A little under 9 years ago, I visited Claremont, California for the first time. I visited in order to see and tour the campus of Pitzer College. I had read and heard that Pitzer might be a great fit for me as a liberal arts college with a focus on the whole person and on the person being a part of the world as a … Continue reading The Future, Authenticity, and Hope
A pastor friend of mine posted the following question today. “With regard to new people coming to church: Do we want to assimilate or integrate? Assimilation means that ‘you’ will come and become like ‘us’ (or the other way around). Integration means that we will both be transformed and the Spirit will create something new among us.” The post went on to have an extensive … Continue reading Assimilate and Integrate
In the previous post I mentioned some thoughts that came out of the article, “Moon Shots for Management.” There are a couple other quick thoughts that I would like to mention in the following two posts. First, there is the idea that incentives need to provide for the long term! “Stretch executive time frames and perspectives. Compensation and incentive systems often truncate executive time horizons … Continue reading Need for the Longer Term View
Peter F. Drucker believed that management is a liberal art. In fact, to this end he even titled the second chapter in his famous blue covered seminal work, Management, “Management as a Social Function and Liberal Art.” Drucker explained, “Management is thus what tradition used to call a liberal art: ‘liberal’ because it deals with the fundamentals of knowledge, self-knowledge, wisdom and leadership; ‘art’ because it … Continue reading Management as a Liberal Art- Moonshots
I had the pleasure of being able to take some time out of my work day to attend chapel at Luther Seminary yesterday. I felt it was important to do so as this was the final chapel service of the academic year, and it was a special one of “Farewell and Godspeed” for a place itself that is in the midst of great transition and … Continue reading Leadership and the Church- Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Preface- This post has nothing to do with my typical dialogue about leadership. I offer this post as a personal reflection of current events, and as part of my on-going discernment of what it means and might mean to love the neighbor. Tomorrow Minnesota will officially join my home state of Washington by recognizing same-sex marriage. I don’t state this fact to offend anyone or … Continue reading This Week in Minnesota
I believe that life is perpetual discernment. I am coming to believe that I will never fully know who I am called to be for the rest of my life. Rather, I hope that I will be able to discern through conversation, prayer, dwelling and introspection who I am now and might be in the process of becoming and being called to be. There is … Continue reading Perpetual Discernment
Continuing in my series of reflections from reading Anthony B. Robinson’s Transforming Congregational Culture, today we turn to chapter four which he titles, “From Assuming the Goods to Delivering the Goods, Part One: Worship.” This chapter offers some thoughts, perspectives, challenges, and questions around what is worship. Robinson makes a number of assertions in this chapter and asks some very important questions. I was particularly struck … Continue reading “From Assuming the Goods to Delivering the Goods”
Continuing in the series of posts that began with the previous post, I continue to offer reflections as I read and reread Anthony B. Robinson’s Transforming Congregational Culture. Robinson’s second chapter lays the groundwork for how difficult cultural change can be. He brings Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky into the conversation with their vocabulary of “technical work” or “technical changes” and “adaptive changes.” Its within this … Continue reading “The Challenge We Face, Part II”
I have decided to pick up and read a decade old book, Transforming Congregational Culture, by Anthony B. Robinson.* As I move through this book, I intend to write a few posts along the way about either quotes that resonate with me, or about pieces I see that have especially changed (good or bad) since Robinson wrote this. So, in this line of reflection, from the beginning … Continue reading “The Challenge We Face, Part I”
Timothy Siburg 