By: Noel Liemam on November 13, 2025
Introduction Those that are involved in leadership role that are not healed themselves, are more likely to lead their followers in a negative way. My father left our family to be with the Lord before I became a teenager. I was mostly raised by mother with the grace of God. I also have two uncles…
By: Chad Warren on November 13, 2025
In C.S. Lewis’ Perelandra[1], when Ransom arrives in the distant Edenic world of Perelandra, he is not healthy. Instead, he arrives wounded, disoriented, and immersed in tumult. His “splashdown” into the vast, living ocean of that unfallen world is chaotic: waves toss him, exhaustion overwhelms him, and he must struggle toward the safety of a…
By: Glyn Barrett on November 13, 2025
As I wrapped this up and read it back, noting the limited number of endnotes, I realised it leans more towards a devotional tone, quite different from my other blogs. Maybe that’s intentional. Perhaps this one was written especially for you. When Nicholas Rowe and Sheila Wise Rowe wrote Healing Leadership Trauma, [1] they weren’t…
By: Daren Jaime on November 13, 2025
This past month, I was notified that a prominent pastor in our region announced he was stepping down at the end of the year. This pastor, approaching his mid-40s, is well-loved and has garnered tremendous respect within his congregation and community. His announcement sparked a wave of speculation as to the reason for his departure.…
By: Shela Sullivan on November 13, 2025
Introduction Nicholas Rowe’s Healing Leadership Trauma: Finding Emotional Health and Helping Others Flourish,[1] is deeply rooted in the realities of leadership, especially the emotional and relational toll it can take. This book is especially relevant for leaders in ministry, education, nonprofits, and any setting where emotional labor and relational complexity are part of the role.…
By: Elysse Burns on November 13, 2025
An Injury That Became a Teacher In 2023, I broke my fifth metatarsal after taking a sharp right turn a bit too quickly down the uneven staircase in my Nouakchott home. What followed was a season of enforced stillness—simply sitting and allowing this stubborn foot bone to heal. Yet the more revealing part of the…
By: Graham English on November 12, 2025
Leadership is often framed as a matter of strategy, skills, or charisma; a toolbox of techniques to inspire and achieve. But what if the heart of leadership lies deeper, in the unseen terrain of a leader’s identity? I recently facilitated a 48-hour leadership retreat for the project that addresses my NPO, where we gathered stakeholders…
By: Ryan Thorson on November 12, 2025
Christmas Eve 2021 sits in my memory as both holy and heavy. I remember seeking to celebrate the birth of Christ with my family—candles lit, dinner on the table, a fragile quiet in the house—only hours after sitting in a hospital room where I was with someone when they died from COVID-19. I had filmed…
By: Kari on November 12, 2025
It is time to face something I detest: deep, dark, painful emotions. I would rather run than sit in those emotions. The feelings that come from the injustice of a baby dying of malnutrition outside the door of the hospital. The heartbreak of another mom losing her baby because of incompetent health care providers. Internal…
By: Joel Zantingh on November 12, 2025
In Healing Leadership Trauma : Finding Emotional Health and Helping Others Flourish, Nicholas Rowe and Sheila Wise Rowe argue that leaders must confront their own past and wounds to actually lead others to places of flourishing and wholeness. [1] This book invites leaders away from predominating field of techniques and external competencies to engage with…
By: Debbie Owen on November 11, 2025
As I stood in front of the ideas and comments written on the poster-sized sticky notes on the wall, thinking carefully about the conversations of the last four hours, a reality began to dawn on me. I turned to check with the six people seated around the table who were watching me, thinking their own…
By: Jeff Styer on November 10, 2025
The Wounds December 31, 2022 was the last day of a six-year term as a ruling elder at my Presbyterian Church. About a month later, a friend, Steve, and I were at a meeting together and we had to introduce ourselves to the speaker including our position within the church. Steve, who had completed the…
By: Adam Cheney on November 10, 2025
For years, I questioned whether I wanted to lead again. Honestly, I was burned out from my experience leading a team in Kenya. My team went through some significant challenges, including two different families making emergency returns to the United States for different reasons. Both families were dealing with serious issues, and I wasn’t being…
By: Jennifer Eckert on November 9, 2025
This year, on November 26, I’ll mark forty years since my dad, Butch, took his own life. I was twelve years old. The night it happened, my mother told me she sat on the edge of my waterbed in my bedroom. The air was thick and steamy, as if the atmosphere was holding its breath.…
By: Joel Zantingh on November 7, 2025
Jeff Myers’ Chapter 11 in Understanding the Culture affirms that creation matters because God called in good. [1] The call to be good stewards is neither passive preservation, nor exploitation, but active cultivation. Myers points out two important dynamics about the current state of the planet. One is that the consequences of poor stewardship are all…
By: Christy on November 7, 2025
At various times in the Doctor of Leadership in Global Perspectives program, we’ve discussed postmodernism. While I found it fascinating, I mostly thought of it as an issue for pastors to consider, much more than my role in ministry operations and donor development. Somehow, this week’s reading hit me differently, and I was able to…
By: Jennifer Eckert on November 7, 2025
Shalom Behind Bars Inside the Joseph Harp Correctional Center, I sat in the chapel alongside the residents who were dressed in bright orange prison clothes. Many of these men were serving life sentences. No matter – we were all busy singing hymns about the hope and forgiveness of Jesus. It was an unmistakable holy moment.…
By: Noel Liemam on November 6, 2025
Introduction These two books, ‘Understanding the Times’ and ‘Understanding the Cultures,’ by Myers, gives us a lens to see and to understand how ideas and beliefs affect both leadership and the community. Both emphasize the need to understand the truth, the people and how to live our lives wisely as we engage and relate to…
By: Daren Jaime on November 6, 2025
Ethics and leadership have always shared a complicated relationship. History is replete with numerous charismatic leaders who achieved major outcomes but left moral devastation in their wake. From corporate boardrooms to classrooms to pulpits, leadership often walks a slippery tightrope between influence and integrity. Joanne Ciulla in her book Ethics, the Heart of Leadership reminds…
By: Chad Warren on November 6, 2025
Our cultural moment has turned sexuality into the defining marker of selfhood. The modern person no longer asks, “Who made me?” but “Who do I want to be?” Beneath this lies a more profound anthropological crisis. One that reveals how far we have drifted from understanding what it means to be human. In my recent…
