Here’s a summarized paraphrase of Seth Godin’s blog on Exploration and the risk of failure. The changes are in italics.
Evangelism and the risk of failure
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God’s Technology DVD: Training our children to use digital technology for God’s glory.
Until last week Mark Hurd was the hyper-successful CEO of Hewlett Packard. He was brought in five years ago to turn “the company around but also to set a more professional tone in the executive suite.” Although he implemented some extremely painful cost-cutting measures and aggressively acquired other companies, he was highly regarded and about to sign a new contract worth $100 million.
But all that is history now because last week HP let him go after he admitted that he “did not live up to the standards and principles of trust, respect and integrity that I have espoused at HP…” Which is corporate-speak for saying that he messed up with sex and money. The usual. At the Harvard Business Review, Ron Ashkenaz asks “Why?” and comes up with two answers which show the link between deference and deviance. 1. Hurd started believing his own press clippings.Being a senior executive — and especially a CEO — is a heady thing. People defer to you and treat you like corporate royalty. You have an entourage that takes care of mundane tasks, writers that prepare your speeches and presentations, and a PR department that shapes your internal and external image. In the midst of this “heroic executive” culture, it’s easy to unconsciously think that you can do whatever you want to do, particularly in seemingly minor or personal matters.
Research at Stanford and Berkeley has shown that power over others often results in behavioral disinhibition. “People in charge are less likely to follow the rules and social conventions that others accept as their lot, and are more likely to pursue their own goals without thinking too much about the possible downsides or consequences for others.” As Bill Clinton admitted to Dan Rather in a post Monica Lewinsky interview: “I think I did something for the worst possible reason — just because I could.”
2. Hurd lacked honest feedback.It’s not that CEOs, senior executives, and many managers have no one to talk to — many have no one to talk back to them. At the same time, many senior executives have no one to share doubts and underlying anxieties. They don’t want to appear weak or uncertain with their own people, which might, in their minds, undermine their authority or leadership. So in the absence of intellectual pushback and emotional empathy, senior people either lose perspective on what’s appropriate, or find external relationships that fulfill their needs but may not be appropriate.
Ashkenaz forcefully concludes that all of us need to tone down the excessive deference that creates the “heroic executive” culture. Instead he wants more of us to heroically challenge our bosses and peers when necessary.
And he wants managers “to be more open to admitting mistakes and uncertainty, and encouraging real give-and-take with subordinates and colleagues.” And, if you can’t find someone to do this in your own organization, get an outsider “who is not cowed by your status and can be a confidential listener and effective devil’s advocate.” And what’s that got to do with pastors and churches? Well, re-read this post substituting church for organization and Pastor for Executive/Manager. Look familiar now?————————
God’s Technology DVD: Training our children to use digital technology for God’s glory.
Download here. We enjoyed interviewing Tony Reinke (blogger at Miscellanies) for this week’s Connected Kingdom. In the first part of the podcast, Tony talks about A Christian Guide to Reading, a book he is writing for Crossway. Then, after briefly discussing one of Tony’s unusual hobbies (visiting cemetries!), he tells us what it’s like to work as C J Mahaney’s assistant at Sovereign Grace Ministries. Talk about from death to life!
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God’s Technology DVD: Training our children to use digital technology for God’s glory.
I’ve posted a couple of articles on Old Testament exegesis recently. But while disciplined and systematic study of the Biblical text is vitally important, I’m always conscious of the dangers of it becoming just an intellectual exercise. That’s one of the reasons this blog is called Head Heart Hand. It is to emphasize that while God usually begins by addressing the head, what is understood with the head must impact our hearts (our emotions, feelings, desires, etc), and ultimately be outworked in practical ways in our lives (our “hands”).
I was reminded of this when I read Learn from Darwin by Jon Bloom at Desiring God Ministries. Jon explains how though the young Charles Darwin considered entering the ministry, he eventually turned to the study of beetles, plants and rock formations.
He spent the rest of his life intensely observing things, reducing them to their component parts and theorizing where they came from and why they behaved as they did…
But…
…all that time in his laboratory abstracting theories from facts had conditioned his mind to analyze to such a degree that he could no longer enjoy beauty just for what it was.
Darwin himself mourned that, “The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature.”
John Bloom concludes, “Too much dissection robbed him of delight.”
Let’s beware of that result when exegeting Scripture, and make sure that all our dissection leads to delight.
I spent most of the day working on Lecture 1 in my upcoming course on Poets and Prophets at PRTS.
Here’s an outline of the general principles behind my approach to Old Testament exegesis. 1. Pray: for enlightenment/illumination 2. Meditate: Meditation is thinking and thinking and thinking about the words of the text without outside help. Roots of the word means “to mutter out loud.” 3. Simplify: Start with the clear and the obvious and move towards the less clear 4. Widen: Start with the text and move towards wider context that may have influence on text 5. Concentrate: shut off all distractions (email, phone, etc). 6. Slow: Stop skimming and start diving 7. Link: Do not isolate words and phrases from each other but focus on transitions and relations 8. Spiral: exegetical steps are not to be followed A-B-C…Z, etc, but A-B-C-A-B-C-D-E-F-A, etc. We keep revising earlier conclusions in the light of later research. We spiral downwards rather than skim forwards. 9. Horizon: Keep in view that the overall purpose of the Bible is to make a person wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ (2 Tim. 3:15). Although God addresses people in their own original situation, His words are always anticipating the climactic revelation of Jesus Christ (John 5:39; Lk. 24:27). 10. Believe and obey: God promises more light and understanding to those who believe and obey His Word (James 1:22-25; 2 Pet 1:5-8; 1 Pet. 3:7). Tomorrow I’ll post the outline of my step-by-step guide to Old Testament exegesis.————————
God’s Technology DVD: Training our children to use digital technology for God’s glory
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