{"id":22139,"date":"2019-03-08T17:58:33","date_gmt":"2019-03-09T01:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=22139"},"modified":"2019-03-08T17:58:33","modified_gmt":"2019-03-09T01:58:33","slug":"lets-ask-questions-like-lincoln","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/lets-ask-questions-like-lincoln\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s ask questions like Lincoln"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf most of our body is made of water, why don\u2019t I just fall to pieces when I get in the bathtub?\u201d\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy is it so hard for people to decide things? When we go out for recess, we just play the game that seems the most fun. We don\u2019t spend too long deciding because that means we don\u2019t get to play.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI dream to be a missionary. Don’t they help God change the world? That\u2019s the <\/em>most biggest dream I can think of.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

These are all musings from my 8-year-old son, Lincoln. I love talking to Lincoln and his friends because they ask such amazing questions. They consistently push me to see more possibilities from perspectives that are different, less incombered than mine. They make my world bigger. I am amazed by their ability to ask each other\u2019s questions and willingly accept perspectives so much different than their own. Their logic is so simple, cutting through the deepest fear.<\/p>\n

Simple Habits for Complex Times<\/em> taught me more about asking questions.[1]<\/a> This book offered me an opportunity to pivot from my cause and effect hard-wiring to embrace more possibilities. Berger and Johnston offer a way forward in the rise of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity).[2]<\/a> They propose that \u201cyour old patterns constrain you, and your old questions keep you in familiar territory.\u201d[3]<\/a> Conversely, this means that new and different questions give rise to new and different possibilities. In complex times, we must be willing to disregard our need to have all the answers and lead through questions that help people grow rather than keeping them small.<\/p>\n

Asking different questions requires us to take a humble posture, inviting more voices to the table. Tourish expresses concern for leaders who have to have all the answers in The Dark Side of Transformational Leadership<\/em> when he says, \u201cthe concentration of power in the hands of a few has not been a successful experiment in decision making.\u201d[4]<\/a> There is strength in multiple perspectives.<\/p>\n

I find this to be true as I research the formation of female leaders in the renewal tradition. Even though there is still some debate among our churches as to the place of women in leadership, many women are finding a seat at the leadership table. However, I wonder if, during those years of debate, we neglected to ask the curious questions about the spiritual formation and development of those female leaders. I wonder if we were busy arguing for the seat at the table and forgot to ask the questions that would ensure these women were doing the deep work for preparedness once the seat was offered to them. Perhaps we were only looking at this problem from one perspective. Now I wonder, what does a model of Spirit-empowered formation and leadership development look like in the life of a female ministry leader?<\/p>\n

Today, I need to learn from Lincoln and keep asking questions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

_______________________________<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Jennifer Garvey Berger and Keith Johnston, Simple Habits for Complex Times: Powerful Practices for Leaders<\/em> (Stanford, California: Stanford Business Books, n.d.). 198<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid., 7.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid., 14<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Daniel Tourish, The Dark Side of Transformational Leadership<\/em> (New York: Routledge, 2013). 7<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf most of our body is made of water, why don\u2019t I just fall to pieces when I get in the bathtub?\u201d \u201cWhy is it so hard for people to decide things? When we go out for recess, we just play the game that seems the most fun. We don\u2019t spend too long deciding because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"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":[],"class_list":["post-22139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22139","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\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22139"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22141,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22139\/revisions\/22141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}