A THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
Also Inside: History and Background of the National Women’s History Month History of St. Patrick Several Women Who Dared To Be Different Does Innovation and Early Adoption Have A Place In Leading Worship Leadership lessons The Key to Making Better Decisions
Celebrating
WOMEN'S
HISTORY
MONTH
MARCH 2014
THE NEW LIFE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY Presents
The Life of David From Shepherd to King An Online Study Course Six Powerful Lessons Taught By
Bishop Andy C. Lewter, D. Min. This is a rigorous course of study that examines the early life of David as a shepherd boy anointed by the prophet Samuel, his classic confrontation with the giant Goliath, his fragile relationship with King Saul, his ascension to the throne of Israel, his scandalous behavior with Bathsheba and his final days as king.
For More Information and Registrations Please Visit
http://www.udemy.com/ kingdavid
04 History and Background of the National Women’s History Month As listed on Wikipedia.com
05 History of St. Patrick By The Christian Classic Ethereal Library
06 Several Women Who Dared To Be Different By Julia Little
08 Does Innovation and Early Adoption Have A Place In Leading Worship By Jamie Brown
10 Leadership lessons By Paul Alexander
12 The Key to Making Better Decisions By Rachel Blom
From the Desk of the Publisher, Bishop Andy C. Lewter, D. Min. Hello friends and welcome to the March Issue of “The Bishop” magazine. This month I am delighted to bring you several articles that I pray will prove to be a blessing to you. As always, I have sought to collect some of the most relevant and current material in the body of Christ today. Toward that end, you will find in this issue two articles on “Women”, in celebration of Women’s History Month. I also am bringing you an article on St. Patrick whose day is celebrated on the 17th of this month. And while I know that you may be reading this after the 17th, I thought that it was important to remind my readers that St. Patrick’s day is not about leprechauns, three leaf clovers, cabbage and corn beef, pots of gold and parades. But rather the day, despite being secularized, has its origin in Christian History. Finally, let me close my monthly communications with you on a note of personal promotion. I am so excited about
having just finished my latest online course that studies the “Life of David” , found in the pages of the Old Testament. This is much more than a simple re-canting of well-known Bible statistics regarding David. This is an in-depth study of David from a number of different perspectives. Those perspectives include his early life in the home of his father Jesse, his classic confrontation with Goliath, his fragile relationship with King Saul, his ascension to the throne of Israel, his scandalous behavior with Bathsheba and his final days. This course is ideal for Christian Educators, Church Leaders, members of the clergy and anyone else who has a sincere desire to know more about the Word of God. So let me encourage you to enroll in the course and be one of the first ones to take advantage of our latest offering on the udemy teaching platform. For more information and registration please visit http://www.udemy.com/kingdavid
3 | BISHOP MARCH 2014
History and Background of the National Women’s History Month As listed on Wikipedia.com
In the United States, Women’s History Month traces its beginnings back to the first International Women’s Day in 1911. In 1978, the school district of Sonoma, California participated in Women’s History Week, an event designed around the week of March 8 (International Women’s Day). In 1979 a fifteen-day conference about women’s history was held at Sarah Lawrence College from July 13th until July 29th, chaired by historian Gerda Lerner. It was co-sponsored by Sarah Lawrence College, the Women’s Action Alliance, and the Smithsonian Institution. When its participants learned about the success of the Sonoma County’s Women’s History Week celebration, they decided to initiate similar celebrations within their own organizations, communities, and school districts. They also agreed to support an effort to secure a National Women’s History Week. In February of 1980 President Jimmy Carter issued a presidential proclamation declaring the week of March 8th, 1980, as National Women’s History Week. The proclamation stated, “From the first settlers who came to our shores, from the first American Indian families who befriended them, men and women have worked together to build this nation. Too often the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed. But the achievements, leadership, courage, strength and love of the women who built America was as vital as that of the men whose names we know so well. As Dr. Gerda Lerner has noted, ‘Women’s History is Women’s Right.’ It is an essential and indispensable heritage from which we can draw pride, comfort, courage, and longrange vision. In 1987, after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project, Congress passed Pub. L. 100-9 which designated the month of March 1987 as Women’s History Month.Between 1988 and 1994, Congress passed additional resolutions requesting and authorizing the President to proclaim March of each year as Women’s History Month.Since 1995, U.S. presidents have issued annual proclamations designating the month of March as Women’s History Month.
4 | BISHOP MARCH 2014
History of St. Patrick By The Christian Classic Ethereal Library
Saint Patrick was born somewhere along the west coast of Britain in the little settlement or village of Bannavem of Taburnia (vico banavem taburniae in his Confession), which has never been securely identified. It was probably on a coast in the south of England, (sites suggested include Dumbarton and Somerset) for raiders captured Patrick with “many thousands of people” and sold them as slaves in Ireland.
Although he came from a Christian family he was not particularly religious before his capture. However, his enslavement markedly strengthened his faith. He escaped at the age of twenty-two and returned to Britain, reuniting with his parents and later becoming one of the first Christian clergymen in Ireland, being preceded by men such as Pallidius (c.380-457/61).
His father was Calpornius, a deacon, son of Potitus, a priest in the era before celibacy was ordained for priests, who was a Romanized Briton. A questionable old tradition makes his mother from the upper-class Gaulish family of Martin of Tours, though Patrick makes no such prideful claim. According to his Confession at the age of about sixteen, Patrick was captured and taken to Ireland as a slave to a Druidic chieftan named Milchu in Dalriada, County Antrim (though Fochill in Co. Mayo is the more likely setting).
Mythology credits him with banishing snakes from the island of Ireland, though others suggest that for climatic reasons Ireland never actually had snakes; one suggestion is that “snakes” referred to the serpent symbolism of the Pagan priests of that time and place, the Druids, possibly shown by their tattoos or that it could have referred to Pelagianism, symbolized as an Old-Testamental “serpent”. Legend also credits Patrick with teaching the Irish about the concept of the Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a three-leaved clover, using it to highlight the Christian dogma of ‘three divine persons in the one god’ (as opposed to the Arian heresy that was popular in Patrick’s time). It is unknown on what date he was born and died but it is believed that March 17 was his death date (according to the Encyclopedia Britannica), and it is the date popularly associated with him as his Feast Day (known as St. Patrick’s Day).
5 | BISHOP MARCH 2014
Several Women Who
Dared To Be
By Julia Little
March is National Women’s History Month, and although gender equality in the U.S. has come a long way since the nation’s birth, it is still important to recognize the women who pioneered changes and broke down barriers. Residents of senior living may enjoy reading about some of these figures, who made history and continue to shape the future of gender equality. JANE ADDAMS The role of modern social workers was guided greatly by the work of Jane Addams, the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Active in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Addams recognized both a need and an opportunity to create settlement houses that served underprivileged residents, going beyond simply providing a place for them to rest their heads. Hull House, Addams’ initial establishment, offered women services such as free education, childcare, athletic equipment and social clubs. Her later role in state and local government allowed her to extend such provisions, while improving health and safety, as well as voting rights. RACHEL CARSON While Jane Addams was serving women in need, Rachel Carson turned her attention to another area lacking attention. Carson advocated for environmental conservation and protection, and studied the effects that chemical pollutants and physical barriers had on natural flora and fauna. In her book, Silent Spring, Carson outlined a number of major ecological concerns, and the awareness she raised would eventually lead to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. Today, the EPA continues to promote environmental conservation and the work that Carson began. JULIA CHILD When Julia Child took the culinary stage in the mid-1900s, she was one of only a few female chefs. At Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, Child sharpened her skills, and brought those talents back to the U.S. via a television program entitled “The French Chef.” Child’s method for success encouraged not only a love of cooking, but also an understanding that the ability to create
great meals stemmed from self-confidence, practice and a commitment to using the “freshest and finest ingredients.” MARGARET MEAD As a child, Margaret Mead’s mother observed the young girl making notes about her siblings’ development, and suggested that she might delve further into studying human behavior. Mead took that encouragement and ran with it, going on to proclaim “I have spent most of my life studying the lives of other peoples - faraway peoples - so that Americans might better understand themselves.” As a cultural anthropologist, scholar and museum curator, Mead is indeed credited with bringing self-awareness to the many Americans still learning from her work today. SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR Although she graduated third in her 1952 Stanford Law School class, Sandra Day O’Connor initially faced difficulty finding employment in a law firm because she was a woman. In 1981, however, she would break an even more significant barrier when President Ronald Reagan nominated O’Connor to the U.S. Supreme Court, ending the male-only designation the position had held for the prior 191 years. During the subsequent quarter-century, O’Connor played a decisive role in landmark cases that dealt with matters of national importance, such as sexual harassment, the death penalty and affirmative action, which have shaped the country’s legal development. ROSA PARKS Like O’Connor, Parks also faced discrimination. As an AfricanAmerican and active member of the NAACP during the peak of the Civil Rights Movement, Parks had a long history of fighting for racial equality. She is most remembered for refusing to sit in the back of a segregated bus - an act that sparked the Montgomery bus boycott. It was because of this sort of resiliency that legislation - including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed discrimination - was passed. Parks continues to inspire people who fight for equality today.
6 | BISHOP MARCH 2014
Different ROSA PARKS SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR
RACHEL CARSON
JANE ADDAMS JULIA CHILD
MARGARET MEAD
7 | BISHOP MARCH 2014
Does
and Early Adoption Have A Place In Leading Worship By Jamie Brown
For some reason, when I was in college, I signed up for an elective called “Marketing 101.″ One of the marketing concepts that we discussed was the “innovation adoption lifecycle” (are you impressed?) which breaks down customers into different categories based on when, in a product/innovation’s lifecycle, customers choose to adopt it. Innovators adopt a new product at the very beginning. They’re the first in line, and they don’t wait to read reviews. Not very many people fall into this category. Early adopters wait a little while to make sure the new product is dependable and then they quickly jump on it. There are more early adopters than there are innovators. The early majority is just what it sounds like. The largest block of customers who adopt a product fall into this category. They get in on something just before it’s no longer new. The late adopters aren’t too far behind. They didn’t need to prove anything and they knew how to control their impulses. 8 | BISHOP MARCH 2014
This considerable population of consumers waits until the novelty wears off. The last category of people have the unfortunate title of “laggards.″ They’re the ones who are just now buying a cell phone and it’s 2014. OK, so why all the marketing talk from a worship leader who majored in psychology? Because I think far too many worship leaders can fall into the first couple of categories listed above. Too many worship leaders try (or think they have to try) to be innovators or early adopters. Up on all the new fads. Incorporating all the new songs. Buying new equipment or new keyboard patches or new software or new albums. It’s a neverending hunt for novelty, which significantly increases the risk that they’ll unknowingly adopt a product or an innovation which has significant weaknesses. There is wisdom is waiting. There is something to be said for taking a deep breath, taking a step back, gaining perspective, analyzing something, considering its integrity and thinking carefully before adopting something new. It’s better to wait and see whether or not a new song is really worth singing, or if a new piece of equipment is really the one your church needs to buy, or if that new church member who’s an awesome bass player is really committed to your church before putting him or her on the platform.
It’s not that being an innovator or an early adopter is always bad. The problem is when your quest is to always be an innovator or always be an early adopter, so much so that you can’t make yourself wait, discern and consider whether you’re making the right decision or not. Novelty often covers up weakness. So wait until the novelty wears off. But just like it’s unwise to be an impulsive, knee-jerk innovator who will find himself having adopted a new product full of problems, it’s also unwise to be a laggard. Laggards miss out, plain and simple. They bury their heads in the sands of security and miss out on opportunity after opportunity to participate in the life going on all around them. Worship leaders shouldn’t miss out on the life, the songs, the movements and the innovations that God is stirring up around them. Use whatever you can, whenever you can, for the glory of God. But worship leaders shouldn’t rush to always be the first in line to adopt what’s being stirred up. Some of what’s being stirred up is good, and some of it is weak. So just wait a minute and learn a lesson from Marketing 101: It’s better to wait and be happy than to rush and regret it.
9 | BISHOP MARCH 2014
By Paul Alexander
If you lead long enough, eventually you’re going to find yourself leading through a crisis, and it’s at this moment that leadership is needed most. Even an average leader looks great when momentum is on their side and things are going well. But a crisis or downturn has a way of revealing the true identity of a leader. Great leaders lean into crisis because they intuitively understand that crisis is an opportunity for change and could be their greatest leadership moment. In the consulting work I do with The UnStuck Group, oftentimes it’s the pain of a crisis or downturn that helps churches realize that they’re stuck and motivates them to seek help. Pain, oftentimes, can be a great motivator for change.
10 | BISHOP MARCH 2014
1. Lean into who you already are. I can’t stress this enough. The most important question to ask during a crisis is, “Who has God called us to be?” Too often, churches search for a silver-bullet tactic that will solve their pain. It doesn’t exist. Instead of searching for an easy way out, press into who God has uniquely called your church to be and your core identity. Then begin making everyday decisions filtered through that identity and what it will take to be more of who you already are. 2. Take on a posture of humility. You know who listens to a know-it-all? No one. If you want to be heard in a crisis, then take on a posture of humility and lead with questions, not answers. 3. Listen first, speak second. Many churches begin implementing too
quickly in a crisis due to their desire to move past or away from pain as fast as they possibly can. Unfortunately, without first having a clear understanding of where you are and an accurate picture of your current reality, your next step will most likely be a misstep. Oftentimes, it’s impossible to get a clear picture of reality because you’re in it—and you need someone from the outside to help you who has “fresh eyes.” 4. Outlast your critics. Perseverance is a highly underrated leadership tactic. It may not be sexy, but it is necessary. Everyone has fans and everyone has critics. You need to learn to listen to the right people. Otherwise, you’ll drift toward people-pleasing and the church will suffer from mission creep. 5. Don’t mistake kindness for weakness. Often, kindness is confused with weakness in church leaders. In the middle of crisis, kindness is needed, but so is clear, strong, consistent leadership. Don’t confuse kindness and weakness.
11 | BISHOP MARCH 2014
The Key to Making Better Decisions By Rachel Blom
Hindsight is always full of wisdom. Looking back, we all have decisions we regret, choices that didn’t work out so well. Regret is fairly useless, much more interesting is the question of how we can learn to make better decisions. How can we turn hindsight into learning moments, into a better prediction of what a good decision looks like? Here’s one tip, one key to making better decisions: Take your time. Decisions made under time pressure often don’t work out so well. There are several reasons for that, but the most important is that good decisions come from your head, not your heart. Yet under time pressure, we often respond from emotions instead of from rational thinking. It’s why my husband and I agreed years ago that we would never make a decision involving purchases over 50 bucks
without sleeping on it for at least a night. No matter how good a deal salespeople offer us, we don’t take it. Not even when they warn us it’s a one-time thing, only valid for that day. Last weekend, I heard about a workshop/conference I was immediately interested in. The guy offering it said he only had four discount codes available and that they would fill up fast. Still, I didn’t decide on the spot. I took my time, talked it over with my husband and did some research. I’m about to find out of the code is still available. If it’s not, I’ll be somewhat disappointed for sure, but I will still know I’ve made the right decision. Good decisions start by taking the time to make them. Don’t let others pressure you into deciding on the spot. Take at least a day to think it over, look at it from different sides, get someone else’s perspective. Then decide. You won’t regret it.
THE NEW LIFE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY Presents
The Life of Moses
ENROLL TODAY BY VISITING
WWW.UDEMY.COM/MOSESLIFE
E X PA N D YO U R K N OW L E DGE
THE NEW LIFE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY Presents
Understanding the Old Testament
ENROLL TODAY BY VISITING
WWW.UDEMY.COM/UNDERSTANDING-THE-OLD-TESTAMENT
E X PA N D YO U R K N OW L E DGE