By: Joff Williams on February 18, 2025
“And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’” Zechariah 13:9 “I need your…
By: Shela Sullivan on February 18, 2025
About the book The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness” by Jonathan Haidt. He explores the alarming rise in mental health issues among Generation Z. Haidt emphasizes that the increasing integration of digital technology, particularly smartphones and social media, into children’s lives has fundamentally reshaped their…
By: Rich on February 18, 2025
I got a call one Sunday afternoon from the drilling rig. This was unusual. My job was to do the theoretical work and hand it off to the planning engineers. They in turn wrote work instructions for the operations crew, the team who ran the drilling rig. A call on Sunday afternoon couldn’t be good.…
By: Michael Hansen on February 18, 2025
“Let’s go to the whiteboard.” I have used this phrase frequently for over thirty years. As a leader in operational roles in the military and civilian sectors, the whiteboard has proven invaluable. For small teams, it can serve as a focal point for deliberate planning discussions, where you can see and hear feedback in real…
By: Adam Cheney on February 18, 2025
For weeks I have been waiting to read this week’s book, The Anxious Generation. I had wanted to read it for a while and as it sat on my shelf, I kept looking at it, knowing it would validate the struggles we as a family have gone through. I have been telling my kids to…
By: Jennifer Eckert on February 18, 2025
“Rock and roll will rot your soul”[1] was a phrase many adults born into the Silent Generation muttered to their children, reflecting their fears that the younger generation’s music would lead them to moral decay, rebellion, and brain rot. It was a warning against what they perceived as cultural chaos and immorality. To them, rock…
By: Glyn Barrett on February 18, 2025
“Standing on a whale fishing for minnows”[1] is an apt description for many critics of the modern-day church. Many years ago, one of my best friends and I were working together in a church. We were involved in youth ministry and evangelism together. They were exciting times and were foundational to the type of leader…
By: Ivan Ostrovsky on February 18, 2025
I was in seminary, and one of the required classes focused on leadership. It was one of the most pointless classes I had ever attended. First, I had a terrible teacher who didn’t seem to care about us (you’d think he would, especially considering it was a seminary). All he cared about was sharing the…
By: Jeff Styer on February 17, 2025
In The Anxious Generation Jonathan Haidt writes “My central claim in this book is that two trends—overprotection in the real world and underprotection in the virtual world—are the major reasons why children born after 1995 became the anxious generation.”[1] Reflecting upon Haidt’s statements I realize that my wife and I are not perfect parents, but…
By: Noel Liemam on February 14, 2025
Current Concept of Colonialism ‘Colonialism,’ defined as “domination of a people or a area by a foreign state or nation: the practice of extending and maintaining a nation’s political and economic control over another people.”[1] Before any further discussion, I believe that ‘colonialism’ is embedded within the human nature; I would say that it comes…
By: Julie O'Hara on February 14, 2025
Summary of My Beliefs and Understanding of Colonialism Most recently, I have understood colonialism as a system that begins with powerful nations using their power to enrich themselves by taking resources from other people groups. The “powerful” nations are typically inhabited primarily by white people who view the other people, normally brown, as inferior. The…
By: Kari on February 14, 2025
Colonialism: A Personal Reflection Colonialism, the act of settling and taking control of land and its people, has significantly shaped world history. Since the time of Noah’s descendants spreading across the earth, humans have conquered and settled new lands. Colonialism has profoundly affected both positive and negative global politics, economies, and cultures. Entire groups have…
By: Linda Mendez on February 14, 2025
I was not raised in this country; at age five, my parents moved my older brother and me to Central America. For ten years, we lived in three different countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Honduras. While my cousins and friends in the U.S. were starting to learn about Game Boys, Walkmans, and computers, my…
By: Judith McCartney on February 13, 2025
I grew up in the 70’s and I recall being allowed on the house phone for a certain amount of time. I was not allowed to be on it for too long as I was told I’d be seeing them in person or was already with them earlier that day. It was revolutionary for us…
By: Chad Warren on February 13, 2025
Colonialism is often a theme in pop culture, effectively shaping public perceptions of history in ways that range from celebratory to critical. For example, Marvel’s Black Panther presents Wakanda as a technologically advanced African nation untouched by colonial rule, offering a potent “what-if” scenario that reimagines history. Meanwhile, the musical Hamilton reshapes the narrative of…
By: Michael Hansen on February 13, 2025
My grandparents gave me a Coleco Electronic Quarterback Handheld Game for Christmas 1978. Outside of an N-gauge electric train kit and later an Apple 2E computer, it was probably one of the only digital games I owned as a kid. Playing it was exhilarating; sometimes, I couldn’t put the game down. At night, I would…
By: Daren Jaime on February 13, 2025
Growing up in New York, I can strongly remember my 5th-grade Social Studies and American History teacher. His awkward demeanor always stood out to the class. Adorned frequently in hippy-ish dress and with an unforgettable voice, he constantly reminded our class that America was not always America. This admonishment was to bring to light the…
By: Mika Harry on February 13, 2025
Forget lions, tigers, and bears. The danger looming for today’s society is more from the pervasive influence of fear, ignorance, and depression. This week’s articles discussed how the rapid advancement of AI and the ever-present nature of social media have profoundly exacerbated societal disconnection, distrust, and injustice. The articles highlight that while the internet and…
By: Jeremiah Gómez on February 13, 2025
What comes to mind when you complete the phrase, “Knowledge is ___________”? When I ask this question as part of an exercise in a leadership workshop, the answer that most people share is power. Though not likely what Francis Bacon intended when he committed the phrase to paper[1], many take “knowledge is power” to mean…
By: Betsy on February 13, 2025
I was walking through a mall in Oxford to grab a coffee when I saw a crowd of mums with buggies all drinking the same brand of coffee I was pursuing. All the babies were around nine to eighteen months, and their little hands each clutched a screen. Research has confirmed our gut instinct that…
