{"id":18656,"date":"2018-09-06T11:26:48","date_gmt":"2018-09-06T18:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=18656"},"modified":"2018-09-06T11:26:48","modified_gmt":"2018-09-06T18:26:48","slug":"a-brand-that-the-fans-trust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-brand-that-the-fans-trust\/","title":{"rendered":"A brand that the fans trust?"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the outset, the Theology of Leadership Journal\u00a0<\/em>seeks to be transparent and self-reflective in terms of its purpose and raison d\u2019 etre<\/em>.\u00a0 \u201cDo we really need another academic journal?\u201d<\/a>[1]the Editor asks in the opening article.\u00a0If so, what would be the unique contribution of this new venture?<\/p>\n

The answer seems to be centered on seeking to be one of very few \u201cacademic peer-reviewed journals specifically dedicated to the development of Christian leadership.\u201d<\/a>[2]\u00a0 This Journal clearly seeks to reach a broad, \u201cpopular\u201d audience, and to have participation from \u201cany level of academia.\u201d<\/a>[3]\u00a0 This is expressed in the practice of not listing academic degrees or achievement with the author\u2019s names on articles in order to \u201climit initial bias from readers\u201d.<\/a>[4]<\/p>\n

While this approach is commendable in some ways, it also raises questions.\u00a0 One critique of any Christian venture that seeks to have broad resonance, is that it is attempting to make scholarship, art or discourse that merely \u201ccopies\u201d the existing cultural forms without adding excellence, or a distinctive contribution.\u00a0 This is what Hunter alludes to when he writes that \u201ccultural production in the Evangelical world is overwhelmingly oriented toward the popular.\u00a0 Very much like its retail politics, its music is popular music, its art tends to be popular (highly sentimentalized and commercialized) art, its theater is mega-church drama, its publishing is mainly mass-market book publishing with a heavy bent toward \u201chow-to\u201d books\u2026\u201d<\/a>[5]<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen whether a new Theology of Leadership Journal\u00a0<\/em>can rise above the fray of simply being a \u201cparallel institution\u201d<\/a>[6]set up outside of the mainstream of academic or leadership studies.\u00a0At the same time that it seeks to serve as an academic resource, it also moves intentionally away from coloring its articles through the lens of connection to elite institutions or degrees.\u00a0The challenge is, as hip-hop artist Lupe Fiasco has put it, that there is such a thing as a \u201cbrand that the fans trust\u201d<\/a>[7]and this new journal will be tested in order to gain traction and readership.<\/p>\n

With all of that being said, there are a number of helpful and interesting articles in this first edition of the journal.\u00a0 In the article entitled \u201cPaul the Team Leader: Strategic Planning, Intragroup Conflict and Team Formation\u201d, Jeffrey J. Singfiel uses familiar biblical stories, personalities and scenes to draw out practical lessons for leaders today.<\/p>\n

For example, he writes, \u201cPlanning by itself is not enough to ensure good outcomes.\u00a0 A team also must be aligned both in purpose and in its internal relationships.\u00a0 Even the noblest and best-intentioned groups will invariably experience some measure of conflict.\u201d<\/a>[8]\u00a0 This is something that any leader, and especially Christian leaders need to know and account for in working with teams.<\/p>\n

While some of the material in this essay (and others) comes across as \u201ccommon-sensical\u201d, it is also useful.\u00a0 There is meaty exegetical material around well-known Biblical stories, which could be a resource for sermon writing, preparing Bible studies, or other congregational communication.<\/p>\n

The author also touches on \u201cintercultural conflict\u201d within teams, writing, \u201cWestern contemporary Christians are often quick to jump to relatively trivial, selfish or sinful reasons for intragroup conflict, but this tendency is rooted in western individualism and ignores some of the cultural clues found in the passage.\u00a0 Conflict of whatever type is mediated by cultural factors.\u201d<\/a>[9]<\/p>\n

This calls to mind Chan\u2019s writing on the \u201chonor\/shame\u201d society, which is more collectivist in nature than others.\u00a0 He writes, \u201csince honor and shame are \u2018socially acknowledged\u2019 values, an individual cannot escape shared responsibility.\u00a0 The sin of one person shames the entire community, but the honor one receives uplifts the whole community.\u00a0 Failure to appreciate this strong sense of corporate responsibility has led to ineffective evangelical preaching on individual salvation.\u201d<\/a>[10]<\/p>\n

Both authors agree that cultural factors must be taken into account when it comes to preaching and communicating the gospel, as well as in leading teams or groups.\u00a0 This is just another example from within the Theology of Leadership Journal<\/em>, of how its authors are attempting to bring useful concepts and material to a wider audience.<\/p>\n

This same theme shows up in Wantaate\u2019s article where he writes that, \u201cin an individualist society, members are expected to take care of themselves and immediate families, and unrelated individuals are loosely connected.\u00a0While in a collectivist society individuals are integrated into a strong and cohesive framework where individuals expect members of their society to take care of them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty.\u201d<\/a>[11]<\/p>\n

One of the things that I appreciated most in reading through the articles in this Journal is the way that cultural factors were woven into a number of the pieces.\u00a0 The underlying and unspoken commitment seems to be that for a true \u201ctheology of leadership\u201d to be explored, it must take seriously facets of culture that are implicit in these topics.<\/p>\n

As this new Journal develops and seeks to establish its “brand”, maybe this will emerge as a distinctive: the way that any work on a theology of leadership will include and account for how culturally located and impacted everyone really is.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a>[1]Russell L. Huizing, \u201cDo We Really Need Another Academic,\u201d\u00a0Theology of Leadership Journal<\/em>\u00a01, no. 1 (2018): 3,\u00a0http:\/\/theologyofleadership.com\/index.php\/tlj\/issue\/view\/v1i1\/v1i1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[2]Russell L. Huizing, \u201cDo We Really Need Another Academic,\u201d\u00a0Theology of Leadership Journal<\/em>\u00a01, no. 1 (2018): 4,\u00a0http:\/\/theologyofleadership.com\/index.php\/tlj\/issue\/view\/v1i1\/v1i1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[3]Russell L. Huizing, \u201cDo We Really Need Another Academic,\u201d\u00a0Theology of Leadership Journal<\/em>\u00a01, no. 1 (2018): 4,\u00a0http:\/\/theologyofleadership.com\/index.php\/tlj\/issue\/view\/v1i1\/v1i1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[4]Russell L. Huizing, \u201cDo We Really Need Another Academic,\u201d\u00a0Theology of Leadership Journal<\/em>\u00a01, no. 1 (2018): 4,\u00a0http:\/\/theologyofleadership.com\/index.php\/tlj\/issue\/view\/v1i1\/v1i1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[5]James Davison Hunter,\u00a0To Change the World the Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World: the Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern Worlde World<\/em>(New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 88.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[6]James Davison Hunter,\u00a0To Change the World the Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World: the Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern Worlde World<\/em>(New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 86.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[7]Lupe Fiasco, \u201cLupe Fiasco Lyrics: the Show Goes On,\u201d www.lyricsondemand.com, accessed September 6, 2018,\u00a0https:\/\/www.lyricsondemand.com\/l\/lupefiascolyrics\/theshowgoesonlyrics.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[8]Jeffrey J. Singfiel, \u201cPaul the Team Leader: Strategic Planning, Intragroup Conflict, and Team Formation,\u201d\u00a0Theology of Leadership Journal<\/em>\u00a01, no. 1 (2018): 11,\u00a0http:\/\/theologyofleadership.com\/index.php\/tlj\/issue\/view\/v1i1\/v1i1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[9]Jeffrey J. Singfiel, \u201cPaul the Team Leader: Strategic Planning, Intragroup Conflict, and Team Formation,\u201d\u00a0Theology of Leadership Journal<\/em>\u00a01, no. 1 (2018): 12,\u00a0http:\/\/theologyofleadership.com\/index.php\/tlj\/issue\/view\/v1i1\/v1i1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[10]Simon Chan,\u00a0Grassroots Asian Theology: Thinking the Faith from the Ground Up<\/em>\u00a0(Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014), 87.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[11]Fred Wantaate, \u201cSpirituality in the Workplace: Source of a Calling, Levels of Living a Calling, Job Satisfaction, and Life Satisfaction Among Indian and Ugandan Leaders,\u201d\u00a0Theology of Leadership Journal<\/em>\u00a01, no. 1 (2018): 53,\u00a0http:\/\/theologyofleadership.com\/index.php\/tlj\/issue\/view\/v1i1\/v1i1<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the outset, the Theology of Leadership Journal\u00a0seeks to be transparent and self-reflective in terms of its purpose and raison d\u2019 etre.\u00a0 \u201cDo we really need another academic journal?\u201d[1]the Editor asks in the opening article.\u00a0If so, what would be the unique contribution of this new venture? The answer seems to be centered on seeking to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1327],"class_list":["post-18656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-theology-of-leadership-journal","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18656"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18657,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18656\/revisions\/18657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}