Today, we finish our discussion about creating meaning for the experiences of life, so they make sense. We humans have a pretty tough time just letting life unfold… especially when what unfolds is awful. We want to be little “gods” reigning supreme over the affairs of our and others’ lives as if we’d been imbued […]
The Meaning we Make Up (part eight) Read More »
Imagine the impact on the United States if Christians here were known – first of all — for being people of action. When you read the New Testament, you see Jesus in action much of the time. So much so that when he drew away for prayer, reflection, and rest—it was noteworthy. But, most sermons
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We all have this experience in life: what you’re doing isn’t working. Like most people, your impulse in those moments is to “double down”—to do what you’ve been doing, but do it harder, faster, more strenuously, more diligently. Right? And, most of the time, you end up in the same place, just more exhausted. About
When what you’re doing isn’t working… Read More »
Leadership Courage Series # 43 Reintroduce yourself to the adventurous life. This is the eighth of nine characteristics necessary to lead the Church well today. Notice how little risk-taking the Church does today? Other than making a bold “leap of faith” to finance a 400-seat sanctuary for the comfort and convenience of their own people,
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Leadership Courage Series # 42 The seventh of nine leadership characteristics needed in the Church today: Disengage from an unreasonable faith in reasonableness. Let me ask you: How reasonable was Jesus when confronting opposition, faithlessness, and cowardice? Consider his arrest, in Gethsemane. Jesus is betrayed with a kiss by one of his closest confidants, an
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Leadership Courage Series # 28 Within a larger conversation concerning courageous leadership we’ve been examining the outworking of placing “an unreasonable faith in reasonableness” – a central tenet of much of post-Enlightenment Christendom in the West. I am indebted to Edwin Freidman’s A Failure on Nerve for illuminating this characteristic of the anxious, shallow, quick-fix
The Unreasonableness of Being Reasonable (part four) Read More »
Please consider subscribing to Christian Coaching Magazine. [www.ChristianCoachingMag.com] If you do, I welcome your feedback on an article just published in their Jan 16, 2011 issue, on the subject of listening and asking questions in the process of professional Christian coaching. It’s an honest explanation of the process I try to use with every client
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Leadership in a Culture of Cowardice (part ten) Where and when did the role of Pastor become so closely associated with the characteristics of terrible leadership: anemic, people-pleasing, comfort-oriented, weakness-honoring, safety-bound, consensus-collecting, approval-seeking, distress-abating caretaking? How did we get from the decisive, principle-inspired boldness of Jesus with the money-changers [Mt 21], Paul and the riot
Leadership Courage Series #19: Read More »
Leadership in a Culture of Cowardice (part six) We’re examining what may be a unique kind of leadership—and I’m advocating that such leadership is compulsory if the Church is to provide the redemptive influence in American society that she was given, by Jesus, to bring. For fourteen segments, you’ve considered the regressive and infantile culture
Leadership Courage Series #15 Read More »
#2: The Heart to Lead This series is about courage… living with heart. It’s written as an invitation for you, as a leader, to live and lead with your heart fully engaged. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Christ-followers in the commercial and cultural center, known as Corinth: “We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians,
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