I doubt Sgt Kimberly Munley reported to her duty station expecting anything other than a routine day when she began her shift at Ft. Hood. Little did she know that her world as well as the world of countless soldiers and Department of Defense civilians would turn into a violent toxic mess that day.
On that day she moved from being a police sergeant to a national hero. Why? Because Sgt Kimberly Munley is a sheepdog. From what I have read, she did what she was trained to do as an armed police officer in an "active shooter" situation she ran towards the shooter and engaged him and shot him.
LTC David Grossman, author of On Killing and On Combat, and various articles on the impact o media violence, says there are three types of people in the world. I want to focus on two.
The wolf, whether in their right mind or not has a mission to intimidate, destroy and kill sheep. The sheepdog, on the other hand, loves the sheep and is willing to face danger and run toward trouble in order to protect the sheep and neutralize the wolf.
Thank God for Sheepdogs like Sgt. Munley
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
Leadership Crisis in the Church
As a church ministry team consultant I regularly talk with pastors about the challenges they face in ministry. As with any profession there are certain themes that seem to always be near the surface.
George Barna has done an exceptional job of noting trends and areas of interest for church leaders. His latest book focuses on some of the key issues leaders face in 2009-2010
The Barna Group, the gold standard of Church life recently released a powerful study on Church Leadership. Here is a sample with a link:
According to the research, the specific behaviors that leaders do most poorly include:
* Negotiating agreements that maximize benefits at minimal cost
* Attracting new resources to the organization – especially human and financial capital
* Developing and implementing individualized developmental plans for emerging leaders
* Nurturing robust relationships with existing colleagues, demonstrating sufficient care and attention to their needs
The research also discovered that leaders sometimes perceive themselves to be more effective at specific aspects of leading than their performance suggests. A prime example relates to vision. While an overwhelming majority of leaders believes that they are very effective at using the organization’s vision as their chief decision-making filter, the study found that one of the greatest weaknesses of most leaders is relying on the vision to protect the organization from over-commitment. “Leaders tend to point to their vision as the reason to say ‘yes’ to opportunities,” explained George Barna. “But our research showed that there is much less willingness to use the vision as a reason to say ‘no’ to opportunities that are not in the best interests of the organization.” Link to the article
George Barna has done an exceptional job of noting trends and areas of interest for church leaders. His latest book focuses on some of the key issues leaders face in 2009-2010
The Barna Group, the gold standard of Church life recently released a powerful study on Church Leadership. Here is a sample with a link:
According to the research, the specific behaviors that leaders do most poorly include:
* Negotiating agreements that maximize benefits at minimal cost
* Attracting new resources to the organization – especially human and financial capital
* Developing and implementing individualized developmental plans for emerging leaders
* Nurturing robust relationships with existing colleagues, demonstrating sufficient care and attention to their needs
The research also discovered that leaders sometimes perceive themselves to be more effective at specific aspects of leading than their performance suggests. A prime example relates to vision. While an overwhelming majority of leaders believes that they are very effective at using the organization’s vision as their chief decision-making filter, the study found that one of the greatest weaknesses of most leaders is relying on the vision to protect the organization from over-commitment. “Leaders tend to point to their vision as the reason to say ‘yes’ to opportunities,” explained George Barna. “But our research showed that there is much less willingness to use the vision as a reason to say ‘no’ to opportunities that are not in the best interests of the organization.” Link to the article
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