By: Clint Baldwin on October 20, 2014
Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement by Donald E. Miller and Tetsunao Yamamori is certainly an interesting text with a lot of first-person research underscoring its perspectives. The text is particularly interesting in that a president of a major Christian related development organization – Food for the Hungry – who happens to…
By: Mitch Arbelaez on October 17, 2014
Within each individual there lies the ability to speak up against atrocities, against injustice, against discomfort, frankly, against anything that one so desires to speak against. This is the case in the western world where speech, as of this writing, is still currently free and protected. Though we must recognize that even in our modern/postmodern…
By: Julie Dodge on October 17, 2014
Once upon a time, a young pastor and his wife planted a church. The church grew and grew. People were drawn to this pastor, and his skill in speaking and teaching. The young church recruited professional quality musicians to lead worship and still more people came. As the church grew, the church added ministries for…
By: Richard Volzke on October 17, 2014
In his book Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Response to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States, Albert O. Hirschman states that individuals have three ways of expressing their dissatisfaction with an organization or situation. They can leave, voice their objections, or become disloyal to the situation.[1] The concepts he presents are simple, and well known within…
By: Dawnel Volzke on October 17, 2014
The concept of theology often seems lost in the midst of a myriad of new ideas and beliefs. Grenz and Olson, in their book Who Needs Theology?: An Invitation to the Study of God, assert that “many Christians today not only are uninformed about basic theology but even seem hostile to it.”[1] Hostility seems like…
By: John Woodward on October 17, 2014
Albert O. Hirschman provides a brilliant new way to look at economics in Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Response to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States based on three available responses toward a product or a company. These include walking away from that product (exit), staying with that product and having a platform to express discontent…
By: Carol McLaughlin on October 17, 2014
I confess (How’s that for the start of a blog post?) that I was not certain which path to follow after reading Albert O. Hirschman’s Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations and States. Reading about Exit I naturally thought in terms of those exiting the Church. From a consumer standpoint I…
By: Travis Biglow on October 16, 2014
Thinking Theologically, a quest to know God October 16, 2014 So many thoughts came into my mind as I began to read “Who Needs Theology” because this book hit on a lot of points that have a lot to do with my theological thinking today. At Azusa Pacific University our program…
By: Brian Yost on October 16, 2014
I never cease to be amazed at the reactions people give when questioned about their theology. In my experience, those who say they love theology are in the minority. In fact, many people are highly suspicious of those who would call themselves theologians. I was appalled, but not surprised that “A 1994 poll funded by…
By: Liz Linssen on October 16, 2014
My previous church that I served at in Seoul, South Korea, had 60,000 members. Yet this wasn’t the biggest church in the city. Across the river, just a few kilometres away is located the world-famous Yoido Full Gospel Church, with the largest church membership in the world numbering around 800,000. Worlds apart from my current…
By: Ashley Goad on October 16, 2014
This certainly was a pithy read. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States by Albert O. Hirschman begins by stating that all organizations decline over time. Further, there are two methods of precipitating this decline: exit and voice. Exit is simply leaving or withdrawing from the relationship. For example, a customer…
By: Phillip Struckmeyer on October 16, 2014
Directionally Normalizing In the book, Who Needs Theology?: An Invitation to the Study of God, the authors Stanley J. Grenz and Roger E. Olson successfully attempt to normalize the concept and practice of theology. By taking a topic our culture and society has moved to the top and almost unreachable shelf for the elites and…
By: Bill Dobrenen on October 16, 2014
It is amazing how much an organization can change over time, sometimes for the better, but often for the worse. And almost always, at least in my experience, the change is linked to leadership. If the change is for the worse, what do the old-timers of the organization do? They usually either voice their concerns,…
By: Nick Martineau on October 16, 2014
There is a sure fire way to make sure no one shows up for a new class being offered at church, just put the word Theology in the class description. You would think believers would desire to study the nature of God but I think most of us are afraid. Stanley Grenz and Roger Olson…
By: Telile Fikru Badecha on October 16, 2014
In his book, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses To Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States, Albert O. Hirschman argues the inevitability of failure at times in any institution. Hirschman contends, “No matter how well a society’s basic institutions are devised failures of some actors to live up to the behavior which is expected of them…
By: Deve Persad on October 16, 2014
“As a rule, then, loyalty holds exit at bay and activates voice.” (p.78) In his book, Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States, the author, Albert O. Hirschman, contends that engendering loyalty prevents erratic movement away from organizations while at the same time promotes the capacity to increase input which,…
By: Mary Pandiani on October 16, 2014
A few years ago, a friend of mine challenged me to name my prolegomena. A big word to simply mean, the introduction to who you are, articulating what biases, beliefs, even your suppositions, for whenever you present to a group or write a book. In other words, don’t hold the cards under the table, but…
By: Jon Spellman on October 16, 2014
Folk theology from a recovering Pentecostal. If Grenz and Olson can lean on Peanuts metaphors in their book, Who Needs Theology? An Invitation to the Study of God, then I suppose I can pull out the big guns: Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin and his stuffed tiger/imaginary friend, Hobbes, are serenely lying under a tree, contemplating life. …
By: Dave Young on October 15, 2014
Sitting around the table at Cork Grinders was a diverse group of people: A late-thirties former pastor currently a teacher with advanced degrees in theology from a Lutheran seminary; a newlywed twenty-something young woman working downtown in IT; a middle-aged nurse who is young and inquisitive in her faith; a millennial philosophy major who’s also a…
By: Stefania Tarasut on October 11, 2014
My last encounter with the Pentecostal church was about ten years ago when a family friend was convinced that I wasn’t saved because of the choices I was making (I chose to be a pastor and was thinking about doing my MDiv). He offered to lay hands on me and pray that I would receive…
