Loving, Learning, and Leading

Embracing Wholeness I have been thinking about the phrase "embracing wholeness" ever since I read it in Marva Dawn's book on living the Sabbath. Embracing wholeness means to embracing life with an openness to be made complete, or whole. I am convinced today that nothing impedes the life and the ministry of Christian's today more than unwholesome living. That is, living that does not seek spiritual, physical, emotional, and social health. Its interesting that we often accept the paradigm that each of these aspects of our lives are capable of being healthy, while the others are neglected. I know pastors who are seen as spiritually mature, while at the same time they neglect their bodies and are emotionally a mess. We see people seeking emotional peace while at the same time their spiritual lives are in rebellion against God. Jesus continues to see people as one. He is the original holistic healer. He seeks to heal the whole man. This is what is means to be whole. Pe

Leadership and managing I was recently speaking to a good friend of mine regarding what is needed to make change. She is a young leader of a fairly typical health institution. Health institutions, like corporations, and churches develop their own character, flavor, and culture. These cultures are often helpful initially, but unless they change with the culture and needs around them, they often become their own enemy. The church is no different. The culture that led our parent's to successfully establish a church will not engage today's highly changing culture. In 1950, the average community was fairly homogeneous and had been that way for over 35 years. That means that culturally, ethinically, religiously, and socioeconomically, communities were the same for generations with change being slow and predictable. Today's culture is completely different with major changes in the average community coming about every 7 years. This means that a church that wants to effectively enga