Columbia Connections

This blog’s topic, “Lessons learned from your favorite piece of theological literature and how you apply its lessons” has been the most challenging topic I’ve written about this year.

In fact, I’ve spent the year avoiding it.

How does one...

What can leaders accomplish, really?

Despite personal competence, charisma, expertise, or credentials, the reality is that a leader will be successful in bringing about change to the extent the organization allows.

One of the most important things leaders do...

If you are the leader, critics come with the territory.

Few things are as frustrating and disheartening for a leader as being on the receiving end of undue criticism.

It seems that no good deed goes unpunished, no meaningful...

Anxiety can lead to reactivity in the form of a search for security.

This reactivity takes the form of people seeking certitude and demanding guarantees during times of uncertainty.

But the fact is that security, guarantees, and certitudes are myths....

A friend called asking for help.

She was stuck trying to make a decision.

After months of discussion, she and her family finally convinced her mother of the need to move her into an assisted living facility.

That’s never an...

In the height of white America’s fear of Muslim people’s background and faith, the white congregation I served in northwest Washington leaned into learning about and experiencing life with our Muslim neighbors.

We knew so little.

We knew that anyone...