Multiple visits in the mid-1990s to once-beautiful Beirut, Lebanon revealed a war-torn city known as the Paris of the Middle East. Eight Lebanese factions at war with each other transformed the country, and Beirut in particular, into a scar-ridden nation. Led by the United States, peace-keeping nations intervened in hopes of stopping the bloodshed. […]
Who should Christian college leaders ask for book recommendations? Larry McKinney’s broad range of experience in Christian academia makes him an ideal candidate. He has served as president of Simpson University, Providence University College and Seminary, and the Association of Canadian Bible Colleges. As executive director of the Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE), […]
Daily pressures fool us. The fog they create prevents us from reflecting on important questions about where our institution is heading, how we are distinctive, how we are Christian, and whether we are maintaining or losing value. The questions we ask matter because “our actions and decisions are a reflection of the questions we ask […]
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 […]
