By: Greg McMullen on March 21, 2023
In my teens my parents divorced, remarried, and relocated. I was still in high school and just recently lost my football scholarship. I was in a world of emotional hurt and destruction and all alone. The next four years was devastating for me as I tried to bury all the hurt and despair I was…
By: Kristy Newport on March 21, 2023
After reading Vincent J. Miller’s book, Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture, I was ready to sign up for his class at Georgetown University. Miller makes some interesting observations regarding Christian consumer culture. He states he wrote his book out of “a profound concern about the corrosive and destructive consequences of…
By: Cathy Glei on March 21, 2023
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Proverbs 1:7 The more I read, the more confused I think I am becoming. I was asking my husband all sorts of questions and sharing quandaries in my thinking; not sure that any of it was connecting. My system…
By: Jonita Fair-Payton on March 21, 2023
I think of the things that I have been wrong about; it is a list that is longer than I care to admit. But let me list a few. I was wrong when I thought that me and my best friend in second grade would be friends forever, we are not even Facebook friends. I…
By: John Fehlen on March 20, 2023
Years ago, like in the early 1990’s, I read a book that was “all the rage” called “The Day America Told the Truth.” After a quick internet search for it, I was reminded that it was written by a then relatively unknown James Patterson, whose books have gone on to sell over 425 million copies,…
By: Tim Clark on March 20, 2023
“I hope this book will show you what a varied and extraordinary place the world really is” [1] Some families are sports families. Some are music families. Others are into animals, or the outdoors, or food. The Clarks are film people. Movies are something we all love, so every year my family settles into our…
By: Jennifer Vernam on March 20, 2023
For me, there was one pressing issue which surfaced in our reading this week. This was the discovery of our resistance to clearly identify (and deal with) our delusions due to our fear of losing community. It was concerning, but also articulated something I have sensed to be true, and this gave it language. In…
By: Travis Vaughn on March 20, 2023
Are Atlanta Hawks fans (and executives) delusional, allowing “our emotional responses (to) influence our perceptions of reality”[1]? Are the Hawks spending too much time thinking about what might go wrong, prompting the front office to make some drastic changes (e.g., firing their head coach half-way through the season)? Or is the perceived mediocrity of the…
By: Chad McSwain on March 19, 2023
Other than playing sports and rolling my eyes at the person trying to make the class behave for the substitute teacher, I am not sure when I understood the necessity of leadership. No doubt I had lots of experiences of leading and being a follower, I do remember the first time that leadership was a…
By: Daron George on March 19, 2023
Introduction: “Leadership: Theory and Practice” by Peter G. Northouse is a seminal work in the field of leadership studies. The book provides a comprehensive overview of various leadership theories and practices, offering readers an in-depth understanding of the complexities involved in effective leadership. My review aims to evaluate the book’s strengths and weaknesses and highlight…
By: Tonette Kellett on March 19, 2023
Introduction This week’s book, Leadership: Theory and Practice by Peter Northouse presents different models of leadership. It is, as Dr. Jason Clark said in our zoom meeting last week, the foundational book on leadership for any student. Northouse’s definition of leadership is the “process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a…
By: Michael O'Neill on March 17, 2023
Leadership, written by Peter Guy Northouse, is a comprehensive guide to leadership theories, research, and practices.[1] This book is much more than Northouse’s opinion about leadership, it is an all-encompassing manual for leadership at its core. Northouse provides a detailed chronology of leadership and provides readers with an understanding of both traditional and contemporary approaches…
By: Jenny Steinbrenner Hale on March 17, 2023
It is interesting how the experiences of our lives shape the people we become. In 1999, my husband and I, our two-year-old daughter, our golden retriever, and our two cats moved to Mexico where we had accepted positions with a nonprofit organization in Tecate. It was an adventure that enriched our lives and influenced who…
By: Caleb Lu on March 17, 2023
I recently was discussing my plans for Easter service with the lead pastor. My hope is to try something different. To give some context, the church I attend meets on a campus with four other churches. One of them requested to use the main sanctuary for baptisms on Easter and inquired to see when we…
By: Jean de Dieu Ndahiriwe on March 17, 2023
Introduction: I must admit being a leadership junkie, whether junkie is a good term or not, the truth is wherever I hear anything about Leadership, especially servant or transformational leadership, my head will turn and move in that direction. The passion for leadership, in my case, didn’t come easy or from desirable circumstances, but I…
By: Dinka Utomo on March 17, 2023
Freedom comes when we start to allow people to see not only the glossy image but the mess as well -Simon P. Walker- Looking good and impressive is something that many people like. That’s why many people will try to conceal their past and background. Many people don’t like their true identity to be…
By: Scott Dickie on March 16, 2023
As I have said in an earlier blog, my NPO is seeking to explore the necessary training Christians leaders need to flourish in their leadership role for the long-term. An assumption going into my research is that the emotional formation of a leader is tragically neglected in traditional Pastoral education, leading to most of the…
By: Jana Dluehosh on March 16, 2023
John 13:35 says: “This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other.” One another shows up 100 times in the new testament of the Bible, and Love one another 18 times. What a powerful commandment. As I read Simon P. Walker’s “ˆLeading out of who you are: Discovering…
By: Russell Chun on March 16, 2023
In the movie “Shrek,” the ogre Shrek has an interesting dialogue with the donkey. He describes himself as person with layers – essentially an onion. Walker’s book, Leading out of Who You Are[1], is a bit like peeling away at the layers of one’s leadership personality over time. Like an onion. Residing with the “comb…
By: Becca Hald on March 16, 2023
I am a big Disney fan. I love watching Disney movies. Disneyland is my happy place. I know. You are shocked. Mulan ranks in my top ten favorite Disney animated films. It tells the story of a young woman who, in order to save her father’s life, takes his place in a draft, taking on…
