By: John Fehlen on November 27, 2023
I’ve gone through a number of “leadership phases” in my 52 years of living and serving Jesus’ Church. Each season was marked by a Christian author/speaker and the volumes of work they would produce that impacted me, and so many others like me. Although written in 1967, I remember when “Spiritual Leadership” by J. Oswald…
By: Jennifer Vernam on November 27, 2023
Familiar Territory? I was excited to see that we had Leadership: Theory and Practice[1] on our reading list this term. I will be candid: I was excited to have a book I had already read because it meant I had less reading to do. This was territory I had already covered, so “I should be…
By: Travis Vaughn on November 27, 2023
Two topics routinely come up in conversations with leaders in some of my circles. One is the subject of leadership and management. A second topic is the situational leadership approach, illustrated by Ken Blachard in a model “called the Situational Leadership II (SLII) model.”[1] Peter Northouse addresses both of these subjects in Leadership: Theory and…
By: Laura Fleetwood on November 25, 2023
When psychology, neuroscience and spirituality connect, it’s an ultimate trifecta of interest for me. That’s exactly what Daniel Lieberman offers in his 2022 book Spellbound: Modern Science, Ancient Magic, and the Hidden Potential of the Unconscious Mind. Dr Lieberman is a professor and vice chair for clinical affairs in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural…
By: Greg McMullen on November 22, 2023
Antifragile will remain one of my favorite books from this program. I will continue to come back to this book from time to time.[1] To be honest with you, I felt it was one of the few books that really identified with me. I have been challenged with church growth models, methods and systems over…
By: Tonette Kellett on November 22, 2023
The Scandal of Leadership by J.R. Woodward merges the works of three primary thinkers, among others. The first is Walter Wink and The Powers That Be and Unmasking the Powers, which discuss the theology of the principalities and powers of the world in which we live. Rene Girard’s book Mimetic Theory deals with mimetic desire and…
By: Kristy Newport on November 21, 2023
“Do what I say and not what I do.” Ha! What child has ever taken this to heart by a parent who gives this instruction? We are sorely mistaken if we believe that a child or others will judge us by what we say and not by what we do. What we say and what…
By: Alana Hayes on November 21, 2023
According to OPEN AI: “Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a thought-provoking book that explores the concept of ‘antifragility’ – a property of systems that increase in capability, resilience, or robustness as a result of stressors, shocks, volatility, noise, mistakes, faults, attacks, or failures.Taleb argues that instead of merely being…
By: Tonette Kellett on November 21, 2023
Spell Bound is the second book our cohort has read by the author Daniel Lieberman. The first was The Molecule of More. Lieberman spent over twenty years studying Carl Jung before sitting down to write the book Spell Bound. As he thought about the philosophers and great writers down through the centuries he had read…
By: Jenny Steinbrenner Hale on November 20, 2023
My husband and I went for a walk and run today at Point Defiance Park in Tacoma, Washington. The experience was magical. The trails at Point Defiance are soft with pine needles, leaves, and the deep, damp dirt of the Pacific Northwest, and they curve through tall Douglas Firs, Western Red Cedars, and even madronas…
By: Alana Hayes on November 20, 2023
This book is the second part of Simon Walkers Trilogy. Simon Walker looks at the concepts of power within leadership and explains the eight strategies of power that an organization can adopt. I did find it interesting that a majority of the leaders that this UK based author chose was from the states. Although I…
By: Becca Hald on November 20, 2023
When my daughter was growing up, she had a new favorite Disney princess just about every year. Snow White, Cinderella, Jasmine, Merida, Rapunzel, Elsa, Moana, Pocahontas – they all made the rounds in her list. She takes after my husband who has a new favorite song or movie every other week. I tend to find…
By: Chad McSwain on November 20, 2023
“My memory of Thanksgiving is the one where you were working on a paper and your mom was asleep on the couch while I was trying to make dinner with a new born screaming at the top of her lungs.” At my insistence that I had forgotten about that time, my wife reassured me that…
By: Becca Hald on November 20, 2023
Have you seen the Pixar movie Toy Story 4? One of the characters in this movie is Forky. Forky is a spork turned into a toy via a child’s craft project. Forky does not understand his worth and thinks he is just a piece of trash. There is a montage in the movie where another…
By: Tonette Kellett on November 20, 2023
Maps of Meaning by Jordan Peterson is a book that is foundational in the area of how we, as humans, make meaning from stories. We derive meaning from the world around us, which enables us to live in the manner in which we choose. [1] In this book, the author explores how we formulate maps…
By: Michael O'Neill on November 18, 2023
Introduction: My Personal Opinion Daniel Liberman’s book, Spellbound, was a difficult read for me. I tackled a few chapters a day for the past week and with all due respect, I felt like some of the text was indirectly dark. The more I read about unlocking the potential of our minds with references to magic,…
By: Laura Fleetwood on November 18, 2023
In his 1999 academic text Maps of Meaning, professor Jordan Peterson from the University of Toronto, sets out to explore how human beings use story (or myths, as he refers to them) to make decisions, give meaning to their lives, and help them understand their place within culture. He states, “It is therefore the case…
By: Jana Dluehosh on November 18, 2023
al·che·my /ˈalkəmē/ Noun The medieval forerunner of chemistry based on the supposed transformation of matter. It was concerned particularly with attempts to convert base metals into gold or to find a universal elixir. A seemingly magical process of transformation, creation, or combination.[1] I love this word, so much, and it sums up the realm in…
By: Audrey Robinson on November 17, 2023
Sticks and Stones How many times as children did we used to say, ‘STICKS AND STONES MAY BREAK MY BONES BUT NAMES WILL NEVER HURT ME?’ Growing up, I used to say it all the time. Then, several years after giving my life to Christ, I began to learn the meaning of words. And I…
By: Alana Hayes on November 17, 2023
The book the Sound of Leadership by Jules Glanzer is a comprehensive guide for aspiring and established leaders to build healthy rhythms and harmonize their teams. Get it… HARMONIZE? Bada bum…. I’m late to this blog but I’m not sad about it! It truly helped me a lot with this one! I was having…
