Leadership

Missional Consultation

Here is Alan Roxburgh’s report on the report on “Forming Leaders for the Missional/emerging Church consultation which took place in April. The event was sponsored by Fuller/Allelon and brought together 40 leaders from USA, Canada, UK, New Zealand and Australia.

Dwight J. Friesen June 19, 2005October 3, 2022

hubbing texts

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

Dwight J. Friesen June 7, 2005January 18, 2021

leadership is conversation

After sitting with the question of “the nature of leadership” for some time, I find myself moving toward a very simple understanding. Is leadership is about conversation. Leadership has less to do with the clarity of vision, and much more

Dwight J. Friesen May 6, 2005November 20, 2020

morphogenesis of church life

I’ve been giving some more thought to the connections of Cellular Mitosis with church growth and church planting. The body of Christ appears to be a not unlike a multi-cellular living organism. Multi-cellular living organisms contain more than one cell

Dwight J. Friesen April 22, 2005January 14, 2021

pastoring as bi-vocation

Many avant-church leaders/hosts/facilitators/curates/etc. are serving in bi-vocational ways; meaning they earn their living working a “regular” job in order to support their community habit. Some have made this a conscious decision, others have been forced into this bi-vo-role by slower

Dwight J. Friesen March 23, 2005October 10, 2022

Emerging Women

This week in Seattle there is a gathering of Emerging Women’s Leadership. This initiative is one of the most important to be born of the avant-church conversation to date. The “emergent” conversation I’ve been most familiar with, appeared to begin

Dwight J. Friesen March 8, 2005December 13, 2022

hosting forum

Today’s entry is intended for use by those who proactively shape the ethos of Quest by participating as our hosting forum. Quest’s “Hosting Forum” is the gathering of participants from our spiritual community who intentionally & collectively discern on behalf

Dwight J. Friesen December 21, 2004January 14, 2021

leading postures

A few years ago I asked a few people to help me see myself as “pastor” and “leader”. Through the process of that three month conversation I made a number of commitments that I revisit often and fail even frequently.

Dwight J. Friesen October 28, 2004September 14, 2022

Breaking the Academy’s Fourth Wall

This morning I had the privilege of interacting with the Mars Hill Graduate School student leadership.  I’ve got to say that they are an impressive group.  In all of my schooling I have never seen a student led group so

Dwight J. Friesen October 17, 2004October 25, 2022

leading… why no one IS “leader”

I was rereading The Web of Life and The Hidden Connections by Capra this morning (he may be best known for his book The Tao of Physics).  These thoughts come from his work: A living social system of any sort, be

Dwight J. Friesen October 13, 2004September 13, 2022

the “parish” corrective

The return of the parish appears to be an ecclesial movement sweeping Western Christ-communities.  I’ve been thinking of it as the parish corrective.  I would characterize this corrective as a local church move to embody “full life” or embody the

Dwight J. Friesen September 24, 2004December 7, 2020

My Latest Essay… “Hubbing”

I finished my “unleadership” essay for my doctoral program. I titled it, “Hubbing: The “Being” and “Act” of Leadership within Dynamic Christ-Clusters.” I hope to take some of the main ideas from the essay and turning it into shorter and

Dwight J. Friesen April 28, 2004December 1, 2022

my relational leadership

Over the past few months I elicited a small group of friends to help me evaluate my person and leadership. This small group comprised of three men and two women have known me for an average of three and one-half

Dwight J. Friesen April 15, 2004August 31, 2022

Ethos & Leadership Emergence

I’m in the process of writing an essay on the concept of leadership as a communal ethos (I talked a little about this on 3/25). This is a constructivist position arguing in favor of a self-emptying, relationally connective form of

Dwight J. Friesen April 6, 2004December 5, 2022

Summoned

Do leaders exist ontologically? I know that some church traditions claim an ontological ordination but that just seems to set us up for abuse of power, (of course the church would never abuse its power). Most leadership literature speaks more

Dwight J. Friesen March 25, 2004December 6, 2022

Questions to Emerging Leaders

Questions to emerging leaders: Peace, dwight

Dwight J. Friesen March 21, 2004December 7, 2022

Let’s Get (Meta)physical

In the words of Olivia Newton John – almost – “Let’s get metaphysical, metaphysical, we wanna get metaphysical, let us hear Christ’s body talk…” (or something like that). I’m in the process of writing a short paper on leadership. I

Dwight J. Friesen February 11, 2004December 8, 2022

Johari Window

One of the tools I have come to find quite helpful when I’m in the process of discerning which path to take, or question to explore, or practice to engage… basically when my way doesn’t seem clear I often spend

Dwight J. Friesen February 6, 2004December 7, 2021

Helping Others Thrive

The modern epistemological project assumed that systems could be objective, thus making neutrality possible. A more pomo approach might suggest that no system, construct, ideology, etc can be neutral. Semiotically speaking, all systems are a type of language. The systems

Dwight J. Friesen December 9, 2003January 31, 2023

Spiritual Leadership

I just returned from a denominational conference and was shocked by the “us” verses “them” conversation representing the clergy verses the laity. As though “we” clergy (or whatever we are) have an experience of God that we need to lead

Dwight J. Friesen October 10, 2003November 18, 2022

my bi-vocational life

Wow, I’m tired. This bi-vocational thing has a way of wearing a person out. I guess we all feel this way from time-to-time, huh? Trying to juggle life as a husband, dad, pastor, community member, employee, doctoral student, let alone

Dwight J. Friesen August 20, 2003May 4, 2022

Leadership Called into Existence

I have been appreciating some of the recent “leadership” literature emphasizing that leaders are not made nor born as much as they are situationally called into existence. I’ve been telling my community for years that the clearer the sense of

Dwight J. Friesen August 7, 2003November 24, 2022

Second Guessing

Ever since I posted yesterday’s blog I’ve been wondering whether I should have. Lynette read it and asked me whether I had intended to make, even a subtle connection to the controversy of the last few months, about gay men

Dwight J. Friesen August 2, 2003November 19, 2021

preaching?????

What does it mean to proclaim Christ? This fall I will be guiding/teaching a coarse for a college on public speaking in ministry – preaching. One of my personal challenges is I don’t preach in “that way” any more. Should

Dwight J. Friesen July 24, 2003November 7, 2021

Ordination

Thoughts regarding ordination: I understand ordination to be a human recognition of God’s calling on a person’s life. Yet in practice it is a gatekeeping practice to ensure that those in power have a means of controlling who is let

Dwight J. Friesen November 5, 2002October 24, 2022

Discipleship Process

I have a working document, that I began as a seminarian, outlining my current understanding of the process of discipleship as seen through a church or community of faith. I was heavily influenced in the creation of this by a

Dwight J. Friesen October 22, 2001October 24, 2022

Speaking @ Trinity Chapel

On Friday l have the opportunity to join Trinity Lutheran College and speak in their chapel. I’ve been asked to speak to the kinds of leaders I sense that the church needs now and into the future. I’m titling my

Dwight J. Friesen September 19, 2001October 22, 2022

questions asked

Recently I helped facilitate an “Emerging Leaders” conference sponsored by a modernist-mission denomination.  All of the presenters/facilitators were asked the following questions, my responses are listed: Ministry Title? pastor / mystic / friend / artist / missionary / husband /

Dwight J. Friesen March 9, 2001November 5, 2021

pastor as mystic

Within recent weeks I’ve been gaining greater clarity regarding who I am, or might be. Here’s my story… I grew up in a relatively stable family with strong moral values.   Add to that the conservative/fundamentalist evangelical church of my youth

Dwight J. Friesen February 18, 2001November 5, 2021