By: Jonita Fair-Payton on November 1, 2023
“I firmly believe that kingdom-seeking, God-honoring, biblically rooted leadership needs to learn how to hear God’s voice. Leaders must lead from a divine center with a heart in tune with the heart of God, forming a holy partnership that results in fulfilling the purposes of God on earth.”(1) Leadership Vibrations This book was music to…
By: Pam Lau on October 31, 2023
The Many Voices of Leadership As I look for book titles on leadership on Amazon, I find more than 30,000 results. It’s overwhelming. Advice on leading seems to have no limits. Lead out of who you are Selfish leadership Become a multiplier. Become good to great. Coaching as leadership. Trust and inspire A Leader’s…
By: Tim Clark on October 31, 2023
In the TV show Ted Lasso, the character Dani Rojas has a catchphrase: “Football is life”. I love the show Ted Lasso. And I adore Dani Rojas’. But I disagree with him. If I had a catchphrase, it would be “Music is life”. My mom said that when I was born, the doctor was singing…
By: Kim Sanford on October 31, 2023
After a little more than a year of doctoral studies in leadership, I don’t suppose we’re experts yet, but I do think we can draw a few solid conclusions. Can we all agree that a good approach to God-honoring leadership might be:1. Leading by means of compelling vision2. Maintaining an unimpeachable character 3. Influencing rather…
By: Travis Vaughn on October 30, 2023
In The Sound of Leadership, Jules Glanzer compares the exercise of leadership to the experience of sound, drawing on a definition of leadership put forward by Leonard Sweet: “Leadership is an acoustical art.”[1] In my opinion, the analogies of sound to leadership could be a fascinating supplement to Simon Walker’s ecology of power, or Kurt…
By: John Fehlen on October 30, 2023
I don’t recommend being in Las Vegas on a Friday night. Overall, Vegas is a dumpster fire wrapped in a train wreck. That is, unless, you are in Las Vegas with your best friends, to see [arguably] the best band in the world, U2, at the best venue currently in the world: The Sphere. Google…
By: Jennifer Vernam on October 30, 2023
Goodreads lists[1] Glanzer’s The Sound of Leadership as “a collection of leadership insights,”[2] which would be the beginning of my description of this book if someone were to notice it on my coffee table. However, those five words do not do it full justice, as I found this book to serve as a reminder of…
By: Jana Dluehosh on October 27, 2023
Strange title huh. I want to start by saying, as I have heard by some of you say and I quote “this is hard”. Yep, it is! I have to be honest, I am struggling trying to find interest in the topics this semester. I’m struggling hard, and I am also struggling with my NPO…
By: Dinka Utomo on October 27, 2023
“Poverty was nature surviving in society; that the limitedness of food and the unlimitedness of men had come to an issue just when the promise of boundless increase of wealth burst in upon us made the irony only the more bitter.” -Karl Polanyi- On every occasion when I contemplate international travel, my preparations include…
By: Jenny Dooley on October 26, 2023
The books assigned in recent weeks are difficult. I am not understanding every concept, nor reading them in their entirety. However, I am being challenged and hopefully changed by authors I never would have discovered on my own. I am noticing connections and pondering many questions with little time to answer them. My questions currently…
By: Todd E Henley on October 26, 2023
All societies face the economic task of producing and providing for all members of society. Modern market societies are unique in assigning this responsibility to the marketplace, thereby creating entitlements to production for those with wealth, and depriving the poor of entitlement to food. All traditional societies have used non-market mechanisms based on cooperation and…
By: Esther Edwards on October 26, 2023
The Great Transformation, written by Karl Polanyi, “concentrated on the development of the market economy in the 19th century, with Polanyi presenting his belief that this form of economy was so socially divisive that it had no long-term future.”[1] His opening statement affirms this as he states “Nineteenth-century civilization has collapsed.”[2] This declaration of doom…
By: Russell Chun on October 26, 2023
Kapitalizmus – vadló futás, Capitalism – wild horse running – Hungarian Part 1 – What Polanyi says… Part 2 – What Clarks says…and a current Capitalist Part 3 – What my peers say… Part 4 – What Russ learned.. Part 1 – What Polanyi says… Apparently, I have become an audio learner. Perhaps because…
By: Adam Harris on October 26, 2023
I’ve been in full time ministry most of my vocational life, but while getting my master’s degree I took a detour into the business world for a few years. While working as a fitness trainer, a sales manager position opened that sold fitness training packages for a national gym chain. I was hesitant at first,…
By: Mathieu Yuill on October 26, 2023
I live near Lake Ontario, about 350 metres (or 400 yards). Almost 30 kilometres north (or 19 miles), my colleague lives in Stouffville and her backyard borders the southern side of what is called The Greenbelt[1], a vast expanse of protected land around Lake Ontario. When visiting her one day and looking over the fence…
By: Pam Lau on October 26, 2023
“The Gospel itself is a disembedding from social and collective memberships into a new social reality.”[1] Before identifying the central theme from Karl Polanyi’s paradigm of exchange, The Great Transformation, I found it helpful to remember and recall the story of Ruth from the Old Testament to offer a framework for how I understand Weber’s,[2] Polanyi’s[3] and…
By: Kally Elliott on October 26, 2023
Next Friday the Presbytery of the Cascades will vote to give one of our church properties to the Future Generations Collaborative, a coalition of non-profits representing many Native American communities. As I understand it, they will turn the church property into a village of sorts for single native American mothers and their children. It will…
By: Cathy Glei on October 25, 2023
“Ours is not a historical work; what we are searching for is not a convincing sequence of outstanding events, but an explanation of their trend in terms of human institutions.” Karl Polanyi [1] “The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time” is a seminal work by Hungarian-American economist and social theorist Karl…
By: Kim Sanford on October 24, 2023
Black-and-white thinkingIn Oxford and immediately afterwards, our cohort had numerous conversations about over-simplified thinking. Simon Walker spoke about the overwhelming complexity of our current era and how our brains desperately grasp at over-simplifications. I found his explanations comforting. It’s not our fault that we reach for simplicity. Our brains crave it. Of course, as responsible…
By: Jonita Fair-Payton on October 24, 2023
I picked up The Great Transformation; The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time and I went straight to the back of the book looking for some insight before I began to read. The first thing that I read was Karl Polanyi (1886- 1964), I said a prayer that this book would be easier for…
