By: gfesadmin on April 11, 2013
Ministry Is Messy! I used to think that ministry that is going well is predictable and orderly. How naive! There was always a frustration that I could do more to prepare and I could work harder and then maybe there would be fewer loose ends. Perhaps that was a Newtonian perspective where there are clear…
By: gfesadmin on April 11, 2013
This week’s reading was, Leadership and the New Science by Margaret Wheatly. At first, I wasn’t sure what to think, but after the first few pages I found myself in a leadership page-turner! Not what I expected. She begins by chronicling the rise of Newtonian Science and its ability to remove chaos from the world…
By: gfesadmin on April 11, 2013
In the song “Wake Up Dead Man” Bono echoes the lament psalms of David, crying out for a God who can sometimes seem silent in the chaos and violence of our world. At one point Bono questions “is there an order in all of this disorder?” This week I have been reading Leadership and The New…
By: gfesadmin on April 11, 2013
Margaret Wheatley is an innovative thinker about change and organizations. Her book Leadership and the New Science draws on three aspects of current discoveries in science and applies them to leadership. She examines: quantum physics, self-organizing systems and chaos theory. What is remarkable is how right on she is. Change is happening at an increasing…
By: gfesadmin on April 11, 2013
Chaos and Jurassic Park As I began reading Leadership and the New Science by Margaret Wheatley my mind was transported to the scene in Jurassic Park when Dr. Malcolm was demonstrating chaos theory to Dr. Sattler with drops of water. But whereas the scientist in the movie seemed to accept that chaos meant we are…
By: gfesadmin on April 11, 2013
Margaret J. Wheatley, in her book Leadership and the New Science: Learning about Organization from an Orderly Universe, challenges us to step into a place of “allowing – trusting that the appropriate forms can emerge.” This allowing is a place where one does not try to control the universe but instead surrenders to participate in…
By: gfesadmin on April 11, 2013
I was seventeen and just found out I had bone cancer. Life as I knew it was over. In the span of a few short hours I was told that I had a rare form of bone cancer, which would require an immediate below the knee amputation of my right leg and aggressive treatment of…
By: gfesadmin on April 10, 2013
…to give birth to a dancing star. (Friedrich Nietzsche) This weeks reading let us to a book by Margaret J. Wheatley called „Leadership and the new science. Discovering order in a chaotic world.“ Margaret Wheatley provides a different dimension of understanding organizational behavior. Linking quantum physics and chaos theory she asks us to get rid…
By: Joy Mindo on April 8, 2013
These are the famous words by Prof. Mbiti, who wrote a book on African religions and philosophy in 1966. He was describing the moral ethic and social organization the African people. He emphasizes the role of community comparable to the theory of communism in which “society incorporates relations of mutual service between equal individuals…
By: gfesadmin on April 5, 2013
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By: gfesadmin on April 5, 2013
It was December 6, 1992, a dark and gloomy day in the history of India, one that left the religious, social and political fabric of the country forever tainted. I vividly recall that day that brought the entire country to a total standstill for almost a week. I had to remain in my hotel room…
By: gfesadmin on April 4, 2013
How are we to engage with our witness in a secular world? How do we find our voice for Christ? It seems there are two overt present options, one is to retreat into a Christian enclave, the other is to aggressively attack both the secular culture and its voice in political venues. But for many…
By: gfesadmin on April 4, 2013
According to Charles Taylor in his book “Modern Social Imaginaries,” a social imaginary involves “…the ways people imagine their social existence…” (250) He states that currently we have a moral order in place that supposes the following points: 1. mutual benefit between individuals, 2. the means to life by practicing virtue, 3. freedom and individual…
By: gfesadmin on April 4, 2013
A read through Charles Taylor’s Modern Social Imaginaries raises a number of questions about life in the modern age in the West. Taylor a Catholic philosopher and social theorist raises the concept of the social imaginary, or essentially “a new conception of the moral order of society,” which is shared by the mass of society. …
By: gfesadmin on April 4, 2013
Disciples and Casinos? In the course of consulting with various churches, some very interesting dynamics are occurring in one particular church. The leadership has determined to make some changes to the church model which has resulted in the departure of most older believers (generationally and spiritually). The leadership team discusses the changes privately and…
By: gfesadmin on April 4, 2013
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By: gfesadmin on April 4, 2013
Charles Taylor’s Modern Social Imaginaries examines the history of modernity as the development of the public square, the economy and sovereignty. The basis of these three elements is a moral order expressed in mutual benefits of equal participants (loc 38). Taylor uses the idea of a social imaginary as the thread, which connects multiple modernities. …
By: gfesadmin on April 4, 2013
One of my favorite movies of all time is “A Knights Tale” starring the late Heath Ledger. In this adventure comedy set in 14th Century mid-evil Europe, a young peasant boy by the name of William Thatcher was given away by his father to a knight named Sir Ector in hopes of “changing his stars”. …
By: gfesadmin on April 2, 2013
pastorsandy: (via http://twitpic.com/aqmffw#.UFSbODfmSDk.tumblr)
By: gfesadmin on April 2, 2013
The week before Easter I called a friend in France, who works as a teacher there. – „Hey, are you enjoying your Easter holidays?“ – “Easter holidays? Are you joking? They are still coming up. I still got to work 2 more weeks.” – “What? But then Easter is already over.” – “Yeah, actually they’re…
