My Charity Work is More Degrading Than Yours: Lessons in Leadership from the Middle School Fellowship (2)

March 23, 2009 By JBW

I’ll admit that leading middle school fellowship was not the most glamorous of choices for my volunteerism, compared to, say, planting sustainable organic gardens in the church yard, or delivering freshly baked bread to new visitors. But there was a deeper motivation at work here: I felt sorry for those kids. There you have it. I sympathized with them for having to be that age. It’s not their fault! Someone has got to help see them through! I know first-hand how bad it can be. Eighth grade was... Read more

My Charity Work is More Degrading Than Yours: Lessons on Leadership from the Middle School Fellowship (Part 1)

March 19, 2009 By JBW

I found out very early on that the weekly youth meetings of our Middle School "ministry" (please note that I use that term very loosely here) are nothing at all like the corporate management meetings that I am used to presiding over. With middle school kids, you are pretty much outnumbered, ignored, and out of control ninety-nine percent of the time. Plus they can be really gross. Well, the boys, anyways. Read more

Black Swans and Defining Moments of Your Career – Part 2

March 15, 2009 By JBW

One Friday evening many years ago, I experienced one of those significant Black Swan events that turned out to become a defining moment for my career. I had just gotten home from work when I received a call from my boss. She was crying. She told me that her boss, two layers of management above me, had just informed her that he was laying off our entire department within the company, and that there was nothing we could do about it.... Read more

Black Swans and Defining Moments of Your Career – Part 1

March 11, 2009 By JBW

If you took away the ten best days of the stock market’s history over the past 109 years, two-thirds of the cumulative gains produced by the Dow Jones Industrials would completely disappear. Conversely, if you avoided the ten worst days of the market’s performance over the span of its history, you would have tripled the actual return of the Dow. Surprisingly, those market-changing events represented just .03% of the market’s history: 10 days out of 29,694. As Jason Zweig discussed... Read more

Princeton Seminar to Discuss the Impact of Spirituality on the Workplace

March 3, 2009 By JBW

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I had been invited to speak at an event at Princeton Theological Seminary discussing the relationship between spirituality and business leadership. The dates have been changed. It is now scheduled for May 31 – June 1. Here is an updated post on that event. Hope to see you there! *********************************************************************************************************** What does your spiritual life have to do with your on-the-job leadership effectiveness? According to the Princeton Theological Seminary, the answer is, well,... Read more

A Review of Rick Warren’s New Magazine: The Purpose Driven Connection

February 26, 2009 By JBW

If you are one of the twenty five million people who purchased Rick Warren’s book, “The Purpose Driven Life,” and you are craving more, then get in line folks, because your dreams have come true! The Purpose Driven Connection magazine hits newstands this month. Rick Warren has created a glossy, oversized quarterly magazine that is chock full of all things Purpose-Driven. I mean, this thing is loaded! And it delivers Rick Warren o’ plenty: Rick on Life’s Mission. Rick on... Read more

What Are You Afraid Of? (2) God Might Want You to be Terrified Sometimes

February 24, 2009 By JBW

Continued from the previous post. I believe that the strength of our faith in God can be directly measured by how often we are terrified. If you haven’t had that nauseous, sinking feeling in your stomach lately, then maybe you have not been exercising your faith enough. And you are probably not growing. Fear is inevitably the thing that holds most of us back from reaching our potential, or from even trying. That’s not really breaking news, or anything. There... Read more

What Are You Afraid Of? Don’t Let Your Fears Hold Back Your Dreams

February 21, 2009 By JBW

When I was twenty years old I had an intense interest in songwriting. I wanted more than anything in the world to sign a publishing contract and have some of my songs recorded by major artists. I knew it was a brutally competitive industry, but many people had told me that my songs were pretty good. More importantly, I felt that I was “special” and God would make a way for me, without much effort on my part. Of course,... Read more

Snow Angels (2)

February 17, 2009 By JBW

Continued from previous post. These happy beasts calmly approach our daughters, who are now sitting on their snow saucers at the top of the hill, to pay a little visit. The Samoyeds sit down next to the girl-children, panting, smiling. The dogs get comfortable, as if this was their destination all along, like they’ve journeyed all the way from the frigid tundra of Siberia to finally meet the little Moore girls. They are calm, friendly, and convey a sense of... Read more

Snow Angels

February 14, 2009 By JBW

A few weeks ago our family spent the weekend watching some old videos from when the kids were little. Back then I had filmed a series of “a day in the life” routines, so that I could capture my little girls on tape and always remember the way it was. I had recorded moments of them singing, playing, laughing, running, and riding bikes. I even caught on tape a bit of naughtiness – some fighting and crying – which is... Read more