September 2013
Understanding Mormonism
Since Mitt Romney ran for president, many are curious about his Mormon faith, with good reason. As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Mormons tend to be friendly, hard-working, conservative, moral people—model citizens who want to be accepted as part of the body of Christ. Their church culture is close-knit and family-oriented. But as one who spent ...
Invisible Labor
I sat at my computer and hoped the words would compose. Why am I doing this to myself? I wondered. After two years of freelance writing, I felt I had little to show for my work.
The slow progress left me frustrated and feeling alone. If this was the place where God had called me, why wasn't he blessing my efforts? Why were my days made up of unanswered emails and unending ...
No More Stones
The first time one hit me, it hurt. After multiple hits, I became numb to the pain. The stones thrown at me no longer scared or hurt me. As a twice-divorced women, I faced accusers, the greatest one being myself. To avoid the stones, I relinquished the call God had placed on my life to serve and work with others. I rejected grace and accepted the judgment of others and myself. ...
Foremothers of the Messiah
In the pages of the Hebrew Bible, we find stories of women who went before us and left their mark on our history with God. In the material known to us today as the Old Testament, we read of women who were prophets, military leaders, priests, wise women, and wisdom personified. However, to study the lives of these women is no easy task. The stories as we have them were not ...
Healing Waters Bible Study
The book:Healing Waters Leader Guide: A Bible Study on Forgiveness, Grace and Second Chances
By Melody Carlson
Published by Abingdon Press
Why I picked up this book:
I have several books come across my desk every day at work. With so many books vying for my attention, a book needs to be unique and purposeful in order to grab my attention. Healing Waters was exactly that. As a ...
Connecting with Your Team
If you don't connect, you cannot achieve success. When your team cannot hear you, they cannot follow you. They need to see, hear, speak, touch, and experience you as a leader. Send them notes. Listen when they speak. Let them know when they have touched you. Let them see that leaders can stop and speak, listen, feel, and touch. Let them see that leaders are human too.
Let ...
Team Building: Beyond the Basics, Part 2
Far too often, ministry volunteers receive only a skeletal training before they are released to work. For certain roles (making coffee and directing traffic), on-the-job training is more than sufficient. For pastoral care and other people-oriented ministries, there's simply too much at stake. Over the years, my husband and I have learned how to both prepare our volunteers ...
Leader, Don’t Take Yourself So Seriously
When I was in corporate America, my company's leaders would use fear as an incentive to get the young consultants to work hard. I had attended an orientation session with the top graduates from Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, and MIT, which meant I was surrounded by people who were used to succeeding. The pressure to perform and the pressure to outperform myself stressed me out. ...