By: Joel Zantingh on February 8, 2025
I remember how startled I was when I first heard my grandparents casually blurt out phrases that were ‘out of step’ with my current views on topics (think racism). I was just coming to that age where I understood that different generations bring different perspectives on the world, and that we are collection of generations,…
By: Joff Williams on February 7, 2025
In Mercy Ships, all long-term crew assent to the statement of faith (The Apostles’ Creed), but short-term crew are not required to. Consequently, short-term crew are a mix of backgrounds, including committed, mature Christians and those with no personal commitment to the Christian faith but willing to live by the organization’s Code of Conduct, which…
By: Linda Mendez on February 7, 2025
Aaron Rodgers is an NFL quarterback regarded by some as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. He started his professional career with the Green Bay Packers, where he played for 18 faithful seasons, only to be traded to the NY Jets in 2023. During his first season with the Jets, Rodgers injured his…
By: Ivan Ostrovsky on February 6, 2025
We were in Oregon when three of my friends came up with a wild idea: to hike three ten-thousand-foot mountains in a single day! Maybe it’s not crazy, but it’s downright foolish. Pressured by the fear of missing out, I decided to join them on this journey. Joseph Campbell, in his book *The Hero with…
By: Kari on February 6, 2025
Rethinking Leadership offers a refreshing perspective. The leadership crisis during the COVID pandemic serves as a catalyst for this book. The pandemic illustrates the central thesis: older leadership models must be replaced with new approaches that are relevant today. The book explores outdated leadership models and explains why they are ineffective. It introduces various new…
By: Jess Bashioum on February 6, 2025
Talab spent most of her days waking before dawn, leading her quibens through her beautiful land to eat, drink and exercise. At the end of the day, she climbed the hill to watch the sunset before she would herd her quibens back into the safe walls of the pen. Quibens gave her people meat, milk…
By: Daren Jaime on February 6, 2025
As I am reminiscent of some of our initial time as a cohort, I can remember hearing how vast leadership was. We were later told that thousands of books on leadership are released annually as many attempt to lay expert claims on leadership. I can recall stumbling and bumbling, trying to articulate the proper definition…
By: Michael Hansen on February 6, 2025
As a 10-year-old, I loved reading Tolkien’s works and the adventures in The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I was mesmerized by the stories of the mythological creatures in Middle Earth and amazed at how the heroes of the stories presented themselves in the small, unassuming figure of a Hobbit. In The…
By: Julie O'Hara on February 6, 2025
This week’s reading was almost too much of a good thing. Annabel Beerel is an international consultant specializing in leadership and ethics, leadership theories, critique, and interdisciplinary approaches. Perhaps this array of specializations is what made Rethinking Leadership so enticing. While trying to do an inspectional reading, all the goodies drew me in deeper. Not…
By: Chad Warren on February 6, 2025
In the final scenes of The Dark Knight, Commissioner Gordon tells his son that Batman is “the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now.” This line captures a truth about leadership—sometimes, those in power are not the most suitable to lead. In our rapidly changing world, we face a similar dilemma.…
By: Judith McCartney on February 6, 2025
My Sparkly Green Banana Seat Bike Campbell discusses the universal structure of a Monomyth. It is a blueprint for a hero’s journey. This journey has several stages that a hero navigates. This is my story. I grew up as the 6th child of an immigrant family new to Canada in the 70’s, we had eight…
By: Christian Swails on February 6, 2025
The Hero Jesus, the hero of the Christian story, is considered the physical, earthly manifestation of the cosmic Christ – one-third of the eternal trinitarian Godhead (Father, Son, and Holy Spirt) that Christians link back to Elohim – the creator God of Genesis (and later Yahweh). Jesus is ultimate divinity wrapped in humanity – tabernacled…
By: Betsy on February 6, 2025
I was born in Ibuye, situated in the Ngozi province in Burundi. I was the second generation to be born in that house, close to the border to Rwanda and built by my grandparents’ hands while he discipled a group of men in the art of building and following Jesus. My arrival was not met…
By: Mika Harry on February 6, 2025
“It has always been the prime function of mythology and rite to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward, in counteraction to those other constant human fantasies that tend to tie it back.”[1] Many biblical characters inspire us to help us move toward God and His kingdom’s purposes. One such narrative character and…
By: Debbie Owen on February 6, 2025
My friend told me about the church plant where she and her husband were getting involved. The growing church had gotten to the point where it needed someone to take on a pastoral role and responsibilities. Because she is a retired pastor, the group of leaders all looked at her and said, “You’re the pastor.”…
By: Elysse Burns on February 6, 2025
We are all on a journey—a realization that becomes clearer whenever I find myself puzzled by the actions of others. I find this perspective especially valuable in leadership, where the ability to discern both our own path and the journeys of those we lead is essential. Ideally, leaders not only inspire others on a transformational…
By: Alex Mwaura on February 6, 2025
It’s been a tough week, personally and professionally. It doesn’t matter how much I have “seen” or “experienced” it’s often easy for me to forget that I cannot live beyond the present moment. Yes, we can dream of the future, relive the past but life is lived in the present. In that glorious inhale and…
By: Jeremiah Gómez on February 6, 2025
I could tell you about the time my Tata Pablo was buried alive, trapped in a copper mine collapse. I could tell you about the journey my maternal grandparents took, leaving their middle-class existence in the Midwest to try and launch a new kind of incarnational ministry on the U.S. southern border—full of trials and…
By: Darren Banek on February 6, 2025
As I prepared for an inspectional reading of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, I was drawn to the idea that storytelling could be formulaic. As someone more accustomed to reading a story told through digits and data, I have not deeply contemplated the idea that universal and timeless structures exist within literature or mythology.…
By: Graham English on February 6, 2025
Unwanted journeys are imposed on us, plunging us into seasons of uncertainty, confusion and loss. As I read Rethinking Leadership: A Critique of Contemporary Theories by Annabel Beerel, I was drawn to some of these types of journeys that our leaders face and a significant one that I faced as a leader. Some churches must…
