AnthonyFosterPhD

Just saw the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival - so many of my favorites- Jorma Kaukonen, Earl Scruggs, Del McCoury, and a lot of new faces i was unfamiliar with... Now American Masters has Pete Seeger - what a banner night!

Now this is funny.

Paradoxology In accustomed amazement- unified harmony With expected atonishment from slaves who are free With familiar surprise- and unexpected certainty Fools and clowns who are wise Shall see…With unfathomable clarity. In our satisfying hunger-And in shocking expectation And a disciplined freedom See the hidden revelation In diversity unified In a difficult delight And intoxicating soberness made right We live in the light of this unseen sight. It is both a departure and a return Both a fire to build and to burn A resolution and a second verse Now the blessing is found in the curse. Because the Worthy One owned poverty He died like a thief so this thief could go free. It both a great journey and a dear destination Where the mourners rejoice in the poor’s exaltation Now the weak are made strong, made rich as we give In this life where we die and this death where we live. In this life where we die and this death where we live. In this life where we die and this death where we live. An...

A quote from Moving On Moving Forward by Anthony and Boersma: "Watching what other churches are doing is a popular activity for contemporary ministry leaders today. After all, why waste your energy trying to gain a new vision for your ministry if you can easily replicate one that's working in a nearby neighborhood?" (77) Regardless of ministry, how much looking around at other institutions/ministries does your institution/ministry do to gain new ideas? What harm or gain results from this type of behavior by the church? Seminary? Textbook publisher? What does one need to do to guard against looking around instead of looking to the Lord and at his/her own ministry setting? We can learn from what others before us have done, and we stand on the shoulders of giants, as Newton said. A general awareness of what is going on in the world around you is important, but not for the reason of lifting someone else’s paradigm to tattoo it on the Body. That’s one reason why we do researc...

Set us apart at your pleasure Set us apart for you alone Set us apart as your treasure Reserve our hearts as your home Righteous and upright Draw us up from our knees Our souls will take flight When we do as You please In holy devotion we come In your holy presence undone Take our broken spirits Take our contrite hearts And make us one, make us one. You are the path to salvation The journey and the journey’s end You are our one destination And strong is the heart you defend. In holy devotion we come In your holy presence undone Take our broken spirits Take our contrite hearts And make us one, make us one. Anthony Foster February 21, 2008

Random Question: Compose the lyrics to a new national anthem that features an animal sound at least once. So that's a question?

From MSN. or you can just get a Mac.

DISCUSSIONS - 12:04am Feb 18, 2008 EST - Question: Who gets to lead in a team environment? Not to be short, but “The greatest among you will be your servant” (Matt. 23:11). I know that's a loaded answer. Luke 22:25-26 fills it out more. [25] Jesus said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. [26] But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. So I would say that "taking" the lead is more about "receiving" the lead on the basis of our willingness to serve deeply. Along the same lines, no leader in the church can efffectively lead without first being a devoted follower. I had a question in regard to this as follows: "Therefore, in short here is what I understand Anthony to be communicating; Jesus' motive and even reason for being in a place of leadership was solely restri...

Most of the leadership theory we read centers on one person as THE leader. There are other theories such as Ken Blanchard’s situational leadership approach that in my mind describes reality pretty well. Roles are critical to this type of model. When setting up such a situation it is probably necessary to have external authority as well to guide the potential chaos that could ensue while the right leadership mix is attained. It was Harry Truman said “the buck stops here.” Makes one wonder why the buck was being passed in the first place. It should have stopped sooner. The self managed team model relies on using several leaders in tandem or sequentially in a group. There are four basic kinds of leadership in view- envisioning leadership which focuses on creativity and overall vision; spanning leadership, which is focused on acquiring and stewarding resources external to the group’s social leadership, which centers on interpersonal relationships within the group, and organizing leadership...

So what are the challenges involved in managing creative teams? I'd say the greatest difficulty of the model is building the team and keeping it firing on all cylinders- sustainability. So the internal relationships come to mind first. Human nature would require that each sacrifice for the good of the others on the team, so maturity is required. The issue that arises from time to time is that if one individual has a morale problem, it can affect the whole team and yield gridlock quickly. Remediation for that type of team member can take incredible time and emotional energy to accomplish. Next issue would be how the team deals with change- what happens when redirection is necessary- who takes the lead on refocusing the team after setbacks? Flip side of this is how do you foster innovation and keep from becoming stagnant? How does the team deal with change of the landscape that comes with growth or dimunition? The other problem is when you finally have to take someone off the bus aft...

It's over at this location.

To make for a more satisfying blog experience, I am hiking over to blogspot. I'll be redirecting traffic here from anthonyfoster.com ....