{"id":36066,"date":"2024-02-22T16:51:34","date_gmt":"2024-02-23T00:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=36066"},"modified":"2024-02-22T16:51:34","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T00:51:34","slug":"the-unlikely-convergence-of-soul-friends-a-return-to-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-unlikely-convergence-of-soul-friends-a-return-to-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Unlikely Convergence of Soul Friends: A Return to Joy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several years ago, when teaching Kindergarten, I hosted Patio Nights before the start of each school year.\u00a0 In the August heat, families enjoyed popsicles, met other families in our classroom community and best of all my incoming K students would come so we could begin getting to know one another, see their lockers, and go on a scavenger hunt in the classroom to become familiar with the new space.\u00a0 While I was actively engaged in getting to know my kiddos and their families, I really enjoyed seeing the start of a new community.\u00a0 Little did I know that God had a priceless gift to share with me on one of these patio nights.<\/span><\/p>\n

On one such occasion, I was enjoying a conversation with a mom who to this day has become my very \u201cbestest\u201d friend (in Kindergarten language) maybe a soul friend.\u00a0 She came to Patio Night and immediately we engaged in a conversation of faith.\u00a0 She shared that her husband was a local pastor and she was a lawyer. We shared not only faith in Jesus Christ but also the privilege of serving Him in ministry with our spouses.\u00a0 Her son was in my class.\u00a0 Years following we had so much fun, sharing mutual interests in theater, art, and music (we went on a \u201cThelma and Louise\u201d trip to Chicago for a weekend to see Hamilton<\/em>).\u00a0 She even supported my mission work in the country of Haiti, through an organization I serve called <\/span>Team Teach Haiti<\/span><\/a>. [1]\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My friend, Jennifer, checks up on me and we meet regularly for coffee, a walk, or whatever nugget of activity and time that we can squeeze in.\u00a0 She has been my cheerleader in ordination and through this doctoral journey.\u00a0 When she checks up on me, she can tell when my strength and stamina are low.\u00a0 To some degree, she knows my code.\u00a0 Several years ago, she learned that when she asks me how I am doing and I answer, \u201cThe joy of the Lord is my strength\u201d, it is code for \u201cI\u2019m enduring and need encouragement.\u201d\u00a0 When I was reading this week\u2019s text, the part that leaped off the page was when the authors were writing about the importance of joy.\u00a0 \u201cThe critical point between the brain functioning well or starting to fail is where it runs out of joy and begins to run on fear as its motivation.\u00a0 Incomplete fast track processing is a form of being \u201cout of touch\u201d that makes us reactive, rigid, with serious implications to living, and leading ineffectively.\u201d [2]\u00a0 In recent days, I believe my brain has been running out of joy in my work around my NPO, forgetting the bigger picture, and facing a situation that triggers fear.\u00a0 It has been the act of remembering the people who would be at my side, like my friend Jennifer, even when she is not available, but I know still encourages me by who she reminds me I am.\u00a0 The friendship we share helps me return to joy.\u00a0 As the authors stated, \u201cReturning to joy may just be the most important habit you can develop as a leader.\u201d [3]\u00a0 I would add that I certainly cannot return to joy on my own.<\/span><\/p>\n

Much of the content of the book correlates to previous readings, podcasts and conferences I have enjoyed regarding leadership, around topics that include maximizing my capacity as a leader, fast vs. slow thinking (Kahnemann), and the interdependence within leadership. In summary, <\/span>RARE Leadership<\/span><\/i> by Marcus Warner and Jim Wilder is a leadership resource that explores four uncommon habits related to emotional intelligence and how it affects one\u2019s leadership.\u00a0 The four uncommon habits include:\u00a0 1)\u00a0 Remain relational, 2)\u00a0 Act Like yourself, 3)\u00a0 Return to Joy, 4)\u00a0 Endure Hardship.\u00a0 [4]<\/span><\/p>\n

The authors emphasize the significance of building strong, healthy relationships as a foundation for effective leadership. They advocate for leaders to understand and regulate their emotions, fostering resilience in the face of challenges. The book encourages the integration of brain science and Biblical principles to enhance the capacity of a leader. It offers practical insights and actionable steps for cultivating a culture of trust, collaboration, and emotional intelligence within teams. RARE Leadership comes from understanding how to build our identities as individuals and groups.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[1] <\/span>Team Teach Haiti<\/span><\/a>; I train and develop curriculum and training resources for administrators and teachers in Haiti.\u00a0 Although, during my doctoral journey. I have had to pause some of my work with TTH.\u00a0 I lead teams of teachers, as we\u00a0 collaborate and create units of training curriculum around best instructional practices, facilitating interactive read alouds, collecting data and using data to inform instruction, classroom management, using nature for math and language instruction, and more. The teaching teams then train Haitian facilitators, who then train teachers and administrators on location in Haiti.\u00a0 We print the materials, provide the computer and projector, as well as ship to Haitian facilitators to use in their sessions.\u00a0 Team Teach Haiti has trained over 1,000 educators in Haiti.\u00a0 We flew one of the facilitators to Michigan to come to my classroom, several years ago, and participate in an American public school setting followed by additional training for facilitation.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2]\u00a0 Marcus Warner and Jim Wilder, <\/span>Rare Leadership: 4 Uncommon Habits for Increasing Trsut, Joy, and Engagement in the People You Lead,<\/span><\/i> Chicago: Northfield Publishing, 2021, 64.<\/span><\/p>\n

[3] Ibid, 171.<\/span><\/p>\n

[4] Ibid, 58.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several years ago, when teaching Kindergarten, I hosted Patio Nights before the start of each school year.\u00a0 In the August heat, families enjoyed popsicles, met other families in our classroom community and best of all my incoming K students would come so we could begin getting to know one another, see their lockers, and go […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":168,"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":[2310],"tags":[2489,2594],"class_list":["post-36066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-of-leadership-3","tag-dlgp02","tag-warner","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36066","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\/168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36076,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36066\/revisions\/36076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}