DLGP

Doctor of Leadership in Global Perspectives: Crafting Ministry in an Interconnected World

I am 50% Smarter Now that I Know “How to Read Numbers”

By: on February 6, 2023

I know what you are all thinking about my title: “Scott, without giving us your IQ number, we can’t determine how much smarter you have actually become.”  Fair point, and one that you might not have identified as deficient quite as quickly if you hadn’t engaged with this intriguing book. Many of us are familiar…

10 responses

Lies, damned lies, and statistics

By: on February 6, 2023

When someone quotes a statistic in a conversation with me, I’ve been known to respond: “Did you know that 78% of all statistics are made up on the spot?” What varies is that I make up a different number, every time, on the spot. It’s a slightly sarcastic way to let them know that I’m…

9 responses

Ecclesiastical Statistical Style Guide

By: on February 6, 2023

I can remember it like it was yesterday. I was about 30 years old, had been a senior pastor for 3 years, and God was doing good things in our ministry. I was asked to preach at what would be the largest gathering of people that I had ever been in front of. It was…

12 responses

What A Tangled Web We Weave

By: on February 5, 2023

I’ve just turned over the last page of How to Read Numbers; I’m vacillating between writing a cheerful blog post or a doomsday one. On one hand, that was a delightful read. Tom Chivers and David Chivers explain a complicated topic in a very approachable way. The sprinkling of dry humor and clever examples didn’t…

9 responses

Kansas City Chiefs, NBA referee bias, and pastoral discouragement

By: on February 5, 2023

“Your football team is always playing on primetime!” That’s what my Bears-loving friend and fellow ministry leader from Chicago told me last fall. Being a long-time Kansas City Chiefs fan, my response was: “Really? Well, it’s about time!” Of course, his statement didn’t set well with me. I mean, did he really conduct the necessary…

15 responses

လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေး စာမေးပွဲ

By: on February 5, 2023

လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေး စာမေးပွဲ  (pronounced ) luuwainmhukyeekyautrayy hcarmayypwal (say that 10 times fast) Means – Immigration Quiz in Myanmar (Burmese) ….and with that BEGIN! Immigration Quiz: (answers at the end of my comments).  1) 1 in 3 businesses in _____are owned by immigrants.  Although they make up about 24% of the population, 32.2% of all businesses in the…

8 responses

Ups, Downs and Push Onward

By: on February 5, 2023

Self-Reflection Ups, downs and pushing forward is how I felt I should do in this journey. Since being accepted into this program, I was so thankful with this privilege and cannot wait to start. As I started, I kind of realize that this format is so foreign to me, sometimes I contemplate giving in, and…

2 responses

Fire, the Celts, and the gift of the Ampersand

By: on February 3, 2023

This last Wednesday was Feast of Saint Brigid, both a Celtic pagan festival and a Saints Day for the Irish Catholic Church.  “Rites of initiation and installation, then, teach the lesson of the essential oneness of the individual and the group: seasonal festivals open a larger horizon;” [1]. This feast day and festival is for…

17 responses

Accept Your Calling

By: on February 3, 2023

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frighten us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of…

14 responses

We are all heroes!

By: on February 2, 2023

Webster’s dictionary defines a hero as: a: a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability b: an illustrious warrior c: a person admired for achievements and noble qualities d: one who shows great courage [1] According to Mr. Webster we are all heroes in some type of way.…

10 responses

Intellectual Maturity

By: on February 2, 2023

Knowing that Campbell grounded himself in the teachings of Jung and Freud, gave me the first clue that this was going to be an interesting read. As I waded through begrudgingly, I honestly was thankful for the gift of inspectional reading since I found Campbell getting lost in the weeds of his own thinking, leaving…

8 responses

The Danger of Refusing the Call

By: on February 2, 2023

When I was a young girl growing up in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, I spent endless hours playing outside in the woods behind our house. Most times I was with the neighborhood children exploring the trails, paths, lakes and forests building forts and, if we were lucky, collecting turtles. If I wasn’t out exploring the…

17 responses

My Favorite Modern Day Myth. Superman!! Spoiler Alert!

By: on February 2, 2023

Wow. Where to begin with Joseph Campbell’s, The Hero With A Thousand Faces? This is one of those books that has been on my radar for years after reading The Power of Myth, but I never quite got around to reading this one. It is dense, complex, and pulls together multiple fields of study to…

8 responses

You shouldn’t be the hero

By: on February 1, 2023

I was excited to tackle the reading this week. I’m a StoryBrand[1] Guide and use the hero’s journey as one of the introductory workshops we take clients through at my marketing and communications company, Leading With Nice., when we onboard them. I was familiar with Joseph Campbell’s[2] work the same way a lifelong Christian might…

11 responses

A Gen-Xer Wrestles With the Concept of ‘Hero’

By: on February 1, 2023

I find myself genuinely conflicted as I engage with Joseph Campbell’s concept of a Hero’s Journey. As a result, this blog is a bit of a dog’s breakfast! As an evaluation and summary of global mythological stories and the similar journeys each hero takes, it is clearly a distinguished work. As a sociological concept suggesting…

7 responses

A Secret Rescue Plan

By: on February 1, 2023

In reading Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces [1] I am disturbed by the implications it has on my reading of the Bible. If we are all telling a story with the same archetypes, aren’t we just all telling the same story? How can the Bible be the greatest story ever told if…

11 responses

A Tale of Two Crosses

By: on February 1, 2023

In reading through Joseph Campbell’s, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, I found that mythological stories serve a similar purpose to that of iconography. I had the experience of seeing through to deeper truths and meaning behind the fantastical tales I read. Myths are like icons. They are windows to a new way of understanding,…

19 responses

The Hero’s Journey, and a twist

By: on January 31, 2023

Luke Skywalker. That name and that story probably arranged more of the furniture in my young mind than any other hero’s story. As I grew older, married, and had children, there were many other “similar” adventures to invade the life of our growing family. The Princes Bride, The Matrix, Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia,…

10 responses

Who is the Hero in Tyre’s Story?

By: on January 30, 2023

The Hero With A Thousand Faces is a book about discovering ourselves through myths and stories. It was my intention to complete the reading and the blog a week ahead to give myself time to pay greater attention to the posts of my cohort. I have discovered that writing on Thursday does not allow me…

12 responses

LOST

By: on January 30, 2023

From 2004-2010 American television had a show that ran for six seasons on ABC.  The show was called LOST, and I, along with my family and close friends, were HOOKED. Each week we would tune in live, or watch it downloaded from iTunes, to see what was gonna happen to Hugo, Sawyer, Jack, Sayid, Kate,…

12 responses