DLGP

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

Caught

By: on February 22, 2024

She was 16 and caught on camera in an act of vandalism. Details will not be shared to protect the guilty. My daughter admitted to some other behaviors she had been up to in the weeks leading up to that incident. She was devastated about all of it. Looking back, there was not one thing…

16 responses

Who’s Showing Up Today?

By: on February 22, 2024

For a little over a year, I’ve been meeting with a leadership coach, thanks to our assignments and reading Mining for Gold.[i] The person I currently meet with is retired from running several companies and spends much of his time coaching others and speaking at leadership conferences, which is where I met him. He is…

11 responses

The Unlikely Convergence of Soul Friends: A Return to Joy

By: on February 22, 2024

Several years ago, when teaching Kindergarten, I hosted Patio Nights before the start of each school year.  In the August heat, families enjoyed popsicles, met other families in our classroom community and best of all my incoming K students would come so we could begin getting to know one another, see their lockers, and go…

10 responses

Hope in the Manure Pile

By: on February 22, 2024

“They are stuck in their own manure pile, and they want everyone else to join them. They’re not even trying to get out; they just want to fling their poop around and pull people in!” I was figuratively talking about people who were playing the victim role (again). This was not the most articulate or…

12 responses

What Are You Going to Do About It?

By: on February 22, 2024

Reading A Failure of Nerve felt like crossing a threshold. It feels for some time I have been trying to find the best paths to navigate the anxieties that go hand in hand with life. A Failure of Nerve provided me that “Aha!” I couldn’t help but nod when reading the brief interaction between Steinke…

18 responses

And the young shall lead them

By: on February 21, 2024

I had a hard time getting started on this blog. It is not that I didn’t read or like Failure of Nerve by Edwin Freidman. On the contrary, it was one of the most thought provoking and compelling books that I have read in a long time. My problem was winnowing everything into what were…

13 responses

I’m RARELY This Disappointed in a Book!

By: on February 21, 2024

“To lead well, we need a new paradigm. That is precisely what we will be presenting…” (1). So begins a rather haphazard book that reads one-third leadership training, one-third Pastoring-in-1990-Evangelicalism and one-third sales-pitch for their ‘new’ leadership paradigm that may have been newish back in 2016, but certainly not unique. Rare Leadership in the Workplace…

5 responses

Set Apart for Such a Time As This

By: on February 21, 2024

Introduction Courageous leadership requires grit, humility, and perseverance. It isn’t for the faint of heart and is one of my favorite leadership qualities to study, perhaps because my own courage ebbs and flows sometimes. In his book, Failure of Nerve, author Edwin Friedman utilizes the tried-and-true Bowen Family Systems Model and applies it to organizations.…

11 responses

Threshold Failure

By: on February 21, 2024

It’s been over ten years now since I served at Metanoia Community Development Corporation.  I started as Director of Elementary Leadership program just after coming back to the United States from South Korea. I’d spent a year teaching at a Christian school in Incheon, and wanted to continue working in a faith based environment.  The…

14 responses

There is Always a But…

By: on February 21, 2024

Thirty years ago, I was promoted to be the CEO of a seafood distribution company based out of Reno, Nevada. It was a big promotion and one I was ready to take on. There was a corporate umbrella over it, which owned 3 other branches over two states. There was one man who owned the…

8 responses

A Recovering People-Pleaser Pastors a Church

By: on February 21, 2024

Hi. My name is Ryan and I’m a people pleaser. Its been less than one day since I tried to please someone else without evaluating my own values, needs or limits. I’ve been in recovery for some time now, constantly attempting to regulate my desire to help others (introducing me, a “2” on the enneagram)…

7 responses

Flip the Script

By: on February 21, 2024

The interim pastor told me they behaved similarly to emotionally abused victims he had counseled many times before. Most of the staff and many in the congregation acted like families he had seen where dad had a bad anger problem; when he lost his temper, he became emotionally and verbally abusive. Abused by whom? Their…

16 responses

Going To The Balcony

By: on February 21, 2024

When I read A Failure of Nerve, by Edwin Friedman, I thought I was only going to write on pastoral leadership. However, the book struck a more personal nerve for me.   Two and a half years ago Wendy and I made a decision that would alter our lives significantly. We moved my mom and…

18 responses

Rare Leadership Habits of the Heart

By: on February 21, 2024

“In the same way, our character–including our relational and emotional skills–is built around those habits, and our good character and relational skills show up before we even think about them.”[1] Ravi Zacharias charged: serious sexual misconduct going back years in his ministry. Jim Baker swindled millions of dollars from his followers. What about Jimmy Swaggart? Or…

6 responses

快速和缓慢思考的阴阳 加入欢乐 – The Yin and Yang of fast and slow thinking Plus Enter JOY (Mandarin)

By: on February 21, 2024

快速和缓慢思考的阴阳 加入欢乐 – The Yin and Yang of fast and slow thinking Plus Enter JOY (Mandarin) Introduction Part 1 – What my peers are saying Part 2 – Uncommon Habits, in my NPO Epilogue – Where is Joy? Introduction – Daniel Kahneman’s System 1 and System 2 thinking. Kahneman’s describes System 1 as fast, automatic,…

4 responses

Empathy… Not Always (Empati… Tidak Semestinya)

By: on February 21, 2024

In my reading this week, I learned that the author criticizes the dominant leadership models that rely on data, empathy, and quick fixes. He argues that these models are based on a fallacy of empathy that mixes up feeling and thinking, and reactivity and responsibility. He proposes a different leadership approach that is based on…

9 responses

Rare Leadership – Adding Joy to the Journey

By: on February 20, 2024

My purpose for telling you these things is so that the joy that I experience will fill your hearts with overflowing gladness!  (John 15:11, TPT) Rare Leadership: 4 Uncommon Habits for Increasing Trust, Joy, and Engagement in the People You Lead by Marcus Warner and Jim Wilder calls leaders to develop “fast track” thinking, which…

13 responses

Breaking News! Vincent van Gogh Chops Off His Ear in a Frenzy

By: on February 20, 2024

  December 23, 1888 Was he too emotional, trying too hard, not asking the right questions, or living in an either/or mindset?   In my research of creative communities, I’m learning how artists and writers from the past have shaped creativity for the present. Vincent van Gogh is an artist I stumbled upon, or maybe…

7 responses

Slowing Moving Forward

By: on February 20, 2024

We were stuck on a treadmill that just kept gaining in speed and increasing in incline. I do not even know how long my wife and I were on that treadmill, months, years, a decade probably. We knew adopting kids would be hard. Yet, we had no idea what we were really getting into. We…

11 responses