Last week, on Palm Sunday, my 11-year-old daughter was sitting around with a few of my friends from church and asked us a question: “Next Friday is Good Friday. Why is it called ‘Good Friday?’ There’s nothing really ‘good’ about it.”
Me, a public theologian and seminary graduate, and three other really smart, bright, church going, educated, well traveled adults sat there with blank stares because none of us could answer the question.
We took to Google to get the answer. Continue reading
A few weeks back, I recorded an iTunes Podcast with Sarah Bragg, host of Surviving Sarah, a podcast focused on what it means to survive — survive life, yourself, your kids, your jobs, whatever! [I stole that from her site, btw!]
Before I jump in: if you don’t have iTunes, click HERE to listen to a streaming version. You’re WELCOME! Continue reading
Last year I read the book The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brayman and Rod A. Beckstrom. The 200-plus page book explores the concept of the “starfish” and the “spider,” two leadership models for organizations in any sector. Quickly, I’ll explain how both the starfish and the spider represent every organization you can think of:
The spider, according to Brayman and Beckstrom, is an insect that needs all of its parts to fully function. If a spider loses a leg, it will still live but will be severely handicapped, making it difficult for the spider to function as it should. If the spider loses its head, the entire body suffers and inevitably dies.
The starfish on the other hand, when it loses a limb, regenerates a new arm. What’s even more interesting, the separated arm will grow a brand new starfish out of that detached limb! What many people don’t know is that each arm of the starfish has everything it needs to regenerate and grow a new starfish — this means that even when a starfish’s arm is severed, the original body not only grows a new arm, but the new arm grows a new body! Continue reading
In Acts 9, we meet Saul, a man whose entire life is committed to persecuting and killing Christians.
We know the familiar story: he’s on the road to Damascus, and after petitioning synagogues to help him capture Christians, he meets Jesus who tells him to cut the crap.
After being hemmed up by Jesus, Saul asks, “Who are you, Lord?” Continue reading
This week, we walked towards death.
We journeyed with Jesus as he said His final goodbyes to His closest friends and confidants. We traveled with the Messiah as He prepared to leave behind the life He once knew to say yes to the Divine. Continue reading
Last night, I was watching a conversation unfold on social media about the rigid lines we must set to keep ourselves from falling into “tempting” things like relationships with the opposite sex and a host of other situations that may cause us to become emotional, incapacitated, and powerless. Continue reading
Rev. Alisha L. Gordon 