Some more “relationality” recommended readings. For one of my prior lists, click here.

• Zygmunt Bauman, Liquid Love: On the Frailty of Human Bonds
• Wendell Berry, What Are People For?
• Walter Brueggemann, The Covenanted Self: Explorations in Law and Covenant
• John MacMurray, Persons in Relation
• Sheila McNamee, Kenneth J. Gergen (editors), Relational Responsibility: Resources for Sustainable Dialogue
• Stephen A. Mitchell, Relationality: From Attachment to Intersubjectivity
• James K. A. Smith, Henry Isaac Venema, James H. Olthuis (editors), The Hermeneutics Of Charity: Interpretation, Selfhood, And Postmodern Faith
• Leonard Sweet, The Three Hardest Words: In the World to Get Right
• Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace
• Margaret J. Wheatley, Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future

peace, dwight

Here is an intering link to a transcript of last spring’s forum sponsored by The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.  The title is “Myths of the Modern Mega-Church” featuring Rick Warren and others.  

Peace, dwight

By the People, For the People: Seekers of Faith Increasingly Take “Church” into Their Own Hands

by Jay Voorhees Copyright © 2006 by The Alban Institute

Recently I stumbled across a wonderful on article AI and and humanity’s-tomorrow.  Published by Wired in August of 2000 Bill Joy (cofounder and Chief Scientist of Sun Microsystems) explores “Why the future doesn’t need us.” 

peace, dwight

Here is a rather famous and Worthy leadership article by Dee Hock; the founder and CEO emeritus of Visa (the credit card company).

Hock, Dee “The Art of Chaordic Leadership” Leader to Leader. 15 (Winter 2000): 20-26.

Making Peace

by Denise Levertov (1923-1997)

A voice from the dark called out,
“The poets must give us
imagination of peace, to oust the intense, familiar
imagination of disaster. Peace, not only
the absence of war.”

But peace, like a poem,
is not there ahead of itself,
can’t be imagined before it is made,
can’t be known except
in the words of its making,
grammar of justice,
syntax of mutual aid.

A feeling towards it,
dimly sensing a rhythm, is all we have
until we begin to utter its metaphors,
learning them as we speak.

A line of peace might appear
if we restructured the sentence our lives are making,
revoked its reaffirmation of profit and power,
questioned our needs, allowed
long pauses. . . .

A cadence of peace might balance its weight
on that different fulcrum; peace, a presence,
an energy field more intense than war,
might pulse then,
stanza by stanza into the world,
each act of living
one of its words, each word
a vibration of light–facets
of the forming crystal.

Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2

by Marcel Duchamp

oil on canvas, 1912

146 x 89 cm

Philadelphia Museum of Art

“In the beginning God created”

Those first words of the book of Genesis hint something of God’s artistic nature.  Ours is a God who delights in the intricacies of the pedal of a flower growing on the side of a mountain for no one to enjoy but Godself: beauty for the sake of beauty.

Part of what it means for humans to be fashioned in the image of God is the desire to share our creations.  

I’m on a journey to create.  Believing every person is an artist of a sort - and I do use the word “artist” loosely, having never had any formal training but with a passion to give expression to my journey I occasionally pick up a brush or a camera.  Please be gentle as you interact with my work.

peace, dwight

Leadership is an Art, by Max DePree

The Tale of Three Kings, by Gene Edwards

The Emergence of Leadership, by Douglas Griffin

Connective Leadership, Jean Lipman-Blumen

Complexity and Management, by Ralph D. Stacey

The Paradox of Control in Organizations, by Philip J. Streatfield

Leadership and the New Science, Margaret J. Wheatley