This article was recently published in the Journal of Biblical Perspectives in Leadership. In it, I muse on the interesting relationship between serving and leadership...
In the Wake of Charlottesville, How to Lead Broken Communities
How the Church Can Foster Healing and Reconciliation
"Indeed, race may well in fact be the most important issue of our time. It is without question that the historical challenges between racial minorities and the racial majority continue to exist today, though their outward expressions have changed thanks in no small part to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 60’s..."
Is Unity Really the Solution?
In the wake of recent tragedies in Tulsa, Charlotte, Baton Rouge, Dallas, St. Paul and more, there has been much debate as to how we should move forward as a society. Understandably, there is a growing fear that the violence and civil unrest will not only continue, but escalate. Fear begets anger, anger begets violence, violence begets fear… wash, rinse and repeat. However, these events have also given rise to this recurring sentiment that has been voiced by media pundits and echoed during recent community gatherings – the need for unity....
Moving from Occupation to Vocation
Regardless of the industry – for-profit or non-profit, corporate or ministry, sacred or secular, etc., one of the greatest needs every leader inevitably wrestles with is a shortage of workers. You can watch the news and see how monthly job reports influence current politics. You can speak with corporate leaders and they’ll undoubtedly offer their thoughts on job vacancies and the absence of certain skilled workers. So on and so forth… And while we can debate the cause of such shortages – i.e. certain groups having limited access to quality education, poor high-educational models that need updating in order to stop equipping students with skills that don’t meet today’s job markets, etc., our religious institutions are not exempt from struggling with the same issues...
Cracking the Millennial Code
We’ve all heard the statistics warning of an exodus en-masse of younger people from our Christian communities. The revenue generated from the number of books, articles, research papers, and other documentation that has been completed around Millennials and their perceptions of the Church – and WHY – could probably fund a small nation. Sadly, I’m only half kidding…
Christian Leadership for a Post-Christian America
To be clear, I reject the idea that we’re living in a post-Christian America. I think the premise of this idea is fundamentally false as it requires one to subscribe to the notion that America was once a Christian nation. While I do believe that the beliefs of our founding fathers (Christian and non-Christian, theist and atheist) were woven into the fabric of our great nation – and yes, for much of its history a majority of its citizens have self-identified as Christian – history books have shown that America was expressly founded with the intent of being a democracy and not a theocracy. However, this does not discredit the fact that one of the strongest threads that ties this “more perfect union” together is its promise of religious liberty for all...
Meet Me in the Field: Leading to Overcome Racial Issues
Great Leaders Make Great Decisions
We’ve all been there. In front of us is a situation that requires us to make a decision. But what is the right decision? This is one of the most high-pressure moments that leaders face each and every day. Should I or shouldn’t I; do we or don’t we? Decision-making is one of the hardest things that a leader has to do...
Recent Feature in the Philadelphia Inquirer (4/4/16)
Recently, I was invited to write an Op-Ed for the Philadelphia Inquirer exploring issues of race and the church here in the Philadelphia community. More specifically, there was an interest in following up to explore the significance of the Under My Skin: Courageous Conversations About Race and the Church event that American Bible Society hosted back on Feb. 8th, 2016. While there are many great events and gatherings popping up across the country that are actively exploring the rising racial tensions within our communities, this event sought to separate itself by empowering attendees to find a greater personal agency and become the solutions to the problems that they're seeing...
Preventing Organizational Drift: Navigating Calm and Rough Waters
Great article from a good friend of mine that takes a look at why leaders must give proper attention to ensuring that their organizations remain both missionally aligned and strategically focused.
Question… How many organizations out there suffer from “mission drift” simply because they fail to be intentional about aligning their resources to the overall mission, and/or fail to properly communicate the strategic direction with stakeholders organization-wide?
Better question… How many churches are suffering from stagnancy because their leadership has lost sight of the church’s purpose, failing to align the church’s ministries to said purpose, and/or communicate a strategic direction that captivates their congregations?
How Wolves Change Rivers
As Christians, we often struggle with the battle of living “in but not of.” In more modern times, research – and personal experience – has found the church to more often then not err on the side of caution, choosing to pursue more of an “us vs. them” strategy that has lead congregants to isolate themselves for fear of falling prey to the temptations of secular society. We justify our isolation with cliché phrases like “I was saved from that,” and we frequent church based activities while forgoing more cultural or secular ones. We listen to Christian sub-genres of music and watch Christian-centric movies… I wonder though… is this actually Biblical?...