DLGP

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

A True Story

By: on March 19, 2015

I had full intention of writing about Haiti today. Haiti can be an isolating place, and my first lengthy amount of time in Haiti was very isolating as I sat atop a mountain surrounded by people I had never met who did not speak my language…and I had yet to make friends, even with a…

12 responses

Never Alone

By: on March 19, 2015

Sitting on my bed, alone in my room. I remember the anguish that came over 24 year old me. Maybe it pushed itself from the inside of me. Maybe it was a convergence of both. At that moment, I remember expressing my frustration to God with these words: “It wasn’t supposed to be like this!…

14 responses

Pac-Man Mania

By: on March 19, 2015

In the early 1980s, the iconic video game, Pac-Man, hit the arcade scene. The little consuming Pac-Mac swallowed up dots to sustain life, needing to either avoid the enemy or eat power pellets in order to change its capacity to eat the enemy (their names – Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde).[1] While I’m not much…

14 responses

The commodification of church

By: on March 18, 2015

I live in a world of religious commodification and it has birthed the fruit of abstraction and ultimately spawned fragmentation. In my world, ‘community’ has become ‘community groups’, following Jesus has become ‘service projects’ and knowing God has become an hour on Sunday. It’s as though some malevolent force said, “Let’s rethink church” that thriving…

7 responses

Consumed Un-assumed

By: on March 18, 2015

Consumed Un-assumed March 17, 15 Starting off with Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture, I want to talk about two areas the stood out to me. One was how culture has a way of transforming religious beliefs and two the media and religion. It is a shame that some of the…

11 responses

Correlating Academic Theory and Management

By: on March 15, 2015

Correlating Academic theory with Management March 14, 15 In Caroline Ramsey’s two articles Provocative theory and a scholarship of practice and Narrative: From Learning in Reflection to Learning in Performance, I was able to learn that there are many things that go with learning. Some of the principles pointed out that were important to me…

8 responses

Dancing with Academic Theory

By: on March 15, 2015

I have always had an attraction to learn new things. To theorize the “what if’s” of life. To read highly academic writing and truly understand the nuggets of gold couched in the elaborate formulated vocabulary. It has become somewhat of a treasure hunt. I must decipher the code and find the treasure that the academic…

7 responses

The Wise, the Learned, and the Intentionally Reflective

By: on March 14, 2015

Did you ever know anyone who was “so heavenly minded that they were no earthly good?” I am not sure who coined this phrase, but I am sure they had someone in mind who had simply lost touch with the physical, earthly world around them. They could not relate what they knew, or thought they…

9 responses

Structure and Improvisation

By: on March 14, 2015

Hot and cold. Light and dark. Left brain, right brain. Structure and improvisation. In each of these pairs, we need both sides. Too much of a bad thing can kill us. Too much of a good thing can also kill us. Life is about balance. In Eastern and indigenous thought, it is all about balance.…

7 responses

Relevance, Application, Engagement

By: on March 14, 2015

We’ve been encouraged to engage in our reading with a lens of applicability and relevance. What themes apply to my present situations and are relevant to my dissertation research?   The challenge of journal articles can be that one is withdrawn from the overall context that shapes and informs the subject at hand. However, though I…

11 responses

leadership in context

By: on March 14, 2015

Caroline Ramsey’s article on “the Management learning: a scholarship of practice centred on attention?” uncovers great insight from her own “ongoing learning in how to help managers, and other organization participants, do their work better.”[1] In particular, I am interested in the author’s remarks on the importance of “attention as a key process in a scholarship of…

6 responses

Leadership Deveolpment

By: on March 13, 2015

This week’s articles were insightful and I enjoyed reading them. In her article, Management learning: A scholarship of practice centred on attention, she approached the problem of managerial learning by looking at both the academic and practical aspects of learning. Ramsey studied the attitudes, experience, and way that managers employ what they have learned. Dr.…

5 responses

Leadership leaders and Managers

By: on March 13, 2015

I have a long believed that the foremost challenge in the countries in African is not a resources but a leadership vacuum. Resources do matter and what’s of greater concern is how resources are developed and managed. Natural resource reservoirs are plentiful in many countries in Africa along with some of the necessary conditions needed…

7 responses

Practicing our way to Wisdom

By: on March 13, 2015

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. (Proverbs 9:10, NIV) A few years back, I was tasked with being responsible for the implementation of a federal grant that required the use of a specific evidence based practice for youth alcohol and other drug treatment. The project was a national implementation project. In…

7 responses

Ministers as Managers: What Often Goes Wrong

By: on March 13, 2015

There is often great discontent in smaller churches, especially when all the churches around them are experiencing tremendous growth. This was the situation I was in for over 20 years. When I arrived, my church was running 120 in attendance. When I left, it was running about 120. During those years, we saw numerous pastors…

8 responses

Provocative Moments as a Social Poetic

By: on March 13, 2015

Words convey ideas, concepts, meaning.  Word choices elicit an evocative response that brings an experience beyond the explicit message.  In Dr. Ramsey’s two articles, “Management Learning: A Scholarship of Practice Centred on Attention?” and “Provocative Theory and a Scholarship of Practice,” she uses words that stir the reader to respond, creating an opportunity for a…

9 responses

Seeking Practical Wisdom

By: on March 13, 2015

Ramsey’s article, Management learning: A scholarship of practice centred on attention?, discusses the practice of learning and how this can help managers and leaders do their work better.[1] Reading Ramsey’s article, I reflected on my own journey to become a more effective manager and leader. Ramsey shares project experience from which she learned and gained…

7 responses

Thoughts from Under the Mango Tree

By: on March 13, 2015

I’m not going to lie. Reading Caroline Ramsey’s two articles while sitting in Haiti sent me for a bit of a loop. Provocative theory and management practices and phronesis, OH MY! I read the articles several times, and then I looked out over my surroundings. In a world where context is everything, how would these…

12 responses

Learning management

By: on March 12, 2015

Management learning is a field in which I am in great need! Having never church planted nor led a church before, I feel like a complete novice for whom the learned theories are simply not enough. I need practice centred learning, the kind that Ramsey advocates, “where new practice is privileged, rather than knowledge that…

9 responses

Can You Teach Street Smarts?

By: on March 12, 2015

Caroline Ramsey in her inquisitive papers, “Provocative theory and the scholarship of practice” and “Management learning: A scholarship of practice centred on attention” continues her impressive work in the field of management and organizational learning.  Ramsey brings further thought, experimentation, and quantification from her research and learning journey of a scholarship of practice. As I…

22 responses