How to form wise Christian institutional leaders in an uncertain world

May 11, 2017 By Guest Contributor

Our patterns of education and formation must nurture practical wisdom, encourage unlikely friendships and seed understanding about the ecosystems an institution needs to survive, writes the theologian and executive vice president and provost of Baylor University. This post is reprinted from Faith & Leadership. What patterns of education and formation will be most fruitful in forming wise leaders of Christian institutions in the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world in which we live? Are new practices and organizations needed... Read more

#ThanksforTyping

May 10, 2017 By Jennifer Woodruff Tait

This article by Kira Schlesinger appeared a bit ago at Ministry Matters, a site dedicated to resourcing church leaders: Over the weekend, a hashtag started popping up in my social media feeds: #ThanksForTyping. It had started with a few tweets by Bruce Holsinger, a literary scholar at the University of Virginia, noting that the acknowledgments in older academic work often included the author’s wife for her work in typing the manuscript. In some acknowledgments, the unnamed wife did much more... Read more

How to Spend The End of the Workday

May 8, 2017 By Jennifer Woodruff Tait

A friend of mine once described the “how-to-be-productive” genre of articles as “hyper-masculine, business-world *&$%”. I suppose she had a point. However, from time to time I find them helpful, and this article from Fast Company fit the bill: It’s 4 p.m. and you’re having a hard time focusing. So you stare at your computer and click in and out of lots of tabs. But when you look up, you see it’s only 4:03 p.m. Then, you get a glass of water,... Read more

Why Matt Overton started a social enterprise at his church

May 5, 2017 By Jennifer Woodruff Tait

Social enterprises might be a risky and unusual form of ministry, but a youth pastor argues that they can bring new life to the church. This post is reprinted from Faith and Leadership. Mowtown Teen Lawn Care and Youth Ministry Innovators in Vancouver, Washington, are among the organizations recently honored with the Traditioned Innovation Award from Leadership Education at Duke Divinity. The following is the fourth in an occasional series of articles about the award winners. Many people who learn about the... Read more

Meditation, Dentistry, and the Entrepreneur

April 30, 2017 By Jennifer Woodruff Tait

By Timothy Askew; reprinted from Inc. with the kind permission of Timothy Askew. Johnny Depp once said: “Trips to the dentist; I like to postpone that kind of thing.” I was stuck in the dentist’s chair for two and a half hours last Tuesday. This was perfect for a rainy spring day in New York. I came in depressed and anxious about business and some personal issues. After hearing the dentist’s usual homily on my dental sins (poor brushing, insufficient... Read more

Missing the Night Sky: or, the Industrial Revolution and the Stars

April 25, 2017 By Jennifer Woodruff Tait

I started reading this recent article from The New Atlantis thinking that it would be mostly about the technology of why we no longer see the stars. It turned out to be as much about the philosophy, even the spirituality, of why: “We used to look up in the sky and wonder at our place in the stars,” Matthew McConaughey’s character says near the beginning of the 2014 movie Interstellar. “Now we just look down and worry about our place in the... Read more

Every dying church in America has a community garden. Here’s a different idea

April 22, 2017 By Guest Contributor

Struggling congregations tend to chase after popular strategies rather than do what Jesus commanded -- make disciples, says the United Methodist pastor of a replanted church in Dallas. Read more

How to Deal With Distractions When You Have to Work Online

April 20, 2017 By Jennifer Woodruff Tait

I found these tips from Lifehacker pretty helpful, since all of my jobs except for being an Episcopal priest require constant online presence. (And that one requires more online presence than you might think.) Lifehacker sez: Many jobs in the contemporary workplace actually require that you’re online all the time, constantly connected to your coworkers—and to a mind-boggling ocean of distractions. Here’s how to stay focused. When you do all of your work online—especially if you work from home—it’s tempting... Read more

Human Beings are Not Investments

April 18, 2017 By Jennifer Woodruff Tait

This is the message of a recent blog post by Amy Laura Hall of Duke Divinity School, and of her book Conceiving Parenthood. (The book has been around for a while, but the blog post is commemorating its release into paperback). I wish this book were not so obviously relevant. I wish that people in the US were not listening in on yet another conversation about spending money on public schools and children’s lunches, on Head Start (a federal pre-school program) and... Read more

#Easter

April 15, 2017 By Jennifer Woodruff Tait

Are there any who are devout lovers of God? Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival! Are there any who are grateful servants? Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord! Are there any weary with fasting? Let them now receive their wages! If any have toiled from the first hour, let them receive their due reward; If any have come after the third hour, let him with gratitude join in the Feast! And he that arrived... Read more