By: Rich on March 13, 2025
Edwin Friedman says differentiated leaders should expect sabotage.[1] That does not sound encouraging. Over the past weeks, several members of the DLGP04 cohort have shared stories where their leadership efforts had resulted in undeserved personal attacks. The hurt is enough to prompt a now familiar question of whether accepting a role is worth the effort.…
By: Diane Tuttle on March 13, 2025
What I believe about race and why. When I was in elementary school the first time I saw children whose skin was much darker than mine I questioned my mother about it. She responded by telling me that skin color was God’s gift to help people whose generations of ancestors spent thousands of years living…
By: Alex Mwaura on March 13, 2025
While the entrance of diverse knowledge, technology and information has its good aspects, the same can affect culture and the workings of a modern organisation. I’ve had great interest in the topic of organisation culture because I think it does a lot not only to the success of an organisation but also to the local…
By: David Weston on March 13, 2025
I remember the time when I was a young man in my mid-twenties, and I experienced an epiphany. This was a significant moment for me because it was when I came to the conclusion that not all failure was bad. I discovered that the worst leaders I knew, in Walker’s words, had substantial frontstage presence…
By: Ryan Thorson on March 13, 2025
“I have a dream that one day my children will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The topic of race has always been something that I’ve been aware of for as long as I can remember. Even though I have…
By: Betsy on March 13, 2025
In 1992 I read the book ‘Improving Your Serve: The Art of Unselfish Living’ and it changed my life and motivation. The author Swindoll says that to have a decent heart we need to have “a non-defensive spirit when confronted” and his phrase that has accompanied me as a life motto is, “genuine humility operates…
By: Debbie Owen on March 13, 2025
What I knew about racism prior to this week’s assignment can be illustrated by this story: I was attending a Renovare week-long residency a few years ago. One of our leaders for the week was an Anglican priest with a DMin. He is a deeply thoughtful man with a great sense of humor; he’s a…
By: Jeremiah Gómez on March 13, 2025
Starbucks is a strange place to have a threshold experience with the dynamics of power. But on a November day in 2023, at a café in a town you’ve never heard of, meeting with a courageous leader you’ve never heard of, that’s what happened for me. For a long time, I held a pretty unnuanced…
By: Robert Radcliff on March 13, 2025
This week, I read Leading Out of Who You Are by Simon Walker. Walker situates leadership as power and trust. A healthy leader has the power to take responsibility while they trust beyond themselves, ideally in God. In the first section, he presents Erving Goffman’s Dramaturgy and his front stage and backstage to explain what…
By: Darren Banek on March 13, 2025
I don’t get the opportunity to travel much, but when I do, I love to start conversations with people I run into. These conversations are intentional as I aim to share the Gospel at least five times while away from home. Several years ago, I worked logistics for an outdoor event in Hermiston, Oregon, when…
By: Graham English on March 13, 2025
What I Believe About Racism and Why Residing in a small town in north-central Alberta, a bedroom community of Edmonton, I am part of a population of approximately 22,000 people, among whom 820 are identified as visible minorities. Despite my upbringing in South Africa, where I was classified as a “coloured” person, I am not…
By: Kari on March 13, 2025
Before reading The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America, I understood “race” as categorizing specific features held by a group of people. These features can be physical signs such as skin color, body shape, or specific cultural behaviors. Growing up, I was taught that races came about at the Tower of Babel…
By: Adam Cheney on March 12, 2025
I grew up in a middle-class white home with the understanding that we are all to be colorblind. I understood that we shouldn’t see race, color, or ethnicity but that we should treat all people the same. Since my childhood, I have adopted three black, African children. They are African, not African American, or Black…
By: Shela Sullivan on March 11, 2025
Previous knowledge In Malaysia, the concept of reverse racism is often discussed in the context of the country’s affirmative action policies, particularly the New Economic Policy (NEP) introduced in 1971. The NEP aimed to address economic disparities among ethnic groups by providing affirmative action for the majority Malay population, who were historically economically disadvantaged compared…
By: Joff Williams on March 11, 2025
Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does…
By: Jennifer Eckert on March 11, 2025
I am a diamond. At least, that is what my high school history teacher, Mrs. Clara Luper, called me and all her students. We were HER diamonds, and our gender, race, or ethnicity was of no importance. I am Mrs. Luper’s diamond, and just like a natural gemstone, I was formed under intense pressure for…
By: Jeff Styer on March 10, 2025
Previous Knowledge Race is a topic that I am passionate about, but the reality is that race along with ethnicity are terms that I do not like. Today most people understand that race is a concept developed to differentiate people based on skin color and other physical features. For years due to concepts such as…
By: Christy on March 10, 2025
Summary of My Most Deeply Held Convictions Before the Reading I have had a core belief that God values diversity because it is in this diversity that the fullness of the body of Christ exists. In total, we make up the image of God, and if we were all identical, we’d be missing out on…
By: Joel Zantingh on March 10, 2025
Serving in stated Christian leadership for more than thirty years has brought with it the relentless growth curve in seeking to be more like Jesus and inviting others to do the same, coupled with the brutal reality that my ego is really tough to transcend. Despite years of seeking to live with self-awareness about my…
By: Mathews Manaloor on March 10, 2025
The use of the core revolutionary concepts of System 1 versus System 2 (fast intuitive mind versus slow analytical mind), Econs (classical economics assumes rational decision makers) versus humans (psychology shows real people humans make irrational choices) and the experiencing self (how we feel in the moment) versus the remembering self (how we remember experiences)…
