Leadership

“Leadership and Self-Deception”

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One of the books I read for two of my D.Min. classes was Leadership and Self-Deception by the Arbinger Institute. It’s a must-read for leaders. In the preface, the authors assert that while “leadership is about making matters better,” “self-deception” is “central to leadership” because it tends to “make matters worse” (viii). The authors use … Read more

The Watoto Experience

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The Watoto Children’s Choir was in town last night for the Concert of Hope at West Side UMC (see Joleen’s preview post). It was a tremendous and inspiring experience! The group from Uganda (Africa), who is in the fifth month of their 6-month tour, arrived yesterday around 2:00 pm where Joleen and others from West … Read more

Bishop’s Retreat Learnings

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At the beginning of this week, we arrived at the Bishop’s Retreat at the Willow Valley Resort in Lancaster, PA. While there, we witnessed the history-making inauguration as a group by way of the TV. And we also experienced some great teaching by Tex Sample, focusing on telling the Story. Here are some quotes and/or … Read more

One Small Step, One Giant Leap

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Today is an important day in the history of the United States. It’s not about politics, Democrats, Republicans, or Independents (things we don’t generally blog about 🙂 ). But it’s about history. Today, we’re at the Bishop’s Retreat in Lancaster, PA, and we actually concluded the morning session a bit early so we could watch … Read more

Arriving at the Bishop’s Retreat

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After church services on Sunday, we ate lunch and hurriedly packed for our trip to the Willow Valley Resort, the location of the Bishop’s Retreat (an annual gathering for clergy families from our conference). This is our first time attending the Bishop’s Retreat. Tex Sample is the guest speaker this year; he was also the … Read more

Five Practices :: Getting Started!

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Robert Schnase, bishop of the Missouri Conference of the UMC has written a book called Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations that’s making waves in the UMC. At Centre Grove UMC, our church council is beginning to work its way through the book and I’ll be blogging about the journey. The book focuses on five practices … Read more

Pray for President-Elect Obama

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One week from today is Inauguration Day when our new president will be sworn into office. Max Lucado (pastor and author) is leading an effort calling people to pray for President-Elect Barack Obama on Inauguration Day (January 20, 2009). As the site points out, 1 Timothy 2.2 says … Pray for rulers and for all … Read more

Best Advice I Ever Got

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In the summer of 1995, having graduated from seminary, Joleen and I were preparing to move to North East, PA to pastor our first church (as co-pastors). One night we were having dinner at my dad’s house and their pastor was their as well. Before he left that evening, he gave us some great advice … Read more

“Summoned to Lead”

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One of the books on leadership I read during my D.Min. program was Summoned to Lead by Leonard Sweet, whom I’ve gotten to hear at a couple of conferences in the past. I enjoy everything Sweet writes, and I especially enjoyed this book which drew leadership lessons from the life and expedition of Sir Ernest … Read more

Hanging Out with the Pastors

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Today, we started something new, holding a time of “hanging out with the pastors.” We invited people from both West Side and Centre Grove to join us at Old Town Road Dairy from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm. We had a great response our first time out. Today’s meeting was scheduled on pretty short notice … Read more