By: Todd E Henley on March 16, 2023
My father passed away in 1969 when I was three years old, leaving behind me and my younger brother. In 1999, I reflected back on my childhood and discovered something I had never noticed before. For 18 years my mom cooked dinner for me and my brother Troy and we would sit at the dining…
By: Adam Harris on March 15, 2023
A few weeks ago, I attended a community luncheon that revolved around mental health awareness. The goal was to break stigmas around psychological and emotional health issues and provide more resources for churches in our area. During the event, some pastors and members in the community shared their experiences of rejection and shame for experiencing…
By: Mathieu Yuill on March 15, 2023
Lately I have been working on saying nothing. I am chatty, I know that. I like to have conversations, I enjoy asking questions and engaging people in dialogue. I also enjoy being asked questions and sharing my responses to ideas or suppositions; the chance to insert my opinion is insatiable. This is my front stage…
By: Esther Edwards on March 15, 2023
My one-minute gaze into Nelson Mandela’s prison cell had a profound impact on me. That neatly folded prison blanket represented the dailyness of Mandela’s life for 27 years. The consequence of not folding a blanket to perfection in the prisons he was kept in would produce a severe beating. A leader who had already…
By: Kally Elliott on March 15, 2023
“Our task, as human beings, as human leaders, is…to grow up, to learn, through the experiences we are given, who we are – what it means to be courageous, what it is to serve, what it is to be loved and to love, what it is to be real, what it is to be fully…
By: Pam Lau on March 15, 2023
“Am I really what others say of me? Or am I only what I know of myself? . . .Who Am I? This one or the other? Am I this one today and tomorrow another? Am I both at once? Before others a hypocrite and in my own eyes a pitiful, whimpering weakling? . .…
By: Jenny Dooley on March 15, 2023
My missionary career began as a 23-year-old new wife and mother with a fresh university degree in hand. My dream to minister overseas came sooner than imagined. While excited to be heading to Jakarta, Indonesia, I lacked confidence that I was prepared for the work ahead. Nothing magically changed on the 36-hour journey between Seattle…
By: Cathy Glei on March 14, 2023
Using Food stamps, gathering government commodities and collecting pop cans for extra funds were just a few of the regular survival strategies in my family. I grew up in a low income family. However, I had two parents who loved God, were devoted to one another and loved their children. My dad, a highly intelligent…
By: Jonita Fair-Payton on March 14, 2023
At the beginning of my second semester at Berkeley, my friend and I were invited to attend a leadership training. We were newly selected leaders of a campus student organization that worked with high school students of color to assist with applying for admission into UC Berkeley and providing retention services after admissions. The training…
By: Kim Sanford on March 14, 2023
“A leader leads people from where they currently are to another place, which at first is unknown to them and can only be imagined.”[1] Moses. Hudson Taylor. Abraham Lincoln. Martin Luther King Jr. Every single one of you as you dream about graduation day in May 2025. What do all these leaders have in common? They…
By: Tim Clark on March 13, 2023
“The showman gives you front row to his heart. The showman prays his heartache will chart. Making a spectacle of falling apart is just the start of the show…” (from the song “The Showman” by U2). The congregation I serve includes actors, musicians, athletes, and other “known” people. Over the years that I’ve pastored here,…
By: John Fehlen on March 13, 2023
Our family is a “Lord of the Rings” family. Some families are more “Harry Potter.” No judgement from me, except that you are wrong, and we are right. There, I said it. Cancel me. When all the kids, and by “kids” I mean grown young adults, are home, and by “home” I mean the place…
By: Jennifer Vernam on March 13, 2023
Reading through Leading Out of Who You Are,[1] the behaviors of the “defended” leader (Staging, Power, and Control) made a lot of sense to me. As did the various shapes of ego which relate to our childhood experiences of trust. Learning about the types of egos, and how they impact our leadership practices set my…
By: Travis Vaughn on March 13, 2023
This past week was one of those weeks where I thought to myself: It would be easier to just be in the background. Maybe even hanging out, for a year or two, on the beach with our twenty-something-year-old kids, “free” from the warp and woof of serving in an organizational leadership role. “Were things really…
By: Noel Liemam on March 12, 2023
Bruce Lee, the Asian American-born actor, was known by many as an amazing martial artist. But not only that, but he was also a profound thinker. “He left behind seven volumes of writings on everything from quantum physics to philosophy” [1]. Mr. Lee developed a martial technique called “jeet kune do,” which resulted from his…
By: Dinka Utomo on March 9, 2023
Read deeply. Stay open. Continue to wonder. -Austin Kleon- Impostor syndrome is a familiar experience for me. I’ve noticed that it tends to surface whenever I embark on something significant and meaningful. I vividly recall feeling extremely anxious about homiletics, a subject during my undergraduate studies twenty-three years ago. As part of the curriculum,…
By: Jana Dluehosh on March 9, 2023
Have you ever found yourself floundering? Directionless? Just plain old bored? Well I have a solution for you. Follow these “easy” steps and in no time you’ll have a Doctorate! Thresholds…. Find opportunities to expand your horizons! We often don’t know we are about to encounter a threshold experience, but we will know we have…
By: Adam Harris on March 9, 2023
I don’t watch a lot of movies these days, but several months ago I had some time and felt the urge to watch the new Elvis movie with Austin Butler. Austin ended up winning the Golden Globes Award for Best Actor in his portrayal as the “King of Rock”. I had a new appreciation for…
By: Todd E Henley on March 9, 2023
Born in Circleville, Ohio, in 1983, Austin Kleon’s work focuses and rambles around non-fiction and “motivational” niche. Being a millennial himself, Austin realizes the cursory attention span of the internet generation and therefore, he keeps it short and hurls doodles and illustrations frequently just to make sure that the focus stays intact. [1]. This millennial…
By: Pam Lau on March 9, 2023
Liz H. Just seeing her name on my screen floods my mind with the “Things nobody told [me] about being creative.” In 2014, I received a phone call from my publisher announcing with joy how she secured Liz H. as my editor for my next book. Wanting to share in her excitement, I quickly chimed…
