By: Richard Rhoads on March 6, 2014
As we feel ourselves going under, drowning in the impossible multiplication of activities, responsibilities, relationships, and requirements, we end up all but abandoning the pursuit of happiness. Our new goal isn’t so much gentle, authentic happiness, nor are we apparently seeking joy, ease, pleasure or delight. Instead, when I ask people how they are, what…
By: Fred Fay on March 6, 2014
Recently, our church team has intentionally taking extra time to reflect on what we are doing in our church. Action without reflection can have dire effects. Course correction is constantly needed. Daniel Patrick Forrester’s compelling book Consider: Harnessing the Power of Reflective Thinking In Your Organization is an alarm for organizations to take time for…
By: Sharenda Roam on March 5, 2014
“Consider Reflection & Haiku” After reading “Consider” this week I must agree with Seth Godin in his statement regarding this book, “While the world seems to want you to go ever faster…it actually rewards you for being insightful and for doing work with meaning. I know it’s hard to slow down to read this, but…
By: rhbaker275 on March 4, 2014
In Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in A Consuming Market, Vincent J. Miller begins with the premise that the culture of the consumer in the market place has established ideals, but more important, the practice of consumer cultural ideologies diminishes and displaces belief as a significant factor in consumer spending habits. Miller states his…
By: rhbaker275 on March 3, 2014
My personal exposure to studies in psychology and more specifically, social psychology is very limited. I have never studied Freud. Understanding why people do what they do often remains a mystery to me. The concepts of an action being neurotic or subscribing neuroses to an action, congers up more a sense of subversive fear than…
By: Miriam Mendez on March 2, 2014
Here is another multiple choice question for you. This question was the million dollar question answered by a young man who was a contestant on the game show, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” So here is your opportunity, not to win a million dollars, but to gain the satisfaction of answering it correctly: Which…
By: Stefania Tarasut on March 2, 2014
Book: The Rebel Sell by Heath/Potter Reading through “The Rebel Sell” over the past few days has stirred in me a million different emotions. Every paragraph seemed to challenge, annoy, convict or put a smile on my face. There are soo many things that I would love to include in this post, but I need…
By: Carol McLaughlin on March 2, 2014
There have been times in our reading when it has been difficult to determine “what” has resonated most strongly. Where do I begin? How do I even express what I am still digesting? (If you read that again it might just make you laugh, but hopefully not cringe!). The books that are impacting me the…
By: Mark Steele on March 2, 2014
The statistics are out and the news is not good. The Wall Street Journal says the average worker will have approximately 7 careers in one lifetime and the average American worker changes employers every 4 years. I have been fortunate to have been in my job for 15 years but that came after I made…
By: Mitch Arbelaez on March 1, 2014
Yes! I am a product of the 80’s. Psychedelic colors, big hair, parachute pants, Members Only jacket, MC Hammer – “You can’t touch this,” break dancing (still got some moves), and of course rock ’n’ roll! We were cool, we were hip, we were the bomb. Parents didn’t get us. They were lame, out of…
By: John Woodward on March 1, 2014
Recently Leonardo DiCaprio did the interview circuit for his new movie “The Wolf of Wall Street,” a movie that depicted a wealthy trader on Wall Street who had a “lust for wealth and the lust for consuming everything around him.” This drove him to extremes of debauchery that make up much of the movie. It…
By: Telile Fikru Badecha on February 28, 2014
The Rebel Sell: How The Counterculture Became Consumer Culture by Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter, is informative work on the roles that countercultural rebels played in America using very compelling stories to elucidate their points. The countercultural notion that the authors discuss in this book is new to me and I appreciate the opportunity to…
By: Liz Linssen on February 28, 2014
Throughout the centuries, we have seen movements that have arisen to redress society’s oppression: the French Revolution, Marxism, Communism and so on. Movements that responded to the pain of the hurting masses, that rebelled against the dominating powers in order to “level the playing fields”. In more recent years, we have seen this through the…
By: Sam Stephens on February 28, 2014
Reading Shelly Trebesch’s Isolation: A Place of Transformation in the Life of A Leader, brought to mind an experience I had twenty years ago while traveling in Germany. I see that as an ‘Isolation’ according to Shelly’s description, one that leaders are taken through voluntarily or involuntarily. Passing through such a valley of ‘isolation’, transforms…
By: Michael Badriaki on February 28, 2014
Everyone at some point enjoys the consumption of a particular good, item and commodity. For example, I consume a certain amount of information weekly as I read the different books assigned in my doctoral program. I think that consuming is not the problem in and of itself’, but it’s extremes to which humanity can be…
By: Sandy Bils on February 28, 2014
Three weeks ago, I was able to participate at the leadership summit of Willow Creek in Germany. Willow USA and Germany hosted a large conference with 8000 leaders in Leipzig, Germany. In the last years Willow emerged to an important inspiration for a lot of German Churches. Many pastors joined the conferences, bought books by…
By: Garrick Roegner on February 28, 2014
The motif of entering into the desert, a dry and waterless place, for a time of spiritual testing, pain, and growth is prevalent throughout the Bible. Shelley Trebesch in her book Isolation: A Place of Transformation in the Life of a Leader explicates these periods of isolation for Biblical leaders from Moses to Paul, not…
By: Julie Dodge on February 28, 2014
“Out of the crooked timber of humanity nothing straight was ever made.” (Immanuel Kant)[i] As an undergraduate I took a course in psychological theory in which we were encouraged to consider each major theory and ask critical questions about their theological basis (if any). One of the exercises that stood out to me was a…
By: Ashley Goad on February 28, 2014
When someone says counterculture, I tend to think of the yogurt shop down the street that markets healthy frozen cups of goodness. There is also CounterCulture Coffee and endless CounterCulture vegan and vegetarian restaurants. What is this word “counterculture?” Miriam Webster defines counterculture as, “a culture with values and customs that are very different from…
By: Bill Dobrenen on February 28, 2014
This might age me, but I have always loved the music of Peter, Paul, and Mary. Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey, and Mary Travers began performing together in Grenache Village in the early 1960’s. Their music was traditional American Folk, and they popularized such songs as Lemon Tree, 500 Miles, and Puff the Magic Dragon. …
