By: Jean de Dieu Ndahiriwe on March 25, 2023
We are consumers. In Matthew 9, we see Jesus having compassion on crowds that came to him as sheep without a shepherd. In July 1990, I was in Kigali and attended Reinhard Bonnke in a crowd of thousands of others hungry and passionate to hear and hope in Jesus. In September of the same year,…
By: Kally Elliott on March 25, 2023
“If you don’t like TikTok it’s because you haven’t spent enough time on it. Once they figure out which mental illness you have, your celebrity crushes, and which cute animal you like the most…it gets really good.” (random internet meme) This meme is not only humorous, it is true, and it’s talking about me. I…
By: Jana Dluehosh on March 24, 2023
It is not lost on me that most of our books this semester has been about being wrong, or solving a problem or a “how to” book. Pursuing a doctorate (imposter syndrome not withstanding) takes a certain level of confidence and belief in ourselves that we have something the world needs. What if we are…
By: Esther Edwards on March 23, 2023
I must confess, just by reading the title, I did not envision this book to be on my desired “must read” list of books for the semester. Why? Because I don’t like to think I’m wrong about nearly everything. I went to the doctor this week and stepped on the scale. Shockingly, it showed that…
By: Roy Gruber on March 23, 2023
Patrick Deneen serves as a professor of Political Science at Notre Dame University. His book Why Liberalism Failed offers a scathing review of the current state of cultural alienation and emptiness that the author attributes to liberalism. Often, failure comes from one or more issues detrimental to an effort. Deneen offers a counterintuitive premise for…
By: Pam Lau on March 23, 2023
My parents were first generation Christians who each experienced a radical life change when they accepted Christ. My mother converted from Judaism to Christianity through a neighbor who convinced her Jesus was the Son of God; while my father walked the aisles to “Just As I Am” at a Billy Graham Crusade. To say my…
By: Jenny Dooley on March 22, 2023
I tell myself stories. They are usually harmless assumptions about why people do, say, or believe certain things which are confusing or cause me distress. The stories can be positive or negative. When telling myself a story I usually try to make it a good one. I recognize my storytelling arises out of uncertainty, my…
By: Eric Basye on March 22, 2023
Liberalism has failed because liberalism has succeeded. As it becomes fully itself, it generates endemic pathologies more rapidly and pervasively than it is able to produce Band-aids and veils to cover them. The result is the system rolling blackouts in electoral politics, governance, and economics, the loss of confidence and even belief in legitimacy among…
By: Shonell Dillon on March 22, 2023
I am guilty of staying too long in what is familiar. When the CD era came about, I was still trying to carry around my box of cassette tapes. I was not an “out with the old in with the new” kind of person. I was what one might call “ole school”. As advancements started…
By: Andy Hale on March 22, 2023
“Progressive,” “Fundamentalism,” “Liberalism,” “Conservatives,” and “Neoliberals” are all terms that are thrown around often as a label for a particular way of thinking or belief system; equally as often, they are used as grenades to lob at the other side for their “extreme” or “woke” agendas. However, like many words, a large segment of the…
By: Greg McMullen on March 21, 2023
In my teens my parents divorced, remarried, and relocated. I was still in high school and just recently lost my football scholarship. I was in a world of emotional hurt and destruction and all alone. The next four years was devastating for me as I tried to bury all the hurt and despair I was…
By: Kristy Newport on March 21, 2023
After reading Vincent J. Miller’s book, Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture, I was ready to sign up for his class at Georgetown University. Miller makes some interesting observations regarding Christian consumer culture. He states he wrote his book out of “a profound concern about the corrosive and destructive consequences of…
By: Tim Clark on March 20, 2023
“I hope this book will show you what a varied and extraordinary place the world really is” [1] Some families are sports families. Some are music families. Others are into animals, or the outdoors, or food. The Clarks are film people. Movies are something we all love, so every year my family settles into our…
By: Chad McSwain on March 19, 2023
Other than playing sports and rolling my eyes at the person trying to make the class behave for the substitute teacher, I am not sure when I understood the necessity of leadership. No doubt I had lots of experiences of leading and being a follower, I do remember the first time that leadership was a…
By: Daron George on March 19, 2023
Introduction: “Leadership: Theory and Practice” by Peter G. Northouse is a seminal work in the field of leadership studies. The book provides a comprehensive overview of various leadership theories and practices, offering readers an in-depth understanding of the complexities involved in effective leadership. My review aims to evaluate the book’s strengths and weaknesses and highlight…
By: Jenny Steinbrenner Hale on March 17, 2023
It is interesting how the experiences of our lives shape the people we become. In 1999, my husband and I, our two-year-old daughter, our golden retriever, and our two cats moved to Mexico where we had accepted positions with a nonprofit organization in Tecate. It was an adventure that enriched our lives and influenced who…
By: Caleb Lu on March 17, 2023
I recently was discussing my plans for Easter service with the lead pastor. My hope is to try something different. To give some context, the church I attend meets on a campus with four other churches. One of them requested to use the main sanctuary for baptisms on Easter and inquired to see when we…
By: Jean de Dieu Ndahiriwe on March 17, 2023
Introduction: I must admit being a leadership junkie, whether junkie is a good term or not, the truth is wherever I hear anything about Leadership, especially servant or transformational leadership, my head will turn and move in that direction. The passion for leadership, in my case, didn’t come easy or from desirable circumstances, but I…
By: Jana Dluehosh on March 16, 2023
John 13:35 says: “This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other.” One another shows up 100 times in the new testament of the Bible, and Love one another 18 times. What a powerful commandment. As I read Simon P. Walker’s “ˆLeading out of who you are: Discovering…
By: Russell Chun on March 16, 2023
In the movie “Shrek,” the ogre Shrek has an interesting dialogue with the donkey. He describes himself as person with layers – essentially an onion. Walker’s book, Leading out of Who You Are[1], is a bit like peeling away at the layers of one’s leadership personality over time. Like an onion. Residing with the “comb…
