By: Christy Liner on February 22, 2024
This week’s reading, A Failure of Nerve by Edwin Friedman [1] came with high reviews, both from my lead mentor, Dr. Jason Clark and pastors who have utilized Freidman’s teachings in their ministry contexts. The word “utilizing” might be a bit of an understatement. “Those who have been transformed” might be more appropriate. The Very…
By: Julie O'Hara on February 22, 2024
She was 16 and caught on camera in an act of vandalism. Details will not be shared to protect the guilty. My daughter admitted to some other behaviors she had been up to in the weeks leading up to that incident. She was devastated about all of it. Looking back, there was not one thing…
By: Kari on February 22, 2024
“They are stuck in their own manure pile, and they want everyone else to join them. They’re not even trying to get out; they just want to fling their poop around and pull people in!” I was figuratively talking about people who were playing the victim role (again). This was not the most articulate or…
By: Elysse Burns on February 22, 2024
Reading A Failure of Nerve felt like crossing a threshold. It feels for some time I have been trying to find the best paths to navigate the anxieties that go hand in hand with life. A Failure of Nerve provided me that “Aha!” I couldn’t help but nod when reading the brief interaction between Steinke…
By: Debbie Owen on February 22, 2024
What does a “with-God life” look like? What makes it different and attractive? Do we need to have a perfect with-God life to invite others to join us on the journey? These are questions I had been praying about so I could discern how to talk about discipleship and disciple-making for my doctoral project. I…
By: Diane Tuttle on February 21, 2024
I had a hard time getting started on this blog. It is not that I didn’t read or like Failure of Nerve by Edwin Freidman. On the contrary, it was one of the most thought provoking and compelling books that I have read in a long time. My problem was winnowing everything into what were…
By: Scott Dickie on February 21, 2024
“To lead well, we need a new paradigm. That is precisely what we will be presenting…” (1). So begins a rather haphazard book that reads one-third leadership training, one-third Pastoring-in-1990-Evangelicalism and one-third sales-pitch for their ‘new’ leadership paradigm that may have been newish back in 2016, but certainly not unique. Rare Leadership in the Workplace…
By: Jennifer Eckert on February 21, 2024
Introduction Courageous leadership requires grit, humility, and perseverance. It isn’t for the faint of heart and is one of my favorite leadership qualities to study, perhaps because my own courage ebbs and flows sometimes. In his book, Failure of Nerve, author Edwin Friedman utilizes the tried-and-true Bowen Family Systems Model and applies it to organizations.…
By: Erica Briggs on February 21, 2024
It’s been over ten years now since I served at Metanoia Community Development Corporation. I started as Director of Elementary Leadership program just after coming back to the United States from South Korea. I’d spent a year teaching at a Christian school in Incheon, and wanted to continue working in a faith based environment. The…
By: Chris Blackman on February 21, 2024
Thirty years ago, I was promoted to be the CEO of a seafood distribution company based out of Reno, Nevada. It was a big promotion and one I was ready to take on. There was a corporate umbrella over it, which owned 3 other branches over two states. There was one man who owned the…
By: Ryan Thorson on February 21, 2024
Hi. My name is Ryan and I’m a people pleaser. Its been less than one day since I tried to please someone else without evaluating my own values, needs or limits. I’ve been in recovery for some time now, constantly attempting to regulate my desire to help others (introducing me, a “2” on the enneagram)…
By: Chad Warren on February 21, 2024
The interim pastor told me they behaved similarly to emotionally abused victims he had counseled many times before. Most of the staff and many in the congregation acted like families he had seen where dad had a bad anger problem; when he lost his temper, he became emotionally and verbally abusive. Abused by whom? Their…
By: Graham English on February 21, 2024
When I read A Failure of Nerve, by Edwin Friedman, I thought I was only going to write on pastoral leadership. However, the book struck a more personal nerve for me. Two and a half years ago Wendy and I made a decision that would alter our lives significantly. We moved my mom and…
By: Pam Lau on February 21, 2024
“In the same way, our character–including our relational and emotional skills–is built around those habits, and our good character and relational skills show up before we even think about them.”[1] Ravi Zacharias charged: serious sexual misconduct going back years in his ministry. Jim Baker swindled millions of dollars from his followers. What about Jimmy Swaggart? Or…
By: Russell Chun on February 21, 2024
快速和缓慢思考的阴阳 加入欢乐 – The Yin and Yang of fast and slow thinking Plus Enter JOY (Mandarin) Introduction Part 1 – What my peers are saying Part 2 – Uncommon Habits, in my NPO Epilogue – Where is Joy? Introduction – Daniel Kahneman’s System 1 and System 2 thinking. Kahneman’s describes System 1 as fast, automatic,…
By: Shela Sullivan on February 21, 2024
In my reading this week, I learned that the author criticizes the dominant leadership models that rely on data, empathy, and quick fixes. He argues that these models are based on a fallacy of empathy that mixes up feeling and thinking, and reactivity and responsibility. He proposes a different leadership approach that is based on…
By: Esther Edwards on February 20, 2024
My purpose for telling you these things is so that the joy that I experience will fill your hearts with overflowing gladness! (John 15:11, TPT) Rare Leadership: 4 Uncommon Habits for Increasing Trust, Joy, and Engagement in the People You Lead by Marcus Warner and Jim Wilder calls leaders to develop “fast track” thinking, which…
By: Nancy Blackman on February 20, 2024
December 23, 1888 Was he too emotional, trying too hard, not asking the right questions, or living in an either/or mindset? In my research of creative communities, I’m learning how artists and writers from the past have shaped creativity for the present. Vincent van Gogh is an artist I stumbled upon, or maybe…
By: Adam Cheney on February 20, 2024
We were stuck on a treadmill that just kept gaining in speed and increasing in incline. I do not even know how long my wife and I were on that treadmill, months, years, a decade probably. We knew adopting kids would be hard. Yet, we had no idea what we were really getting into. We…
By: Glyn Barrett on February 20, 2024
“A Failure of Nerve Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix” by Edwin H Friedman is compelling, especially the comparisons between the old and new world orientations, summarised at the end of chapter one[1]. The author’s juxtaposition of the two worlds provides an accurate analogy for the goal of a leader when guiding an…
