By: Dave Watermulder on November 8, 2018
As I was sitting at my desk reading through Edwin Friedman’s book, A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, I got a phone call from a young mom in our church. She was calling in distress, wondering what to do. The small group that she is a part of is…
By: Andrea Lathrop on November 8, 2018
Anthony Elliot’s Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction[1]is fascinating and overwhelming all at the same time for me. To consider the amount of effort exerted to define the word ‘society’, let alone all the theories underneath it, is mind-boggling. Humans have been attempting to make sense of our world for a long time. I was…
By: Harry Fritzenschaft on November 8, 2018
Elliott provides an overview of the recent sociological theories. The core of these theories is the nature of society. The author aims to introduce his readers to the challenging perspectives, and the resultant innovations of contemporary social processes.[1] Elliott organizes his work around several themes. The first theme concerns the relation of the individual and…
By: Sean Dean on November 8, 2018
As my wife and I were preparing for our home study to be licensed to adopt, one of the tasks we needed to complete was a cultural plan. Essentially this is a document detailing how, if we were to be placed with a child of a different culture than ours, we would keep that child…
By: Jennifer Williamson on November 8, 2018
I first read Friedman’s A Failure of Nerve during my Master’s program, and it was a book that revolutionized my life. In fact, I would not be exaggerating to say that applying the wisdom that Friedman shares may have saved my relationship with my son. As he launched into his university years, I learned about…
By: Dan Kreiss on November 7, 2018
How does one explain the seemingly inexorable decline of the Christian church in the United States? Is it simply a result of shifting morals and values? Is the message of the church suddenly irrelevant and aging out of favor? What are the factors that the church in decline should use as motivation for change? In…
By: Kyle Chalko on November 7, 2018
In A Failure of Nerve by Edwin H. Friedman, a new paradigm is given when considering leadership. The conversation escapes the “irrefutable laws” and all of those other “irreplaceable principles” and enters into the category of character or, one could say, the ethos of a leader. Part of what has caused Freidman’s book to be…
By: Mario Hood on November 7, 2018
In reading Anthony Elliott’s Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction, one gains perspective on the landscape of contemporary social theories and global ideas. Anthony covers issues on the local, national, and global levels and points out their influence in many aspects of life. From the outset, Elliot states the book will cover the five themes, in this…
By: Karen Rouggly on November 6, 2018
This morning, I woke up. I had set out some gym clothes the day before that didn’t get used (#Monday). They stayed in a crumpled pile on my floor for 24 hours, because the more I walk around them, the more annoyed I am, and the more annoyed I am, the more I go to…
By: John Muhanji on November 3, 2018
When we were growing up, life in the church was inspiring and always looked forward to Sunday school teachings. In order for us to understand the teachings of the bible and follow with interest, the teachers used photographs of the bible stories. When they talked about the Ark of Noah, they had to show us…
By: Tammy Dunahoo on November 2, 2018
“A picture is worth a thousand words,” this common idiom began running through my mind as I read Sarah Pink’s, Visual Ethnography. “It refers to the notion that a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single picture, this picture conveys its meaning or essence more effectively than a description does.”[1] …
By: Mary Mims on November 1, 2018
Traveling can be exciting and a pain at the same time. I love the excitement of going new places, discovering new things. However, traveling back home to see love ones, can often be a source of stress and pain. I recently went home to see my ailing mother. I knew there could be conflict with…
By: Nancy VanderRoest on November 1, 2018
I’ve always found photography to be fascinating. Now, believe me, it’s not because I am a photographer by any sense of the term. I am the person who always catches my ‘photo models’ in awkward poses and with frightening looks on their faces. As a matter of fact, I’ve decapitated family and friends more than…
By: Harry Fritzenschaft on November 1, 2018
Sarah Pink’s Doing Visual Ethnography has evoked in me two divergent paths of response: (1) a great sense of caution in utilizing visual ethnography as a sound, perhaps more contemporary (since it is the product of advancing technology) research tool as orthodox as any other and (2) a great sense of connection and being drawn…
By: Sean Dean on November 1, 2018
It is always her eyes that I remember. I was on a mission trip to India with members of my church, we were climbing onto the chartered bus to go home after a long day of ministry activities. My friend Jamie and I were the last of our group to get on the bus, our…
By: Jenn Burnett on November 1, 2018
I’m likely not alone in this, but I can easily get sucked into a vortex where time seems to be accelerated and hours pass like minutes. This vortex is facebook. Of course my social media drug of choice is highly influenced by my age and I know that there is an ever growing collection of…
By: Karen Rouggly on November 1, 2018
About a year or two ago, I found my old camera from college. I remember when I got the camera as a gift for graduation. It was small, maroon, and fit my lifestyle. After all, my sidekick phone didn’t have a camera on it. I was getting ready to go to South Africa for six…
By: Rev Jacob Bolton on November 1, 2018
Four years ago, I attended a seminar about mid-career ministry. A panel was discussing different unique ministry opportunities they had created sharing them with the other mid-career clergy to see if any ideas may work for another congregation. Many opportunities were discussed, including ideas about a sermon series on personal finance, unique ways to tie…
By: Mario Hood on November 1, 2018
In reading, Doing Sensory Ethnography by Sarah Pink, I was reminded of an experience that occurred traveling back from our Hong Kong advance. As I begin the journey to Hong Kong for our first advance while I was not looking forward to the twenty-three total hours of traveling, I was looking forward to watching a…
By: Andrea Lathrop on November 1, 2018
I am a late-adopter. I know this is at least true of me when it comes to technology and social media and fashion. It has been revealed to me over the last eighteen years of marriage because my husband is an early-adopter. For example, Justin slept on the street in Dallas outside an Apple…
