We have just sent off the order for a third printing of A Family Genogram Workbook by Galindo, Boomer, and Reagan. We’re pleased with its success (and its steady sales!). We only have a few on hand that qualify for discounts, so if you’re interested in a copy order from us soon. (While the book is available through Amazon.com, they don’t give the discounts we provide). Multiple-copies discounts are available from Educational Consultants.

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During a conversation among parents about their children—now adolescents and young adults the issue of children and money came up. There were the usual rants about children not appreciating the value of money, anxieties about paying for college expenses, the astronomical increase in auto insurance when adding a teenager to the policy, etc. Most parents shared frustrations, and worry, about their teenage and young adult children not being able to handle their finances.

I asked the group of parents if they talked about money, finances, and stewardship with their children when they were young. All said that no, they hadn’t. That being the case, I wondered at their surprise that their grown children were unprepared to handle money as adults.

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Experience has its advantage: perspective. Being on this side of having reared children who are now grown I’m often amused at the things parent get anxious about. Many of the things parents get upset about related to their children’s behaviors fall under the category of what I call “kid stuff.” But, I can appreciate that living through the adventure of parenting, things can seem huge when one takes on the illusion of being responsible for the fate of one’s child.

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The winter 2009 issue of the Leadership in Ministry Workshops (LIM) newsletter is now available. You can download a copy of the newsletter by visiting the LIM website and selecting the link to the newsletters from the main menu.

The newsletter includes the following features:

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I’ve been doing formal consultation since 1989, when I started Educational Consultants. The venture achieved all the goals I had for it, including covering the college tuition for the boys. While success is its own reward, there’s a downside to it also. The traveling got old pretty soon, for one thing. I’m in the process of reconsidering how long I want to continue. Lately I’m turning down more offers and invitations than I’m taking on. Some of that has to do with the new job, but some of it is that my interests may be changing.

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Margaret Marcuson touches all the right bases in her first book for congregational leaders, Leaders Who Last: Sustaining Yourself and Your Ministry (Seabury Press, 2009). It is a primer on effective ministerial leadership based on perennial principals and much influenced by Marcuson’s experience in working with leaders, and, her continuing study of Bowen Systems Theory applied to leadership. A recognized coach to leaders Marcuson brings real world wisdom to the pages of this book on effective ministry leadership. Insightful, and often playful, Marcuson shares her coaching expertise with readers in this short course on effective leadership.

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Some of my students in my philosophy course are starting to get annoyed that the professor doesn’t answer their questions. More often than not, when a student asks a question, the professor will respond, “That’s a good question,” or, “What do you think?” It hasn’t stopped the students from asking good questions. In fact, as the course goes on, the students are learning to ask better questions.

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One interesting phenomena of the power of homeostasis is that whenever a leader attempts to bring about change he or she will most certainly encounter sabotage. And while we can find some comfort in the notion that reactivity is unimaginative, and therefore predictable, sabotage has a thousand faces. The fun thing about sabotage (if one can be non-reactive about it), is that while we can expect it, we will tend to be surprised at its source and the forms it takes. In that sense, for most of us, we never see it coming.

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Leaders who are shortsighted worry too much about what people say about them. Whether it’s because of insecurity, a need for affirmation, issues related to competence or image, many leaders measure success in the metrics of immediate change. More often than not, however, the full measure of our success can only be measured long after we’ve gone from the organization we leave. Only then can can determine how lasting our influence was.

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One of the most important qualities for leaders is the capacity for vision. Extraordinary leaders, however, are visionaries. The dilemma for visionaries is that they often are ahead of their time. Leaders with vision see the horizons and lead people there. Visionary leaders see beyond the horizon and try to communicate to those they lead vistas of places yet unseen and possibilities of things not yet realized. It’s hard enough for leaders with a vision; they need to be resilient in the face of resistance. For visionary leaders, it’s harder. They need to change people’s perception of what is possible, and they need courage to commit to persistence of vision in the face of incredulity.

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