August 2013

Leadership Is Relationship

An interview with Executive Director of Renovaré, Rachel Quan

During college, Rachel Quan's spiritual journey was shaped by the book Celebration of Discipline, Richard J. Foster's formative work on the spiritual life. Today Quan serves Renovaré USA—founded by Foster in 1988—as its executive director, bringing with her a wealth of experience from a rich career in church, parachurch, nonprofit, and business leadership. GFL recently spoke ...

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Church Leader: Unplugged

Just put down your phone and walk away
Church Leader: Unplugged

Shunda shares the pastorate of a mid-size church in upstate New York. Her responsibilities span preaching, the youth group, evangelism, and community activism. A multi-talented single woman (she sings, plays guitar, writes, and even paints from time to time), Shunda works unending hours.

Maybe it's because she loves her sheep. Maybe it's because people contact her, ...

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What Are We Teaching Our Young Women?

The church needs to Lean In to the conversation concerning marriage and singleness

The Internet is ablaze with discussions surrounding Sheryl Sandberg's national bestseller, Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead. Early in the book she addresses age-old conversations surrounding women and their choices concerning work and their relationships. She writes, "I was twenty-four and convinced that marriage was the first—and necessary—step to a happy and productive ...

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A Guide to Addressing Fear

The first step is choosing to face it.
A Guide to Addressing Fear
Image: iStock

When we feel fear, God understands, because he's the one who made us that way. In many ways, that first response is involuntary. He designed our minds that way so we could react quickly in dangerous situations without being slowed down by the rational thought process, which takes much longer.

Surprise: fear is not a sin—it's a gift.

All throughout Scripture God ...

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Let’s Take Leadership Seriously

God does not require less from women

In John C. Maxwell's book Developing the Leader Within You, he explains that the majority of people believe being a leader is a position or title. Most often we strive for a title or status and believe that once we achieve the particular status, we become leaders. He goes on to challenge readers by asking what type of leaders they are. Hitler was a leader. Jim Jones was also ...

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Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

A book review

Why I picked up this book:

I read Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In for several reasons: 1) I had seen Sheryl's TED Talk on why there are so few women leading and resonated with her message and style. 2) As the COO of Facebook, Sheryl consistently makes the "lists." You know, like the Forbes and TIME "most powerful" and "most influential" lists they create each year. 3) There still ...

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When Clergy Fashion Goes Wrong

“The Mysterious Third Nipple” and other horror stories

At a recent ministry event, I seized an opportunity to test out my favorite new party trick among clergywomen.

"I'm just curious," I queried, "if anyone has had a professional wardrobe malfunction…"

Though the term was officially coined by TV execs in the wake of the 2004 Super Bowl fiasco, as an attempt to explain Janet Jackson's ...

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It’s Time for the Church to Speak against Injustice toward Our Youth

An interview with Dr. Kimberlee Johnson, minister and director of the Center for Urban Youth Development at Eastern University

"Where were you when the lights went out?"

That's the question that resonated in my heart as I considered the plight of so many minority and underprivileged youth in our country. Every day, our American youth are being destroyed because of a lack of education, lack of boundaries, lack of leadership, lack of support, all of which leads to a lack of hope. Often these hopeless ...

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Avoiding Pitfalls in Ministry through Social Media

When we engage online, we face temptation to make too much or too little of ourselves
Avoiding Pitfalls in Ministry through Social Media

There has never been a time when the message of the gospel could be spread more widely around the globe than today, through the avenue of social media. I'm a mom of two small boys who uses social media to spread messages of hope. From my laptop in my living room, I can write an encouraging blog post that can go to endless lengths I will never know of, just with the click ...

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