and Other Ways to Look Like You are Building God’s Kingdom When You are Really Building Your Own! When I was studying at Fuller Theological Seminary, the library had a disturbing conundrum. Periodically, a student would pull a book off the shelf, only to find that it was the hardback cover with no pages. […]
The life of a vice provost who also teaches half-time at a small Christian college is busy. There are emails to review, telephone calls to answer, strategies to plan, meetings to lead, administrators to appease, faculty to encourage, students to help, parents to placate, lectures to prepare, classes to teach, tests to give, chapels to […]
The prestige of being a top higher education leader is highly alluring. The perks of the office, the collaborative leadership style, and the constant focus on maintaining positive public relations on behalf of the institution and the leadership can create a bubble of false security and pride. However, that bubble can quickly burst when fiduciary […]
Terminating for Moral Failure: How to personally thrive when terminating senior staff The third-hand rumor of sexual misconduct came to my office. Without corroboration, I could do nothing. I would not, and could not, ask a valued senior staff member about a sexual rumor. Without substantiation, I could not cause his spirit harm with such […]
Solid faculty members with longevity at a Christian college often find themselves in new roles. This can be the result of their own choice or sometimes even coercion, such as when failed searches or limited financial resources “force” faculty into these new roles. While many may agree that faculty status easily supersedes a seat in the […]
Sadly, on rare occasions I have served with people who were more interested in building their own kingdoms than the Kingdom of God. Still, they do some good. Even Judas only took some of the money from the bag with which he had been entrusted. Might there someday be a Judas who will compromise […]
Safeguarding against Mission Drift In the Middle Ages, kind-hearted Franciscan monks developed a charity model to make sure the poor could buy food and wisely manage their money. This model, called Montes Pietatius, was also intended to help protect the poor from people who would take advantage of them (e.g., loan sharks). The Montes Pietatius […]
In an era filled with vision and hope, two men seized an audacious opportunity. In 1803, the French sold the Louisiana Purchase to the United States—828,000,000 square miles of uncharted territory—as large as the rest of the nation. President Thomas Jefferson asked his private secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to lead an exploration expedition named the Corps […]
All good things come to an end, including great leaders. However, it often happens that the leader not only physically ceases to exist, but he often ethically ceases to be good. Lucifer forsook God, Julius Caesar forsook democracy, and Anakin forsook the light side of the Force. But why do successful leaders become great tyrants? […]
