By: Lynda Gittens on March 9, 2017
This week my younger daughter and I were discussing the behavior of coworkers and how it affects you. I told her that I had to pray and ask God to help me in the way that I respond to them. I was the one reacting and stressing. I wanted them to change, and they weren’t.…
By: Jim Sabella on March 9, 2017
Hunter, James Davison. To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Summary: One way to state Hunter’s thesis is in the form of a report card for the American church. The professor has given the American church an A+ on impacting…
By: Geoff Lee on March 9, 2017
To change the world – James Davison Hunter “I would suggest that a theology of faithful presence first calls Christians to attend to the people and places that they experience directly….the call of faithful presence gives priority to what is right in front of us-the community, the neighbourhood, and the city, and the people…
By: Garfield Harvey on March 9, 2017
Reading this book brought a smile to my face because I realize the journey in this doctoral program has afforded me the opportunity to appreciate a well-written book, regardless of the denominational influences (or biases). Luhrmann introduces each reader to the world of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship, a denomination the author believes represents a shift…
By: Jennifer Dean-Hill on March 8, 2017
Although the presenting topic in this book is, “How to Change the World”, as the title indicates, the title is an ineffective way to approach change in the world, as the author suggests. An appropriate sequel could be entitled, “How to Relate to Our World”. This appears to be the primary theme to our demise…
By: Katy Drage Lines on March 8, 2017
This week, it’s my turn to reflect back on professors who have had an influence on my theology and life. James Davison Hunter, in To Change the World, introduces three contemporary theological paradigms for how Christians in North America relate to our world: right-wing fundamentalism and evangelicalism (“defensive against”), left-wing mainline and left-leaning evangelicalism (“relevance…
By: Mary Walker on March 8, 2017
In his book, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, & Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World, James Davison Hunter explains why Christians have failed to change the world for the better as they sincerely longed to do. Hunter offers a new paradigm that he calls ‘faithful presence’ as an ideal for how…
By: Rose Anding on March 7, 2017
Introduction Tanya Luhrmann presents When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God to illustrate a distinctive description of anthropology in regards to the perceptions and motives held by contemporary Evangelical Christians.[1] According to Bielo, it contributes significantly to the movement by different anthropologists who are attempting to understand the nature of Christianity…
By: Pablo Morales on March 3, 2017
What is the relationship between trials and Christian leadership? What is the purpose of sitting on the bench while everybody else is engaged in the game? In Isolation: A Place of Transformation in the Life of A Leader, Dr. Shelley Trebesch explains how God uses a diversity of difficult circumstances to make the leader a…
By: Jason Kennedy on March 3, 2017
One early morning I was sitting with a pastor friend enjoying a cup of coffee. I was pastoring in a metro area, and he pastored in a small rural town. For some reason, he must have thought that pastoring in a city was the pinnacle of success. I remember him asking me or rather telling…
By: Rose Anding on March 2, 2017
“It takes heroic humility to be yourself.” — Thomas Merton Introduction Isolation—A Place of Transformation in the Life of a Leader by Shelly G. Trebesch is a leadership guidance book that informs Christian leaders on what to expect in the ministry. It prepares leaders on what they are likely to face when they have set…
By: Kristin Hamilton on March 2, 2017
In their interesting book, The Rebel Sell, Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter argue the point that “decades of countercultural rebellion have failed to change anything because the theory of society on which the countercultural idea rests is false…The culture cannot be jammed because there is no such thing as ‘the culture’ or ‘the system.’”[1] They…
By: Christal Jenkins Tanks on March 2, 2017
“Coolness is a positional good, it’s not something that can be bought off a shelf. Some people are cool because others are not.” [1] There are those that assert that within our current culture there is a dissatisfaction with consumerism because everyone wants to be cool which means someone has to be uncool. Distinction and…
By: Kevin Norwood on March 2, 2017
Isolation, as described by Shelley Trebesch in her book Isolation: A Place of Transformation in the Life of a Leader, is a desert or wilderness time, where one is removed from his/her normal daily routine or home and isolated from friends and family. A person is a desert time may not feel the presence of…
By: Phil Goldsberry on March 2, 2017
Introduction Shelly Trebesch, author of Isolation: A Place of Transformation in the Life of A Leader, states, “Our studies indicate that leaders need 3-4 renewal times over a life time.”[1] I started doing the math and felt a little better about the path I am on. When framing “life” in terms of “renewal” and “transformation”,…
By: Lynda Gittens on March 2, 2017
Heath and Potter defines a ‘rebel sell’ as a “sale of commodities and myths which identify and define our culture. To work it must be supported by rules and consequences.” (323) “Counterculture acts upset those who define and monitor the culture’s behavior. Some counterculture behaviors are seen as being deviance where others see it as…
By: Aaron Cole on March 2, 2017
Summary: Isolation, A Place of Transformation in the Life of a Leader by Shelly Trebesch is an academic field guide to the specific stop of isolation on the journey that 95% of leaders will experience. Trebesch states that “all leaders face deep processing..where God uses such activities as isolation, conflict, and life crisis to…
By: Aaron Peterson on March 2, 2017
I very much enjoyed reading Shelley Trebesch’s, Isolation this week. Like Judy Blume’s 1970 teen novel about a young lady searching during adolescence, Isolation is about one major coming-of-age component for every leader. Her short, but powerful, book is a great example of how to write a dissertation. Reading it gave me hope and vision for…
By: Marc Andresen on March 2, 2017
I crashed emotionally when I walked into my tiny room. There were two sparse bunk beds: period. Nowhere was to be seen a table or even a chair. The dormitory rooms had 8 foot walls, but no ceiling, so high above was the tin roof. When other people (students) were in the building all noises…
By: Stu Cocanougher on March 2, 2017
In the book Nation of Rebels, Why Counterculture Became Consumer Culture (aka The Rebel Sell), Canadian Philosophy professors Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter pen an innovative critique of the idea the there is a mainstream culture and an alternative counterculture. Through many colorful examples (Freud, Marx, Kurt Cobain, Burberry, The Matrix) they illustrate the pervasiveness…
