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…
By: Pablo Morales on September 10, 2015
Images are a powerful thing. The picture of a child lying lifeless on a beach can move nations to respond with urgency to a refugee crisis otherwise ignored. Videos of police mistreating a citizen can now go viral on the web, forcing cities to implement systems of accountability otherwise unaddressed. Photographs of the forgotten…
By: Colleen Batchelder on September 10, 2015
Imagine the chaotic turmoil of war – lives vastly changed through one act of terror. Picture yourself on the city steps – bodies fall before your eyes. You can hear the bombs encircling overhead. You can feel the chill of the wintry breeze hitting your face. Your experience is written within the core of your…
By: Aaron Cole on September 10, 2015
Visual Ethnography by Sarah Pink was a very interesting read. I have to admit that the term “ethnography” was not one I had used or heard. Ethnography is simply put is the study and recording of cultures. Pink exhaustively shows how it is presented visually. The idea of this is very intriguing to me, in…
By: Marc Andresen on September 10, 2015
Have I been functioning as a visual ethnographer without knowing it? Every year my wife takes her 7th grade class on a field trip to Washington D. C. For several years I have gone along in order to take pictures and post a daily blog. The purpose of the blog is to give a picture of…
By: Claire Appiah on September 10, 2015
Visual Approaches to Knowledge and Experience Sarah Pink: Doing Visual Ethnography Sarah Pink is an accomplished ethnographer whose extensive work has effectively challenged and contributed to the field, notably through her research concepts and methodologies that emphasized fusing theoretical and practical elements in doing ethnography to enhance learning about the world. Pink observes that visual…
