By: Chris Pollock on January 28, 2021
Jail. So, with that word, once read and, just let it sit in your mind for a second or two, look at it there, what comes to mind? Now, say it out loud. Close your eyes and think about who comes to mind? How do you feel about the word, the idea? I’m not comfortable…
By: John McLarty on January 28, 2021
Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th President of the United States in part because the election of 1860 was a four-man race. With the Democrats divided over Stephen Douglas and John Breckenridge, and a Constitutional Union Party candidate on a ballot, the Republican Lincoln was able to carry the northern states and receive the most…
By: Darcy Hansen on January 27, 2021
From an early age, Mussolini was tossed into the deep end of the political pool. His father supplied the water from Socialist journals and the local newspaper; Mussolini had little choice but to dogpaddle his way along. By the age of 19, Mussolini began to come into his own understanding of politics and philosophy. He…
By: Greg Reich on January 26, 2021
Our perspective is often skewed by the circumstances of life until something happens that helps us see beyond our current perspective into something beyond ourselves. Have you ever questioned your presumptions about failure? How we perceive failure is critical to being an effective leader. John Maxwell points out that we often look at failure through…
By: Shawn Cramer on January 25, 2021
Allow this reflection on the onset of journeying with Frederick Douglass to be the opening line of a sonata. I’ll introduce a theme in its simplest form here only to be revisited, experimented with, hidden, transposed, modified, and returned to at the conclusion. The thread of melody that plays throughout the life of Frederick Douglass…
By: Jer Swigart on January 25, 2021
Immersions are experiences that move us beyond the realms of comfort, safety, and certainty. They are moments of displacement that generate within us theological and existential crises. If navigated humbly, these are the experiences that move us beyond “What do I do?” to the more important question: “Who must I become?” Immersions are the portals…
By: Chris Pollock on January 24, 2021
Time does not always provide healing. For some, time can be the medium whereupon trauma arrogantly dances and sadly increases in volume. When trauma-terror strikes, darkness imposes, is gripping and salvation can seem lost. When terror strikes, being in a safe place with loving people can be salvation enough. Jesus provided a safe place for…
By: Darcy Hansen on January 20, 2021
Over the winter break, I clicked upon Rick Steves’ “The Story of Fascism in Europe,” on PBS. Having never had much interest in history, I knew little of fascism. But in recent months, the term had been tossed around enough through various mediums that my interest was piqued. Ten minutes into the episode, Steves’ shares…
By: John McLarty on January 20, 2021
Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Pulitzer Prize winning, “Leadership in Turbulent Times” explores the early lives, the formation, and the unique leadership circumstances of four US American presidents, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson. Each of these presidents faced crises in American history. One of the questions she explores is “do the times make…
By: Greg Reich on January 20, 2021
“It was September 2006. Wooden was not quite ninety-six years old. Even at his advanced age, he was still a student of the world eager to collect one more crumb of wisdom that he could dispense to the next friend, interviewer, former player or stranger who came calling.”[1] John Wooden believed in the importance of…
By: Shawn Cramer on January 19, 2021
While reading biographies, the foes of presentism, bias, and reductionism lurk ever-present. Meanwhile, the muses of inspiration, understanding, and hope sing within the pages. As we consider the life of someone who is beautifully human, reverence is needed at the highest order. Studying history and its significant figures serve not simply as an understanding of…
By: Jer Swigart on January 18, 2021
Throughout the first half of this semester, my blogging will be in conversation with the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer as exposed in Eric Metaxes’ biography, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. I purchased the book years ago based on the recommendations of multiple friends and mentors and with the intention to get to it when the…
By: Chris Pollock on January 16, 2021
It’s a beautiful world we live in. The sound I’m hearing is so big. The waves crashing and the river is so full. The rocks are rolling from the river into the ocean only to be thrown by waves. No other sounds break through here, this storm of nature. Then, a raven speaks, and the…
By: John McLarty on January 14, 2021
Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. – 1 Corinthians 12:12 (NIV) What does it mean to be an “deliberately developmental organization?” Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey’s “An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization” is an examination of…
By: Greg Reich on January 13, 2021
It appears that the average person spends 13 years and 2 months of their adult life at work. If they work consistent overtime, another 1 year and 2 months can be added to that number. On the other hand, it appears we spend only around 328 days in our lifetime socializing with friends.[1] When crunching…
By: Darcy Hansen on January 12, 2021
“Brake” “Braaaake” “Ian, BRAKE!” These are the words I spoke to my 15-year-old, newly permitted driver as he remained ever focused on the left and right lanes before him but failed to check his blind spot and see the semi-truck he was about to merge into as he drove on the I-205 to I-5 on…
By: Shawn Cramer on January 12, 2021
Culture eats strategy for breakfast (so the oft-used adage goes). In my personal research, Cru’s field staff unanimously point to culture as an impediment for innovating within their ministry. When asked how to make these changes, many shake their heads, throw up their arms, sigh, and relent, “I don’t know. Culture change is hard and…
By: Dylan Branson on January 11, 2021
Around the world, one can find proverbs and idioms that effectively speak the same message: “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.” “The first bird that leaves the nest gets shot.” “Don’t go against the grain” “The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.” The primary message: Don’t stand…
By: Jer Swigart on January 11, 2021
A successful organization is not the one that consumes its employees in order to propel its mission. Rather, according to authors Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey in An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization, a successful organization is one that is proactive in providing meaning for its employees. The authors assert that the…
By: Chris Pollock on November 18, 2020
I left them there. It was ‘Norco’ and a younger friend, huddled in the freezing, out-of-the-wet, door-front area of our Market. Jumped into my little Trax and was about to get going but, couldn’t. Pulled up behind an RV that had pulled-in for the night, ran back into the Sanctuary, off-the-alarm for a couple bags…
