By: gfesadmin on May 16, 2013
While sitting in my office yesterday, preparing for a meeting in which I will be running on Thursday, two key concepts came to mind. One, how can I be a catalyst for positive well organized change. And two, how can I connect others in a significant way that will further growth in leaders inside as…
By: gfesadmin on May 15, 2013
The StandOut strengths assessment is one among many ways to assess one’s strengths. This one specifically focuses on leadership. These kinds of assessments have always been a struggle for me. One on my strengths is not quick decision making. However it was insightful. The results for me is that out of the 9 roles ,…
By: gfesadmin on May 15, 2013
The StandOut assessment returned the following results for David A Toth: Equalizer / Connector. I agree with the assessment, it does seem like me; both functions reflect my lifestyle modus operandi. I appreciated the assessment process. It was clear and easy to accomplish. I particularly liked the 35 second response time which causes one to…
By: gfesadmin on May 3, 2013
Look at where you live. What do you imagine that could change within your city and state? What could be made better? When Jesus came on the scene in human form, he had different ideas on what it meant to love God and to love his neighbor. His techniques were revolutionary at the time and…
By: gfesadmin on May 3, 2013
Untitled: Hope, Needs, and Deeds cedrickvalrie: During the spring of 1989 two missionaries came to my neighborhood with primarily one mission in mind – to extend a lifeline of hope to the children through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Each week they would reach out to thousands of children living in the poverty sector of…
By: Joy Mindo on April 26, 2013
The history of the rise of evangelical belief in Britain helps me understand the foundations of the church in Kenya. The largest protestant denomination is the Anglican church of Kenya. It is entrenched in all the facets of the country; the opening prayer in parliament, at national holidays, at the opening of city and…
By: Joy Mindo on April 26, 2013
This is a fantastic book for me for it helped me understand the fate of religion in a consumer culture. The church in Africa is still unaffected by the consumer culture but this will not be the case for long. The consumer culture in the west is spreading in Africa. With half of the…
By: Joy Mindo on April 22, 2013
The Boston Marathon was an event that was of great importance to Kenyans as it was to Americans. Kenyan runners have gained prominence through their participation in the marathon. When the bombing happened at the event on Monday, it drew interest in the Kenyan media especially the social media. The world watched as the…
By: Joy Mindo on April 22, 2013
The advance of modern technology is certainly ambiguous. It has promised less work and more leisure, but we actually work longer hours than premodern peasants and villagers. Present-day Western societies are facing a moral crisis, argues Murray Jardine, and our inability to make ethical sense of technology is at the root of this crisis. Jardine…
By: gfesadmin on April 21, 2013
Murray Jardine’s Making and Unmaking of Technological Society: How Christianity Can Save Modernity from Itself, is an exhaustive narrative that traces the history from early pagan culture through the various stages to contemporary Western culture with its problems and issues. He affirms human creativity and outlines how technological advances led to modern life styles and…
By: gfesadmin on April 21, 2013
Christianity as it is in the present time cannot save modernity from itself. Does that leave the Church without hope? No. Biblical Christian Faith can. There is certainly a difference between Christianity that has been shaped, projected and promoted by the West, aped by the rest of the world and the Biblical Christian Faith. I am…
By: gfesadmin on April 20, 2013
Managing priorities wisely and weighing costs and benefits – these necessary actions take time and effort but help keep us on track and gain the most from life. I’d like to consider these concepts in light of our investments in human relationships and our embrace of technology in today’s world. Both of these offer ways…
By: gfesadmin on April 20, 2013
My dad was 75 years old and was dying. Dad was living in a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) at the time. He had been a successful Presbyterian Minister his entire career. He was a believer in the CCRC concept where individuals can age in place but would have different levels of health care available…
By: gfesadmin on April 20, 2013
Our plane had just begun to approach the Island known as Hispaniola. This large island located in the Caribbean is home to two very unique and distinct nations. On the eastern side of the island is the nation of the Dominican Republic. On the the western side is the country of Haiti. On this particular…
By: gfesadmin on April 18, 2013
The church can do meaningful ministries in and for the world and it can do them well! My first pastorate took place in a rural Iowa town. The population was about 26,000 and there were over 70 churches within 5 miles of the center of the town. The largest church was about 700 in attendance and the smaller ones…
By: gfesadmin on April 18, 2013
The Boston Marathon explosions unleashed a flood of breaking news on twitter and other social media websites. We are used to this immediate coverage, but still it is striking, how much our technological and medial possibilities have changed within the last 10 years. When my timeline on twitter was already full with posts on the…
By: gfesadmin on April 18, 2013
The world is not right. While philosophers, pundits, politicians and the like fret, worry, and propose solutions, this semester in my Doctor of Ministry program, my cohort and I have been on a journey of sorts. We have been delving into the historical, social, philosophical, theological, and economic underpinnings of the late Western modern world. As such, this…
By: gfesadmin on April 18, 2013
Murray Jardine, in his book The Making and Unmaking of Technological Society: How Christianity Can Save Modernity from Itself (The Christian Practice of Everyday Life), argues that the values found within Christianity have not kept up with modern technological advances thereby creating a moral crisis within society. This moral crisis includes consumerism, marital dissolutions, and a variety…
By: gfesadmin on April 18, 2013
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:””; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} The ability to shape and remake our society and ourselves is the crux of Murray Jardine’s book, The Making…
By: gfesadmin on April 18, 2013
When I moved to Little Rock seven years ago, Liz and I wanted to be incarnational. We decided that it didn’t make any sense for a Mission minister, whose job it was to minister and connect to the downtown area, to live in the suburbs. So, we bought a house less than one mile from…
