By: Kim Sanford on February 28, 2023
My younger son is freakishly good at making mental connections. Since he was little, he’s been surprising us by blurting out the most random and absolutely on-point knowledge. We used to ask him, “How did you know that, Zachary?” Or “Who told you that?” and he would say in his high-pitched 3-year-old voice, “My BRAIN…
By: Pam Lau on February 28, 2023
In his memoir, A Thousand Days, former Kennedy aide Arthur Schlesinger reproached himself for not objecting during the planning for the Bay of Pigs invasion: “I can only explain my failure to do more than raise a few timid questions by reporting that one’s impulse to blow the whistle on this nonsense was simply undone by…
By: Andy Hale on February 28, 2023
Occasionally, a book hits the zeitgeist at just the right time with the right words. Over the last several years, Tod Bolsinger’s Canoeing the Mountain and Tempered Resilience have been those books for church leaders. But if you talk to Tod, which I have on two occasions for the CBF Conversations Podcast (first interview and second interview), he’d tell you that…
By: Kayli Hillebrand on February 27, 2023
Ronald Heifetz and his co-authors Alexander Grashow and Marty Linsky had me at the subtitle of The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: “Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World.” Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky all lead Cambridge Leadership Associates, a leadership development firm that spans international borders and sectors of industry. Having additional experience…
By: John Fehlen on February 27, 2023
Nobel Prize recipient, Daniel Kahneman’s landmark book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” has been in publication since 2011. This groundbreaking work explores the two systems that drive the way we think. Simply put (as if!), System 1 is fast and emotional, while System 2 is slower and more logical (Kahneman, 20). For over 12 years, since…
By: Laura Fleetwood on February 26, 2023
The place where your feet meet the ground matters. In an age where a large part of our communication and information appears on digital screens from all over the world, it’s easy to forget the importance of the geographical environment in our daily lives. Two books that remind us of the power of place are…
By: Daron George on February 26, 2023
“The Map That Changed the World” is a book written by Simon Winchester and published in 2001. The book tells the story of William Smith, a 19th-century English geologist who created England and Wales’s first geological map, changing how people thought about the Earth’s history. The book describes Smith’s life, his early career as a…
By: Tonette Kellett on February 26, 2023
In The Map that Changed the World we read about an engineer named William Smith that lived in the late 1700s and early 1800s. [1] He built canals and discovered many fossils along the way. In doing so, he found that the layers of rock beneath the surface of the earth rose and fell, and…
By: Audrey Robinson on February 26, 2023
This week’s readings couldn’t be more dissimilar on the surface. The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester and Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall are very different stories. As I pondered to find commonality – I realized it is the difference between them that I found merit and will explore. I will briefly…
By: Jean de Dieu Ndahiriwe on February 25, 2023
In Prisoners of Geography, Tim Marshall shares several ideas, and as I read the book question remains whether there will ever be peace on this side of heaven. I found this book interesting and will look at a few key ideas. My main takeaway is that, as suggested in his title, we might all be prisoners…
By: Chad McSwain on February 25, 2023
Have you ever considered that maps, or more precisely, the ground beneath you influences how you think? Without a doubt, we take the ground and maps for granted. We live in an age of pocket GPS that guides family road trips and gives accurate milage and minutes to the nearest McDonalds, yet this is a…
By: Jenny Steinbrenner Hale on February 25, 2023
Maps. They tell us the mysteries of the ground upon which we walk. They also highlight the strategies humans have used to mold and shape their lives in their front and backyards, according to their topography, throughout history. I have always loved maps and associate them with new adventures, unique learnings about the world, trail…
By: Dinka Utomo on February 25, 2023
“Someone who has clarity about his or her own life goals…, and therefore, be able to take stands at the risk of displeasing” -Edwin H. Friedman- Being a leader who leads sincerely is not easier than being a leader who only wants to seek his own security. During my vicariate tenure for two…
By: Jonathan Lee on February 24, 2023
Tom Holland, the author of Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind, is a British writer who wrote novels and historical non-fiction books on topics of classical and medieval history. In Dominion, Tom analyzes the rise and impact of Christianity on the western world. He divides the book into three parts – Antiquity, Christendom, and…
By: Kally Elliott on February 24, 2023
There is a member of our family who we all, and I do mean ALL of us, allow to set the agenda. She is needy, definitely the most anxious member of the family, afraid of her own shadow, and constantly demanding attention. Always watching, following us from room to room, she is undifferentiated and fully…
By: Dr. Michael O'Neill on February 24, 2023
The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester offers an engaging perspective into one man’s incredible journey towards creating something truly revolutionary, driven solely by passion and dedication. Similarly, Marshall’s book, Prisoners of Geography, provides a comprehensive overview of each region’s geopolitical dynamics, as well as its cultural influences from ancient times to the…
By: Denise Johnson on February 24, 2023
It is not hard to see that we no longer live in a Christian dominated society. The fluidity of thought, values, and the definition of what is right and wrong changes so quickly it is hard to keep up. All the while there is one group or another crying out that their human rights have…
By: Tim Clark on February 23, 2023
I’m going to start this post with a confession. As I was reading A Failure of Nerve, Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix [1]by Edwin H. Friedman, I thought about the people at church who approach me after a sermon and ask, “have you been reading my mail?” Most often I have no clue what…
By: Jana Dluehosh on February 23, 2023
The Time that is Given to us. The Lord of the Rings, honestly one of most favorite movies. Bet you thought I was going to say book didn’t you. I’ve tried many times to read the book and only get to the end of book one and I’m done. I get exhausted trying to figure…
By: Adam Harris on February 23, 2023
Tennessee, my home state, was the setting for the famous “Scopes Monkey Trial” where the theory of evolution was debated as whether this subject was appropriate to be taught to students in school. Many in the early 1900’s believed this theory directly contradicted the creation story found in Scripture. Since then, more Abrahamic faiths have…
