miniature) guide book that provides some very insightful material for the serious individual striving to be a critical thinker. They define critical thinking as, “the art of analyzing and evaluating thinking…
By: Dave Young on September 15, 2015
If I could open up a window into our church’s leadership meetings you would find that much of what we discuss, wrestle with, and act upon is about who we are, where we’re going, and how we get there. Without diving too deeply into our weeds, we’ve found ourselves continually having to rediscover our identity,…
By: Rose Anding on September 14, 2015
Student’s Supplement…
By: Phil Goldsberry on September 14, 2015
The adage that a “Picture is worth a thousand words” is embraceable and even believable. But when you begin to explore “ethnography” it is quite easy to question is what I am seeing the truth of the thousand words that I am getting ready to presuppose? Reading Doing Visual Ethnography by Sarah Pink challenges just…
By: Nick Martineau on September 14, 2015
Joy, anxiety, peace and many other feelings, are often passed on from person to person. Dr. Murray Bowen refers to this as “Triangles” and he claims it is the basic building block for any emotional system. In a “triangle” system the health of a family unit, or organizational system, depends upon the “triangles” capacity for…
By: Travis Biglow on September 13, 2015
Freedom of Art vs. Reality of Art? September 13, 15 First off my background is from a Catholic Church. And what is so striking to me is that I was inundated with Roman Catholic Art and Roman Catholic artifacts. These artifacts would forever stay in my mind and was actually something that compelled…
By: Dawnel Volzke on September 13, 2015
I can’t say that I’ve ever been considered creative or ‘artsy’, beyond decorating and gardening. However, recently, my opinion on art has been shifting and I have begun to more deeply appreciate the personal reflection of the artists thoughts, feelings and ideas as portrayed in their artwork. Dyrness, in his book Visual Faith (Engaging Culture): Art,…
By: Jon Spellman on September 11, 2015
What More needs to be said?
By: Garfield Harvey on September 11, 2015
It has been years since I read a book that had such great substance and yet, I did not want to keep reading it. Whenever a book is written where the author chooses to make each chapter independent of itself, I know it is trouble for me. In this review, I chose to write how…
By: Kevin Norwood on September 10, 2015
As I approached this new book Doing Visual Ethnography by Sarah Pink, I attempted to do everything that I learned in the previous book about how to read a book. I read the introduction; I read the acknowledgement and table of contents. One of the things that I desperately needed to discover was what did…
By: Aaron Peterson on September 10, 2015
If I were to have posted this picture of my view of my classroom last week while reading, I would have written about it telling the reader about how it is a picture of my classroom. I would tell you what each artifact in the image means and represents. I would control this image and…
