Posted on April 4, 2008 by Israel Galindo

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Book review: Becoming a Healthy Church, by Macchia

Posted on April 3, 2008 by Israel Galindo

What are the two greatest gifts given to us? According to Stephen A. Macchia in Becoming a Healthy Church: 10 Traits of a Vital Ministry (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books 2003) the Word of God and prayer are the two greatest gifts given to us. The two should be woven into the fibers or our daily lives. “The lesson of the cross is that God is interested in us reaching up to Him vertically while we reach out to one another horizontally.” (p. 53). Continue reading →

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The Bible is not a children’s book

Posted on April 2, 2008 by Israel Galindo

One of the things my wife asked for Christmas was the missing volumes to her series of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, that outrageously (and refreshingly) “dark” children’s books. While many adults enjoy the wry humor in Snicket’s prose, the more significant aspect is children’s response to a cycle of stories that have no happy ending and exploits children’s worst fears (the children in the story are orphaned in the first book, and then it gets worse from there). Kids are eating up this series of stories. Continue reading →

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Roles vs. Function in BFST

Posted on April 2, 2008 by Israel Galindo

I recently received an e-mail from a Leadership in Ministry Workshops participant asking about the distinction between role and function often made in Bowen Family Systems Theory (BFST). This distinction is often difficult for folks to make, but I think it’s simple a matter of defining and delineating terms and concepts. Here’s my thinking on this and my explanation (I’ll count on other readers to provide a corrective if I’m not clear on this): generally speaking functions are specific to one’s position in the system, roles are negotiable and interchangeable. Functions have to do more with emotional process, while roles have more to do with management of systemic relationships. Continue reading →

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Book review: The Year 1000, by Lacey

Posted on March 31, 2008 by Israel Galindo

Eight years into the new millennium has diminished the novelty of that turn of the calendar. I can’t remember when was the last article or workshop I’ve seen with a reference to how to anticipate and address some concern “in the next millennium” or “in the new millennium.” And I, for one, am glad of it.

Reading history gives perspective and I try to read as much of it as I can. I finally got down the “to-read” books pile deep enough to pull out a book nine years in the waiting. And Robert Lacey’s The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium (New York: Little, Brown and Co., 1999) was worth the wait. Continue reading →

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Posted on March 28, 2008 by Israel Galindo

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Things becoming obsolete

Posted on March 27, 2008 by Israel Galindo

Last week someone left a plastic bag on my porch. It contained two hefty telephone directories. This yearly event used to annoy me. I have no use for phone books. If I want to find a person, company, or address I use the internet. Phone books are obsolete. Why do they go through the expense of printing and distributing them? Continue reading →

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Emotional process, leadership, and anxiety

Posted on March 26, 2008 by Israel Galindo

In preparation for an upcoming presentation I’ve been examining the dynamics of emotional process and anxiety as they relate to leadership. Since my orientation for this study is Bowen Family Systems Theory (BFST) my definition of leadership is related to a person’s functional position in a relationship system (a family, a corporation, an institution, etc.) rather than a narrow organizational definition. Continue reading →

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Columbus, Philosophy, and Christian Education

Posted on March 25, 2008 by Israel Galindo

The following is from the book Myths: Fact and Fiction about Teaching and Learning by Israel Galindo. How well do you know fact from fiction?

Fiction: Christopher Columbus sailed to the new world on the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Continue reading →

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