By: Caleb Lu on April 2, 2023
I can’t remember the last time I listened to an entire album. I used to love listening to entire CDs. And because I only had a few, I knew everything about the artists. I think partially, I could go deeper and learn more about them because I wasn’t exposed to as many. There weren’t ways…
By: Alana Hayes on April 2, 2023
Peter G. Northouse’s book “Leadership – Theory and Practice” is widely regarded as one of the most comprehensive and robust publications on leadership. It presents an overview of many leadership theories, approaches, and views while highlighting the importance of situational context in successful leadership. The book examines power and influence, motivation, communication, decision-making, conflict resolution,…
By: Jenny Steinbrenner Hale on April 1, 2023
Many Americans are born into a consumer culture. Our bodies and hearts are hardwired for a consumer system and our brains follow, knowingly or unknowingly. Can we possibly disengage ourselves from this life routine and worldview? Miller and Clark: Christians Entrenched in a Capitalist Landscape Vincent Miller, author of Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice…
By: Chad McSwain on April 1, 2023
Your Easter Shirt Finding the right outfit for Easter can be challenging [1]. You want to look good in the pictures and rightly convey the meaning of the day, but, no worries, I received an email from my favorite t-shirt company with the perfect shirt – marketed in a timely manner, of course. In fact,…
By: Alana Hayes on March 31, 2023
Stephen King’s book “On Writing – A Memoir of the Craft” is both a book on his writing craft and a personal account of his long career as a master storyteller. The author takes readers on an intimate journey through his writing problems, creative process, and insights into being a successful writer in today’s competitive…
By: Alana Hayes on March 31, 2023
Although geological knowledge and technical expertise are needed for gold mining, a different sort of prospecting is required for the mining of leaders. Coaching is essential for turning an individual into a strong leader. However there are some other keys such as time, patience, and a willingness to experiment with new methods. “We sometimes judge…
By: Alana Hayes on March 31, 2023
Um, hello body…. This is your captain speaking… is your transmitter that’s regulating all of your body’s dopamine levels turned on? While I appreciated your initial interest and motivation – I wonder if you have maybe taken on too much. This is the conversation that I wanted to have with my body after reading this…
By: Michael O'Neill on March 30, 2023
Consuming Religion Consuming Religion, Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture by David Miller is an insightful look at how consumer culture has affected religious beliefs and practices over the past century. Miller uses economic justice, environmental ethics, and postmodern theory, among other things, to show how much consumerism has taken over our lives.…
By: Audrey Robinson on March 30, 2023
Peter G. Northouse, Ph.D., is a Professor Emeritus of Communication in the School of Communication at Western Michigan University. Northouse has spent over 30 years teaching leadership. His book, Leadership: Theory and Practice, is the world’s best-selling academic textbook on leadership.[1] Once you open the book and start to review the table of contents, you…
By: Kristy Newport on March 27, 2023
Personality, by Daniel Nettle, has been sitting in a pile of books on my shelf, ready to read, for a couple of months. I looked forward to reading this book as I typically enjoy books on psychology and any information which will aid me in helping clients in my clinical practice. Unfortunately, I found this…
By: David Beavis on March 26, 2023
“Just do buy it.” Living in Portland means visiting the Nike employee store at least once. Nike is based in Beaverton (a suburb of Portland). Many of the congregants at the church I serve at work are Nike employees. About a year ago, I got my first Nike Employee Store pass. I entered the store…
By: Alana Hayes on March 26, 2023
Vincent Miller reveals how consumerist ideas have crept into our religious activities, by putting more of an emphasis on consumerism than on a deep spiritual connection. This commercialization of religion has the potential to be detrimental. Miller states that people must give up the materialistic ideals embedded in their beliefs if they are to completely…
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: Audrey Robinson on March 24, 2023
Us versus Them Vincent Miller’s work in Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture is not an ‘Us’ (Christianity) versus ‘Them’ (Consumerism) read. Instead, Miller has taken a unique approach that provides the reader with a description of ‘Them,’ i.e., consumerism and all its tentacles in culture, and insights into how the Church…
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: 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: 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: Tonette Kellett on March 19, 2023
Introduction This week’s book, Leadership: Theory and Practice by Peter Northouse presents different models of leadership. It is, as Dr. Jason Clark said in our zoom meeting last week, the foundational book on leadership for any student. Northouse’s definition of leadership is the “process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a…
