DLGP

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

Flying Squirrels and The Wright Brothers

By: on November 8, 2012

This past January the family and I took in a day at the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C..  It was a dream come true for me as a father.  For years now I have been telling Grace and Eli about all the amazing aircraft that are stored and preserved at the Smithsonian. …

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The Pastor as the CEO

By: on November 1, 2012

The church has begun to adapt to the model created by business school. They hold strategy meetings; they have branding and rebranding sessions and are always looking at the bottom line. A pastor is therefore under pressure to produce results and also balance their private and public life. The example of a good pastor is…

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Raising Tomorrow’s Leaders Today

By: on October 27, 2012

“Train up a child in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6 Most of us agree that there is a dearth of good leadership.  And in an ever-changing global world, peoples’ social, intellectual, spiritual and emotional needs and responses are becoming increasingly complex,…

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Do Leaders Win the Right to Lead?

By: on October 27, 2012

In my leadership career, I have seen three new Executive Directors of Continuing Care Retirement Communities fail to win the right to lead and after six months to a year, they resigned, were terminated or decided to retired. I have seen two new Executive Directors almost lose their right to lead but they decided to…

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“Identity-Based Leader Development: A Cry for Spiritual Forming”

By: on October 26, 2012

Nohria’s chapter on Identity-Based Leaders Development was to say the least, a thought provoking read. For one thing, it continually forced me to slow down and digest bits of poignant thought all along the way. However, another reason this chapter gripped me is because up to this point, we have discussed such topics as Society…

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“New Social Movement”

By: on October 26, 2012

While finishing dinner yesterday evening, our teenager began dialoguing with my wife and me about some new changes taking place at his high school. Test creators and state representatives have devised a plan that will change the school’s class schedule, tell teachers how to teach, shorten school days, and amp up state driven tests, all…

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“leader of a ship”

By: on October 26, 2012

As I listened to a variety of leaders speak at a conference this week I was inspired by a few ideas that will hopefully prove productive in your own leadership contexts. First I want to look at a couple of quotes from our text, Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice by Nitin Nohria and Rakesh…

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Paul – a biblical leadership archetyp

By: on October 25, 2012

In my last post I already mentioned Nitin Nohria’s Handbook of Leadership – Theory and practice and how he structures his book into five main topics and 26 different essays. I tried to give an overview about the meta structure and link it to my ministry experiences. I already mentioned that Nohria collected different research…

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Leading Together

By: on October 25, 2012

Recently I have met with most of the pastors in our city in a one to one conversation. Each person has a very distinct church culture. Each leader has a particular style and values to navigates his or her church. We all share the culture of our city. There in not one church nor leader…

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“Where there is no vision the people perish”

By: on October 25, 2012

What is leadership? What does it take to lead? Who is an effective leader?  What are the qualities and attributes of a leader?  These are all great and pertinent questions?  But there are no set answers.  These questions are all understood in variety of ways in different contexts.  One must not fail to understand that…

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It is a war zone and the church is missing in action!

By: on October 25, 2012

Is the title a hyperbolic overstatement or a kind asessment.  Actually, the church may be absent without leave: AWOL.  As I read Nohria’s book and especially the chapter entitled “Pursuing Authentic Leadership Development” I wondered how the church was engaged in leadership development.  The author of the chapter, Bruce J. Avolio, wrote that “we are…

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One Ice-Cube Please

By: on October 25, 2012

One ice-cube please The flight attendant had that tired smile on her face – the one that is forced after about eight hours on a packed plane.  The Brussels Airliner was almost to Burundi and the last drinks were being served before landing. “I’ll take a Coke, please,” I requested.  “Do you want ice?” she…

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Leading From Behind: A Case Study in Wes Anderson and Bill Murray

By: on October 25, 2012

Wes Anderson is one of the most interesting and innovative directors today.  Through his seven films, Anderson has created a style and voice that is singular and unique.  When you are watching an Anderson film, you know you are watching an Anderson film.  As polarizing as his work can sometimes be, there is truly nothing…

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I Have a Dream

By: on October 25, 2012

As a young boy growing up in Pennsylvania, life seemed simple.  Living not to far from Gettysburg I remember climbing and playing hide and seek with my brother and sister at Devil’s Den, one of the most significant positions held during the battle of Gettysburg in The American Civil War. It all seemed surreal at…

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Lay Leadership

By: on October 25, 2012

During my college years I believed leadership skills were something you were born with. They could be honed and tweaked, but you either had them or you didn’t. During my B.A. and M.Div., I went through several leadership classes and other experiences designed to bring out the leader that was supposedly already inside me. Most…

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Leadership = being an all-in-one Swiss army knife

By: on October 22, 2012

Last week I had my second ordination anniversary. Since two years I am now the ordained senior pastor at St. Nicolai Church in Gifhorn, Germany. A Lutheran congregation with three churches and about 5000 members. (With my co-pastors. ht: waz-online.de) An anniversary is always a time for evaluation and a reflecting look back. Our weekly…

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Developing Women Leaders: Touching Lives, Transforming Communities

By: on October 20, 2012

“After seeing you in ministry and leadership it seems to me that women leaders are fairly well accepted in India”, remarked a friend of mine here in the U.S. There is some truth to that generalization.   Like the West, the India too has dynamic women at the helm of leadership in politics, government, business, and…

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What are Your Leadership Values?

By: on October 19, 2012

My all-time favorite question I ask when interviewing leaders for American Baptist Homes of the West is “Tell me about your leadership values and how you have used them to lead others in your past experiences?” I very seldom get a well thought-out response. I am not surprised as I have found few leaders have…

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“Woman, I Own You”

By: on October 19, 2012

Acts chapter one and verse eight reads, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” The power proclaimed here is an inner transformational type…

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Meaning-Making Leaders

By: on October 18, 2012

In the Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice under the heading “Leadership as Meaning-Making” we find the following quote: “The preoccupation of classic social theorists with the meaning-making capacity of leaders can be traced to an even more fundamental concern with the uneasy relationship between the capitalist mode of exchange on the one hand, and…

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