Vapor, Inches, and Making the Most of the Time

Jordan Grumet is a hospice nurse who wrote Taking Stock based on conversations with people who were in their final days. He believes the dying have much to teach us about living—that evaluating our limited time helps us have fewer regrets at the end of our lives. Journalist Oliver Burkemen wrote Four Thousand Weeks to help people understand that […]

A Framework for Leading in a Way That Develops Leaders

According to Dave Ulrich’s research and experience, there are five indispensable functions of leadership: personal proficiency, strategist, executor, talent manager, and human capital developer. A human capital developer is someone who develops people for the future. What does it take to have a team, a ministry, or an organization that consistently develops and deploys leaders? My […]

The Ridiculousness of Disobedience

The book of Jonah is considered a literary masterpiece, and in the first several verses the words profoundly confront us with the ridiculousness of our disobedience to God.  The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me.” Jonah got up […]

The Leadership Code: A Framework for the Transferable Tasks of a Leader

The belief beneath the cliché “leadership is leadership” is that leadership is a transferable skill—that what it takes for someone to be effective as a leader in one field can be transferred to a different field. In the book, The Leadership Code, Dave Ulrich articulates that as much as 70% of leadership is transferable. Meaning if […]

A Big Question Technology Raises and Theology Answers

In our highly connected and technologically savvy society we have heard it said, “Do we really want those tech companies to know everything about us? It seems like they are everywhere and know everything!” We are uncertain about Big Data for one of two reasons: we aren’t sure we trust the people who know everything about us […]

A Framework about the Different Directions of Leadership

When many people hear the word “leadership,” they think primarily about a leader leading his or her team. In reality, there are other important directions of leadership. Dee Hock’s instruction to leaders about leading more than their teams is the impetus of this framework. What I Appreciate About This Framework I love that the framework […]

5 Differences Between a Critical Mind and a Critical Spirit

There is a massive difference between a critical mind and a critical spirit. The former builds up; the latter tears down. Having a critical mind is a terrific thing. It results in healthy self-reflection, learning, and evaluating the why beneath everything one does. Having a critical spirit is a terrible thing. It results in pushing […]

3 Reminders to Seminary Graduates, Past and Present

May is the month of graduations, not only for high school and college students but also for seminary students. I remember both of my graduations from Southern Seminary (I completed both masters and doctoral studies at Southern), and they were big days for my family and me. Kaye and my parents attended and we celebrated […]