By: rhbaker275 on April 24, 2015
I was intrigued with the distinctive definition for faith by T.M. Luhrmann in the opening preface to When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God. “Faith,” she states, “asks people to consider that the evidence of their senses is wrong.”[1] Faith in a transcendent God asks people to believe some really unbelievable…
By: Julie Dodge on April 23, 2015
“How will I know if he really loves me? I say a prayer with every heart beat. I fall in love whenever we meet, I’m asking you ’cause you know about these things.” I kept hearing this song in my head as I read this week’s book, When God Talks Back. [1] 1985. Whitney Houston.…
By: Jon Spellman on April 23, 2015
To understand that your role as a leader is to advance other people in life is the highest possible level of leadership maturity. For DePree, the corporate mission is a secondary gain, it just happens naturally when care for people is expressed in measurable ways. I am going to keep this blog simple, I just…
By: Mitch Arbelaez on April 23, 2015
Our previous book we read this semester Global Evangelicalism edited by Lewis and Pierard, provided a large overview of this culturally diverse and polycentric movement known as Evangelicalism. Yet there are other books such as Colonel Doner’s book The Late Great Evangelical Church that challenges and debunks many of the so called evangelical teachings that…
By: Brian Yost on April 23, 2015
In his book Leadership is an Art, Max De Pree sandwiches leadership between two essential bookends while defining the core that lies between; “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between the two, the leader must become a servant and a debtor. That…
By: Liz Linssen on April 23, 2015
In my devotions this morning I was reading the opening chapters of Genesis – where it records how God made man in His likeness. I read how God walked in the garden at the cool of the day, and spoke to Adam and Eve like a friend. At the very beginning, it appears that God…
By: Nick Martineau on April 23, 2015
It’s refreshing to read a leadership book where the author doesn’t claim to know it all. I appreciated DePree starting off with, “Leadership is an art, something to be learned over time, not simply by reading books. Leadership is more tribal than scientific, more a weaving of relationships than an amassing of information, and, in…
By: Deve Persad on April 23, 2015
It shouldn’t surprise yet somehow it always does. As familiar as our trips to El Salvador should be the Lord always has something new for us to discover. This time it was a conversation with the person beside me on the airplane. I had just put the book I was reading in the magazine rack…
By: Bill Dobrenen on April 23, 2015
Does God talk to us? If so, how? And what does he say? Is prayer a one-way conversation or a two-way one? These are some of the questions our week’s reading tries to address. So how does it do? I think it depends on whom you ask. When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical…
By: Michael Badriaki on April 22, 2015
Tanya M. Luhrmann writes about the nature of American evangelical spirituality in her book “WHEN GOD TALKS BACK Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God” with the nondenominational Vineyard evangelical church as the study sample space. Luhrmann an anthropologist, approaches are study from a scientific place which means she will be rational in her presentation…
By: Mary Pandiani on April 22, 2015
With silver hair and a voice that wavered, Sister Margaret seemed really old to me as a young college graduate. It’s only been all these years later, many since she passed away, that I now recognize how her age didn’t take away from the value of her faithful presence as a leader in the community.…
By: Ashley Goad on April 21, 2015
Tanya Luhrmann explores two significant questions in her book When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God: (1) How does God become and remain real for modern evangelicals?; and (2) How are rational, practical people of faith able to experience the presence of a powerful yet invisible being and sustain that belief…
By: John Woodward on April 21, 2015
“The vengeance with which religious issues have again entered the public arena illustrates what pollsters long have known: the United States contains more citizens who value religion than other western industrial societies. This odd combination of modernity and religion defies conventional wisdom, which suggests that secularity and socioeconomic development are positively related. Such manifest religiosity…
By: Travis Biglow on April 21, 2015
Obligation to others is an Art of Leadership April 21, 15 Max De Pree has done a masterful job in defining leadership qualities in Leadership is an Art. He comes off more like a preacher who is dedicated to people and not things. I admired his passion for those who worked in his company. He…
By: Dave Young on April 21, 2015
As I read through Leadership is an Art I became engaged with the undertone of the book—the author’s “voice,” their passion. Max De Pree is presenting the theme of what I’d call other-centered leadership. The employees are his passion: their involvement, gifting, participation, and success. In such a practical, helpful book there are dozens of…
By: Miriam Mendez on April 19, 2015
There are words that can create fear and misconceptions. Theology is one of those words. Some people associate the word “theology” with superior intellectuals, institutions, and long and dry debates that only lead to arguments and disagreements. Yet, theology is about the study of God and God’s relation to the world. In a practical way,…
By: Travis Biglow on April 18, 2015
Faithful Living in a Changing World April 17, 15 As I get older and older the ability to remain faithful to God is always a challenge. It takes a lot to stand up in society now and stand on the word of God. In To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity…
By: Richard Volzke on April 18, 2015
I must honestly admit that when it comes to the philosophical side of Christianity, I sometimes have trouble contemplating and fitting it into my Christian context. This being said, I did find chapter 38, “The Devil and All His Works”, intriguing. Raeper and Edwards explore the way that modern culture views Satan. The authors state…
By: Stefania Tarasut on April 18, 2015
Reading through this week’s book, A Brief Guide To Ideas By Raeper and Edwards I was reminded of two things. First, it left me in awe of God’s sovereignty. This book is a brief walk through the history of thought from the Ancient Greeks to today. This walk left me in awe in the sense…
By: Bill Dobrenen on April 18, 2015
I teach a class called Faith, Living, and Learning. One of the assignments in the class is called “The Big Questions.” It is an assignment that includes both a team presentation and an individual paper. The teams (usually groups of four or five students) are to come up with what they think are important questions…
