{"id":21752,"date":"2019-02-22T10:59:15","date_gmt":"2019-02-22T18:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=21752"},"modified":"2019-02-22T10:59:15","modified_gmt":"2019-02-22T18:59:15","slug":"its-fragmented-but-finished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/its-fragmented-but-finished\/","title":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s fragmented, but finished!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine this\u2026it\u2019s 5:30am, Mountain Standard Time, and I\u2019m up early because of the time change (It\u2019s 7:30am EST at home).\u00a0 I\u2019m staying in an adorable Airbnb in the footballs of the Rocky Mountains \u2013 and I have a room with a view \u2013 overlooking a lake with the mountains in the distance.\u00a0 The \u201csuper snow moon\u201d is shining so brightly I thought the sun was rising. \u00a0I sit down to compose my blog (trying to accomplish this before I leave for a conference at 7am) and review some online critiques.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t take long for my head to start spinning.\u00a0 The texts this week (<em>The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind<\/em> and <em>Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind,<\/em> by Noll) are heavily based in Theology.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong, I love to learn about Theology, discuss Theology (with a good debate) and I understand the value of Theology.\u00a0 But it doesn\u2019t come as easily to me to write from a Theology construct because it is outside of my expertise.\u00a0 There is one significant theme that did pique my interest \u2013 the insinuation that evangelicalism is not academically grounded with research (which happens to be one of evangelicalism\u2019s greatest weaknesses according to the author).<\/p>\n<p>Now it\u2019s 1:50pm, MST, and I\u2019m finally getting a few minutes to turn my reflection back to these texts for the week after attending my morning conference sessions.\u00a0 I\u2019ve traveled to Colorado to conduct field research at the National Character and Leadership Symposium at The United States Air Force Academy.\u00a0 In full disclosure, Jake and Jenn have joined Ron and me for this incredible event.\u00a0 To put it lightly, the morning has been phenomenal.\u00a0 I am inspired!<\/p>\n<p>In deciding to conduct field research here, I was excited by the advertised theme of \u201cLeadership, Teamwork, and Organizational Management.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0Of course this theme is pertinent to growing my personal leadership skills\u2026but it would also challenge me to utilize organizational leadership skills in my collaborative relationships with the Somali refugee stakeholders in Columbus, Ohio.\u00a0 According to the conference materials \u201cThis year\u2019s NCLS speakers\u2019 stories will focus on the value, successes, and challenges of leadership at the personal (leading oneself), interpersonal (leading one or more people), team (leading a group towards a common goal), and\/or organizational (leading an organization embedded within a larger institutional environment) levels.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\"><sup>[1]<\/sup><\/a> \u00a0Speakers include scholars, military leaders, corporate executives and world-class athletes.\u00a0 Some of the phenomenal speakers presenting include Dr. Bren\u00e9 Brown, Catharyn Baird, Leon Panetta, et.al.<a href=\"#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref2\"><sup>[2]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 You are probably wondering how all this background connects to this week\u2019s blog.\u00a0 Well, here goes \u2013 one of the first speakers of the day, (and it\u2019s now 6:45am Friday) Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Kaleth O. Wright (and known by his Airman as Jesus of the Airforce because he\u2019s amazing), presented an inspiring message on leadership \u2013 to sum it up he states \u201cATTITUDE REFLECTS LEADERSHIP\u201d \u2013 \u201cYour people\u2019s attitude is a direct reflection of your leadership.\u201d\u00a0 He went on to share several compelling requirements for leading \u2013 and I found them accurate, insightful, and pragmatic.\u00a0 They include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Character \u2013 your personal ethos and values matter. Live with integrity and the heart to serve.\u00a0 Live honorably.<\/li>\n<li>Attitude \u2013 leadership requires a positive attitude \u2013 keep your people focused (because if there is a negative attitude, focus is non-existent)<\/li>\n<li>Discipline \u2013 create good habits, live a disciplined life every day \u2013 never expect anyone under you to live a disciplined life if you aren\u2019t doing so yourself.<\/li>\n<li>Excellence \u2013 ask yourself how you can be great today. <em><u>Excellence is not a single act, it\u2019s what we do continually <\/u><\/em>(love this)<\/li>\n<li>Teamwork \u2013 be part of something bigger than yourself \u2013 <em>If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together <\/em>African Proverb<\/li>\n<li>Speak truth to power<\/li>\n<li>Emotional Intelligence is essential \u2013 recognize your own personal \u201cstuff\u201d, recognize other\u2019s \u201cstuff\u201d, recognize\/acknowledge social challenges<\/li>\n<li><strong>Credibility<\/strong> (I\u2019m finally to the sweet point connecting to <u>Noll\u2019s books<\/u>) \u2013\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Deliver results<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Be transparent<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Make tough calls<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Be consistent<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Lead by example<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Work\/life harmony \u2013 learn to say no, learn to unplug, focus on progress not perfection, exercise and meditate, be present, make time for fun<\/li>\n<li>Social media \u2013 be in, or be out (use it wisely, but if you use it do it for good)<\/li>\n<li>Put your mask on first \u2013 just like during an airplane emergency, you can\u2019t help other\u2019s if you don\u2019t get oxygen for yourself first.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As an Evangelical Christian, I believe part of my (and all Christians) calling is to leadership.\u00a0 Of all the critical leadership traits identified by Wright above, Noll is specifically targeting the lack of credibility by evangelicals.\u00a0 So does his insinuation have merit?\u00a0 If so, in what way?\u00a0 I personally am always looking for data, research, and expert writings inspired by research.\u00a0 While I know and understand that faith is exactly the opposite \u2013 trusting the unknown and believing without proof \u2013 Christians have earned a reputation for hypocrisy.\u00a0 So perhaps the truth is that evangelicals do owe the world increased credibility.\u00a0 If our lived faith isn\u2019t enough (because let\u2019s be honest we aren\u2019t always \u201cperforming\u201d as we should) evangelicals need to find ways to produce evidence and research where we feasibly can.\u00a0 Look at Bren\u00e9 Brown\u2019s (as you know she\u2019s someone I highly respect) rise to \u201cfame\u201d (which she abhors).\u00a0 She has one of the most watched TED Talks, five best sellers, and is at the table with the top CEO\u2019s at corporations all around the world&#8230;all because she invested time and energy into doing research into human behavior.\u00a0 LGP8 \u2013 WE are part of this solution.\u00a0 Next year we will provide the world with 15 more research informed dissertations.\u00a0 Oh, and did I mention I met Bren\u00e9 yesterday?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> https:\/\/www.usafa.edu\/character\/national-character-leadership-symposium-ncls\/<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" name=\"_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usafa.edu\/character\/national-character-leadership-symposium-ncls\/2019-ncls-speakers\/\">https:\/\/www.usafa.edu\/character\/national-character-leadership-symposium-ncls\/2019-ncls-speakers\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine this\u2026it\u2019s 5:30am, Mountain Standard Time, and I\u2019m up early because of the time change (It\u2019s 7:30am EST at home).\u00a0 I\u2019m staying in an adorable Airbnb in the footballs of the Rocky Mountains \u2013 and I have a room with a view \u2013 overlooking a lake with the mountains in the distance.\u00a0 The \u201csuper snow [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"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":[147],"class_list":["post-21752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-noll","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21752","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\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21753,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21752\/revisions\/21753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}