Snippets- Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love and Leadership

In his book Humilitas, John Dickson outlines the historical development of humility as a virtue in Western cultures.  He describes how growing in humility allows a person to lead others well.
A few key insights from the book:

Humility is the noble choice to forgo your status, deploy your resources or use your influence for the good of others before yourself. More simply, you could say the humble person is marked by a willingness to hold power in service of others (Kindle location 167)

a. Persuasion and example are keys to effective leadership. b. Humility enhances persuasiveness, partly because it is a compelling character trait in leaders. c. Therefore, humility is important for leadership (Kindle location 407)

The first is the simple observation made in the previous chapter: humility is persuasive. People find themselves trusting the decisions and arguments of someone who puts others before themselves. (Kindle location 1433)

Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love, and Leadership

Review- The Workshop Book: From Individual Creativity to Group Action

  The Workshop Book: From Individual Creativity to Group Action by R. Brian Stanfield sets out a process for participatory workshops in a variety of settings.  The book outlines a process that can be used in a variety of settings to lead a group towards a consensus-oriented problem solving model.  His five steps are:
1.  Setting the context
2.  Brainstorming
3.  Clustering ideas
4.  Naming the clusters of ideas
5.  Symbolizing the resolve
He defines the five steps as follows:

1.  The context sets the stage for what is to follow.  It calls the group to attention.  It outlines the process and the timeline for the workshop.  It explains the product and the outcome.  It highlights the focus question.

2.  Brainstorming the ideas gathers all relevant data from the group and puts it in front of them.

3.  Clustering the ideas develops clusters of ideas and puts similar items of data together into related clusters 

4.  Naming gives each cluster of ideas a name.  Larger clusters or sub-clusters are identified and given names.  The result is a comprehensive picture of the ordered relationship of all ideas generated in the workshop.

5.  Resolving confirms the group's commitment to the decisions they have made and moves it to action.  The leader reads through the named clusters out loud and then holds a discussion to reflect on the workshop, using focused conversation questions.  Finally the group decides on the next steps, and how they will document the workshop results.  (26)

Throughout the book, Stanfield highlights principles of creating a participatory environment, writing "The workshop assumptions require respect, depth of listening and honouring of each participant.  They are the key to creating a more participatory, engaging workshop environment." (56)

     Stanfield's approach is simple, and avoids the possible complications of other participatory models which require the facilitator to master a variety of tools.  He explains how to apply the tool to groups of different sizes, and how to manage difficulties that may arise in workshops.  

     One possible criticism of the book is the title- the description of the process as a "workshop" can easily be misinterpreted as a training event, rather than a tool to facilitate discussion.  He does describe how the process can be developed into a series of discussions, which may more closely resemble a workshop.  However, the majority of the book focuses on the topic of facilitating group discussions.

     The Workshop Book is a helpful tool for those who facilitate groups of adults in educational or work settings.  It presents a simple, and yet powerful strategy that can be easily adapted to a variety of groups and situations.

The Workshop Book: From Individual Creativity to Group Action (ICA series)

Review: I Exalt You, O God by Jerry Bridges

 Jerry Bridge's book,  I Exalt You, O God:  Encountering His Greatness in Your Private Worship is a month-long devotional written to facilitate personal worship.  The book begins with an introduction that highlights the importance of personal worship, in addition to weekly worship.  The remainder of the book contains 31 days of devotional readings, divided into four focal areas.  The first set of readings focuses on God's greatness, while the second set focuses on God's holiness.  The third group of readings focuses on God's wisdom, and the fourth focuses on God's love.
     Each day's reading begins with a short reflection, and concludes with a scripture-based prayer.  These prayers are the highlight of the book, leading the reader through a focused prayer that draws deeply from several Bible passages.
     I Exalt You, O God is somewhat counter-cultural, as it leads the reader primarily through focusing on the greatness, holiness, and wisdom of God, rather than on one's own personal needs.  The final section ties together the attributes of God's greatness with His love for His children.  Bridges writes,
There should always be a healthy tension between the confidence with which we come before God as His children and the reverential awe with which we behold Him as our sovereign Lord.  There's a difference between holy familiarity and unholy familiarity with God.  We have indeed received the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit by whom we cry 'Abba Father' (Romans 8:15).  This expression conveys the warmth and confidence with which we may come into His presence.  At the same time, we should remember that this One whom we're invited to address as our Father is still the sovereign and holy God.  He is still the King who is eternal, immortal, and invisible, and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see (1 Timothy 1:17, 6:16). (109)
     This devotional is infused with scripture, and is recommended for anyone desiring to establish habits of personal worship.

I received a complementary review copy of this book from the publisher.

I Exalt You, O God: Encountering His Greatness in Your Private Worship

Mere Christianity: The Real Problem

That is why the real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.

We can only do it for moments at first. But from those moments the new sort of life will be spreading through our system: because now we are letting Him work at the right part of us. It is the difference between paint, which is merely laid on the surface, and a dye or stain which soaks right through. He never talked vague, idealistic gas. When He said, ‘Be perfect,’ He meant it. He meant that we must go in for the full treatment. It is hard; but the sort of compromise we are all hankering after is harder—in fact, it is impossible. It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

My Top 5 Books On Special Needs | Christianity Today

Amy Julia Becker, author of A Good and Perfect Gift has compiled a list of five recommended books on special needs.
Her list includes the following titles:
The Bible, Disability, and the Church: A New Vision of the People of God by Amos Yong
The Violent Bear it Away by Flannery O'Connor
Living Gently in a Violent World: The Prophetic Witness of Weakness by Stanley Hauerwas and Jean Vanier
Dancing with Max: A Mother and Son Who Broke Free by Emily Colson

For more information, view her post at the link below:

My Top 5 Books On Special Needs | Christianity Today

Classic Poetry: I Cannot Dance

I Cannot Dance
I cannot dance, Lord, unless you lead me.
If you want me to leap with abandon,
You must intone the song.
Then I shall leap into love,
From love into knowledge,
From knowledge into enjoyment,
And from enjoyment beyond all human sensations.
There I want to remain, yet want also to circle higher still

Mechthild of Magdeburg

Snippets: Lessons of the Masters

To teach seriously is to lay hands on what is most vital in a human being. It is to seek access to the quick and innermost of a child’s or an adult’s integrity. A Master invades, he breaks open, he can lay waste in order to cleanse and rebuild.

Poor teaching, pedagogic routine, a style of instruction which is, unconsciously or not, cynical in its mere utilitarian aims, are ruinous. They tear up hope by its roots. Bad teaching is, almost literally, murderous and metaphorically, a sin. It diminishes the student, it reduces to gray inanity the subject being presented. It drips into the child’s or the adult’s sensibility that most corrosive of acids, boredom, the marsh gas of ennui.

Millions have had mathematics, poetry, logical thinking killed for them by dead teaching, by the perhaps subconsciously vengeful mediocrity of frustrated pedagogues.

George Steiner, Lessons of the Masters, 18

Classic Poetry: God's Grandeur

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
  It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
  It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;      
  And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
  And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
  There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;      
And though the last lights off the black West went
  Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
  World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Gerard Manley Hopkins,  Poems, 1918

Snippets- 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess

  7:  An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess is the diary of Jen Hatmaker's project to eliminate excess from her lifestyle.  Each month, she took on a different challenge, from eating more simply, to giving away excess items, to reducing media consumption.  In the last month of the challenge, she focuses on sabbath-keeping.  She reflects,

Is it coincidental that God named every person included in the rest? Sons and daughters, servants and animals, guests and visitors; we all need this. My neglect of the Sabbath doesn’t just affect me but my entire household, my extended community. The pace we keep has jeopardized our health and happiness, our worship and rhythms. We belong to a culture that can’t catch its breath; rather, we refuse to catch our breath. God doesn’t pull any punches here: The Sabbath is holy. Not lazy, not selfish, not unproductive; not helpful, not optional, not just a good idea. Holy. Like God demonstrated in Exodus 16, He’ll provide for daily needs, but on the sixth day He’ll rain down a double portion to store up for the Sabbath, covering our needs while we rest. The only day a double collection wouldn’t spoil by dawn’s light was the Sabbath; God made a way. (Kindle location 4772).

  7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess

Book Review: What Matters Most

In his book, What Matters Most, Leonard Sweet challenges Christians to focus on a relationship with Jesus.  He challenges the idea that faith is simply intellectual assent, and defines true faith as pursuing and active relationship with Jesus, and following Him.
The major strength of the book is its call away from complacency and into active faith.  He rightly asserts that belief in Jesus requires a life of relationship and action.
When Christians are largely indistinguishable from non-Christians in how they live and think, there is no longer a startling freshness to the proclamation of biblical truth when it is presented as principles and propositions.  How a person lives speaks much more loudly than what he or she asserts, now as always.  And with Christians nearly identical to all others in the culture, what they say loses impact. (34)
This call to action is the strongest part of the book; Sweet is right to challenge his readers away from complacency.  Another highlight of the book is his challenge to readers to engage deeply with scripture, allowing God's Story to shape our lives.  Later in the book, he writes of the need to live life in community, imitating Jesus in our fellowship and community.  Of course, we know how much Jesus disliked eating alone.  Can the same be said of the church?  (142).
  After initially defining this relationship, the remainder of the book focuses on:
1.  Our relationship with God.
2.  Our relationship with God's Story.
3.  Our relationship with other people of faith.
4.  Our relationship with those outside the faith.
5.  Our relationship with God's creation.
6.  Our relationship with symbols, artifacts, and things and
7.  Our relationship with the spiritual world.
Though the book begins with a promising premise, the book has several significant weaknesses.
The first, and perhaps most significant weakness is the false dichotomy between intellectual belief and action.  Though believing right doctrine without action is certainly not enough, right action typically flows out of right belief.   The biblical challenge to love God with our hearts, soul, mind and strength implies a unity of thought and action.  While Sweet is right to correct the error of intellectual belief without action, he makes the opposite error in undermining the value of right living that flows out of belief.
Another weak part of the book is Sweet's interpretation and discussion of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 24.  He relies on rabbinic interpretations, and concludes that the passage describes a weak moment in Abraham's relationship with God, rather than a demonstration of his faith.  He writes, Abraham's silence in the face of an outrageous command from God signals a failure of relationship on his part.  If you give up the struggle of discernment and hearing, you are not in a right relationship with God. (64).  Again, with this interpretation and the subsequent dialogue, Sweet creates a false dichotomy between obedience and relationship.  Our relationship with God is not that of two equal beings; while God graciously allows us to dialogue with him, there are also times when a love relationship requires faithful obedience without complete understanding.  Similarly, later on in the book Sweet repeats a similar false dichotomy, writing, Sin is not a breaking of commands; sin is a breaking of relationships (151).   This statement does not allow for the both to be true, when in fact disobedience to a command is a reflection of the relationship; a person in right relationship with God obeys His commands.
Though the overall premise of the book, that a real, living relationship with God is essential to living the Christian life is true and helpful, Sweet's book overall is weak.  In his attempt to correct propositional belief without right living, Sweet creates false dichotomies and makes the opposite error.

**I received a complementary review copy of this book by Waterbrook Publishers

August Book Log

• Coming of Age on Zoloft:  How Antidepressants Cheered us up, Let us down, and Changed Who We Are by Katherine Sharpe
• The Power of a Positive No:  How to say NO and Still Get to Yes by William Ury
• The Art of Friendship:  70 Simple Rules for Making Meaningful Connections by Roger and Sally Horchow
• What Matters Most by Leonard Sweet
• Choosing to See by Mary Beth Chapman
• Behind the Veils of Yemen by Audra Grace Shelby
• 7:  An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker
• Traditions of the Ancients: Vintage Faith Practices for the 21st Century by Marcia Ford
• Perfecting Ourselves to Death:  The Pursuit of Excellence and the Perils of Perfectionism by Richard Winter
• I Exalt You, O God by Jerry Bridges
• The Workshop Book:  From Individual Creativity to Group Action by R. Brian Stanfield
• Inerrancy and Worldview:  Answering Modern Challenges to the Bible by Vern Poythress

Snippets: The Power of a Positive No

William Ury's book, The Power of a Positive No:  How to say NO and Still Get to Yes focuses on how to say "no" to a request, while still maintaining relationships.  He highlights the value of saying "no" in order to be able to say "yes" to more valuable priorities and opportunities.  Some highlights from the book:

When we want to say No to an offensive behaviour or inappropriate demand, it is only natural to feel angry.  But anger can blind us.  In the rush to say No, angrily and sometimes vengefully, it is all too easy to lose sight of the prize -- advancing our interests.  Fear too can prevent us from pursuing our objectives.  We imagine in advance the other's reaction to our No.  What will they think of us or do to us?  What will happen to our relationship, to the deal, and thus to our interests?  Paralyzed, we accomodate, giving up on our needs.  Guilt has a similar effect.  "Who am I to say No?"  "I don't deserve the time to myself."  "Their needs are far more important than mine".  Anger can blind, fear can paralyze, and guilt can weaken.  (30)

The essence of a Positive No is to assert without rejecting-- to assert your interests without rejecting the other as a person... Because the other can easily misinterpret your No and attribute false motives to you, your Yes is an opportunity for you to clarify your motives in saying No.  It offers you a chance to show the other that you are not seeking to reject them personally, but simply trying to protect what is important to you (104).

The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No and Still Get to Yes

Coming of Age on Zoloft

Katherine Sharpe's book, Coming of Age on Zoloft:  How Antidepressants Cheered us up, Let us down, and Changed Who We Are artfully combines memoir, research and interview to explore the impact of depression and its treatment on young adults.  Her focus is on the generation growing up during the 1990s and after, as SSRIs and other psychiatric medications have become readily available.
Sharpe begins with her own story of diagnosis with depression as a student, as well as her realization that many of her peers were also being treated with SSRIs.  She explores the history of medical views of depression, and the development of anti-depressant medications in the latter part of the 20th century.
     Much of the book focuses on the experiences of young adults who have been depressed, and who have taken anti-depressant medications at some point in their lives.  The book includes portions of her interviews, as young adults recount their experiences with depression and medical treatment.  She also explores role of counselling in depression treatment.
     Sharpe focuses on the ways that depression treatments affect the identity and self-perception of young adults.  She notes the struggle that many young adults who have been treated with SSRIs have with forming their identity, and determining how their personalities and life trajectories have been shaped by their use of anti-depressants.  Her viewpoint is balanced, and includes the stories of those who positively view their treatment with anti-depressants, as well as those who have had difficult experiences.  She neither promotes nor judges the use of medication, but allows individual stories to be told.
     Though her attitude towards those who struggle with depression and who use medications is clearly non-judgemental, Sharpe critically analyzes the ways in which the availability with SSRIs have shaped views of mental health in North America.  The final chapters of the book examine the ways in which biomedical models of depression have shaped our understanding of normal emotional patterns and struggle.  She cautions that overdiagnosis and treatment for depression may cause young adults to see their problems as internally caused, rather than critically examining the life challenges in modern North American culture that are stressful and difficult for young adults.
    Sharpe skillfully balances narrative and analysis in her book.  The reader is left challenged to examine their definition of mental health, and how the bio-medical view of depression shapes our view of self.

Purchase Coming of Age on Zoloft: How Antidepressants Cheered Us Up, Let Us Down, and Changed Who We Are

Snippets: Cynics and Prophets

I think many Christian cynics may be fallen prophets. The prophet addresses God's people with engaged, sympathetic anguish, whereas the cynic ridicules God's people with distanced, apathetic annoyance...To make the transition from the way of the cynic to the way of the prophet, it is necessary to embrace both hopefulness and love.

Andrew Byers, Faith Without Illusions: Following Jesus as a Cynic-Saint , Kindle locations 1425, 1431