It’s Tuesday, and therefore its time to share some links to things I have read and found interesting and thought provoking in the past week. This week’s topic categories are: Church and Ministry Thought & Practice; Cross-Sector Collaboration; Leadership Thought & Practice; Neighbor Love; Social Media & Blogging; Stewardship; Vocation; and Miscellaneous. I entrust these now to you for your reading, reflecting, and thinking pleasure and enjoyment.
Church and Ministry Thought & Practice
Friend and adviser Dr. Terri Elton offers a timely reminder about church. “It’s messy!” Most definitely. Give this a read.
One of the leadership texts that has really gained traction in seminary settings has been Ronald Heifetz’s and Marty Linsky’s Leadership on the Line. Somewhat related to this, I found a video from about five years ago where Ronald Heifetz talks about adaptive leadership. If you have about nine minutes, give it a viewing.
If you are looking for an interesting new sort of missional church community to learn from, learn about and see what they are up to, check out what MIDTOWN Church in Minneapolis is up to.
Cross-Sector Collaboration
Jessica Leber shares thoughts from Bill Gates, “On Why the World Needs to be Less Cynical and Start Focusing on Real Problems.” What do you think?
Last week, friend and Luther Seminary professor Dr. Mary Hess asked I think helpfully, “Are learning organizations possible?” I certainly hope so. I would argue if an organization isn’t learning, it’s either stagnant or dying, though it may not yet know it.
This could have been shared above under church and ministry stuff or below under social media. Because of that, I am sharing it here as a cross-sector type article. Steve Fogg shares, “One Seismic Shift Churches & Non-Profits Need to Make Now in Social Media.” Check it out and see what you think.
Leadership Thought & Practice
Jack Bergstrand and The Drucker Institute shares “Leadership Lessons from the Best Executives.”
Michael Roberto shared, “The Value of Naive Questions.” Such questions are important to ask, and Roberto offers the reminder that just as much as the questions matter, so do their timing.
Dr. Marla G. shares perspective on “How Not to Choose a Manager.” According to her things not to do include: assume they want the job; base the decision on tenure alone; overestimate the role of deep technical experience; believe its the only path to compensate top talent; believe its simply the ‘next step’; leave them ‘high and dry.’ What do you think?
Sharon Reed asks on her blog, “Falling into fear or leaning into strength?” What do you think of her question and reflection?
Rob Markey shared a few weeks ago, “The Four Secrets to Employee Engagement.” The secrets he shares are: that line supervisors, not HR lead the charge; that supervisors learn how to hold candid dialogues with teams; they also do regular ‘pulse checks’; and that teams rally around the customer.
Tom Fox shared “Leadership lessons from the Olympics.” These are quite timely given that we are just over half way through the Winter Olympics. Check them out.
In honor of President’s Day (yesterday) and George Washington’s birthday, here are some leadership lessons from George Washington by Mitchell B. Reiss.
Daniel Goleman asks simply but perhaps profoundly, “What Makes a Leader?”
Leadership, Innovation, and Strategy recently did a podcast with Dr. William Cohen, the author of The Practical Drucker, which I reviewed last month. Give the podcast a listen, I think you will be glad you did. You will learn some things about Drucker and his insights you may not know.
Steve Rosenbaum offers thoughts on the leadership style, approach, and success of Jeff Bezos, the leader and architect of Amazon.com.
Neighbor Love
Friend Hannah Heinzekehr shared some wonderful reflections “On Love” last week. Check them out.
Friend and pastor Diane Roth shared a beautiful post entitled, “A Bible verse on a stick.” In it is some reflection on Micah 6:8. Give this a read. She also wrote a post entitled, “You All” recently. Check out those possible implications as well.
If you like a longer, and perhaps a more “heady” read from time to time, you might enjoy this post entitled, “The theology blindspot” by Kristina Stoeckl.
Rachel Held Evans wrote recently a post entitled, “The Cost.” In this post she offers honest reflection about the struggle of following her faith and theological ideas and convictions in light of challenges, critiques, and even academic confrontation from other faith leaders and theologians. She raises an important question and idea at the end of the post. Following Jesus “doesn’t have to cost our love for one another. Not if we don’t want it to.” Now there is a profound statement. I would add, it is the very core of who Jesus is and Jesus’ calling for us to love one another. If we aren’t working towards that end, then what on earth are we doing?
Friend Margaret Ellsworth’s post from a year ago on “Worship and the Interreligious Family” got picked up recently. It’s a great read, and if you haven’t seen it before, check it out!
For some faith in action perspective, check out how a bunch of Missouri students created a “wall of love” to block the shouts of hate from Westboro Baptist Church members.
United Methodist Church, Los Angeles Area Bishop Minerva G. Carcano shares thoughts on being arrested, and the need to protest and call attention to the lack of action being done to fix the broken immigration system in the United States.
Social Media & Blogging
Friend and Social Media coach Carrie Gubsch shared some helpful tips about how to use IFTTT. This could be particularly useful for congregations and non-profits, as well as smaller for-profit start-ups to get your word and message out.
Belle Beth Cooper recently shared “10 Big, Recent Changes to Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin you should know about.”
Stewardship
Friend and Classy Frugalist Grace Duddy shares thoughts about how to declutter your home, and does so in light of frugality and arguably within a lens of stewardship.
Vocation
Luther Seminary professor Rev. Dr. David Lose last week shared “the web of vocational fidelity.” Give this a read, it’s awesome! It helps put different people’s vocations in context of one another, as well as offering a reminder of gratitude as part of the gift and recognition of vocation.
Rozella White shared some thoughts about her own vocations of being “a coach, co-creator, and consultant.” I love this sort of self-reflection and statement about who she is and what she values. This might be something I might have to do for myself in my own way. What do you think? Does this cause you to reflect on your own vocations?
Miscellaneous
Because of the way this winter has gone in across the United States, as of last week, the Great Lakes were nearly 87% covered in ice. That’s kind of nuts if you think about it, isn’t it?
You know where the most expensive apartment rent in the country might be right now? Not Los Angeles. Not even New York City. No, it happens to be Williston, North Dakota. When you have limited infrastructure and a modern day gold rush (aka- an “oil boom”), this is what I guess we should expect to happen. I’m not sure how I feel about this though because I have always loved the peace and quiet when visiting family in North Dakota.
I would like to welcome another friend to the blogging world. Justin Heinzekehr has launched, “The greatest Book List in the world.” You should check it out, especially if you are an avid reader or if you are looking for something to read.
Finally, here comes a nice little reflection and review from Seattle Bloggers on a trip to my hometown of Poulsbo.
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That will do it for this week’s links. I hope you have enjoyed them. If there are particular types of stories or topics you would like for me to include in the Links, please let me know. Also, if there are particular topics you would like for me to reflect on, on this blog, please let me know that too. Until the next time, blessings on your week! -TS
Image Credits: 1) The Links; 2) The Olympic Rings; and 3) Poulsbo.
Timothy Siburg 
