Today, leadership consultants tell us that if leaders want to be effective, they shouldn?t give orders but rather provide instructions. Here?s a paraphrase from a popular leadership development website: ?Don?t say, ?I need your report by Wednesday morning.? Instead say, ?Please review the data, provide two alternatives for moving forward and my expectation is you […]
Spiritual Leadership is God and People-Focused
One of the writers that I?ve continued to learn from over the years as a person in ministry is Eugene Peterson. Listen to this insight from his book with Marva Dawn, The Unnecessary Pastor: ?The ?herbicides and pesticides? that promised to revolutionize the work of spiritual leadership are rationalism and functionalism–the scholars in their attempt […]
Discerning Unholy Desire
The theme of discerning desire comes out of my experience of the Ignatian exercises on my eight-day silent retreat a few years ago in the Boston area. The passage that I?ve increasingly been drawn to is Galatians 5. There is plenty of desire language there?holy and unholy. Looking at the New Living Translation: 16 So […]
Discerning Holy Desire
Galatians 5:22-23, ?But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!? What does it look like on the with-God side of the battle? I enjoy how Peterson expands these nine fruits in The Message: Love […]
Just Because It Works
Eugene Peterson has been one of those writers who has always had something to say to me. Perhaps it is our shared vocation in ministry. In Marva Dawn?s book with him, The Unnecessary Pastor, Peterson describes how much of the early counsel he was given on how to do ministry didn?t seem to have much […]
Working Playfully
Think about this: grace and works are often seen in tension as it relates to the nature of receiving salvation. Play and work are seen as opposites. Does this imply a common relation between grace and play? This has been a helpful place to think and pray. Listen to this quotation from a recent book […]
Perseverance Stinks
While the majority of the country is still under ice and snow, southern California remains generally mild even with last week?s rains.? The forecast of rain earlier last week gave me a great motivation to get the large pile of mulch, delivered last week, out of my driveway and into the planter beds. Over the […]
