Tag Archives: harvard business review

Saturday Six-Pack (23)

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Imagine: A “Saturday Six-Pack” arriving on… wait for it… Saturday!

After two weeks of lateness and a week of absence, I’ve regained my position on the top of the pile!

Here’s your weekly fodder of faith, ministry, and who-knows-what tossed in!

If you need help starting, begin with my two *Picks of the Week*, and move from there.

For a steady stream of such links, follow me on Twitter ( @JasonBandura ) to the right of this post.  Sharp quotes and solid articles are tweeted 3-4 times daily.

Today’s edition:

1) Why Churches Should Euthanize Small Groups
Being part of a leadership team that has significantly increased our emphasis on Small Groups in recent years, this title grabbed me.  Author and pastor Brian Jones points out a few of the struggles that many of us have experienced…

2) What Legalists and Atheists Cannot Understand (*PICK OF THE WEEK*)
This little piece from the Gospel Coalition revolves around a late night visit between Christian apologist Larry Alex Taunton, Oxford mathematician John Lennox and the late Christopher Hitchens, author of “God is Not Great”.  Throw in some rich references to my favourite portion of Scripture, and I freely recommend this one.

3) Fourteen Indispensable Leadership Quotes from Jim Collins
Jim Collins is recognized across the board as a voice of wisdom on the theme of leadership. Here, Thom Rainer captures a couple touchdowns’ worth of his best bits.

4) Why Women are More Religious than Men
For Psychology Today, Nigel Barber puts forth a theory that I confess to find quite weak. A strand of truth is here, but more than anything, this article served to enlighten me on why people of faith must live out their convictions or else risk observers like Mr. Barber largely missing the whole point.

5) You Are Not a Computer (Try as You May)
Here’s my favourite line from this great piece from the Harvard Business Review is this: “What information consumes is rather obvious. It consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”  That opinion was shared in 1970, and it is abundantly on-the-mark today.  Some thought-provoking stuff here on how to live well within the “information age”.  If I had a third *PICK OF THE WEEK*, I’d put it here.

6) The Science of Productivity (*PICK OF THE WEEK*)
I just discovered Gregory Ciotti’s site: SparringMind.  This post features a three-minute video (which I tweeted a link to, earlier today) that breaks down some of the science behind our minds work and how we might better work within that framework to be more efficient in spending our time and energy. Quite fascinating to me!

May your week be full of awareness and enjoyment of the God who already fills it with Himself and every good thing.  Blessings on you, my friends.

YOUR TURN: Direct other readers to the best stuff with a comment below, or weigh in on what you read.  Your input makes this post better!

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Saturday Six-Pack (12)

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Welcome to the long weekend for my Canadian readers.  To those elsewhere, yours is surely coming before long!  Either way, it’s a pleasure to have you here for a bit of “Wandering & Wondering”.

Each week, the “Saturday Six-Pack” aims to share a half-dozen of the best online pieces I’ve read recently.  The majority of links lead to faith-focused or ministry-geared material, with the rest falling under the “disorderly pile of who-knows-what” tagline at the top of this page!

For today:

1) Spirit-Filled Living vs. Just Trying Harder
If you ever have the sense that the Christian life will require more than you have to give, you may be onto something.  Jim Cymbala is on to the same thought.

2) Does Suburbia Hurt Christianity?
Numerous churches speak of the quest to “live a life together”. But what if our everyday circumstances are sabotaging that goal? Then Relevant magazine writes an article about it!

3) The Lost Sin of Envy
Tim Challies challenges us to look inside ourselves, in search of the slippery sin of envy.

4) Why Bible Study Doesn’t Transform Us
Even this post’s title is provocative to this group sure-loving fellowship in which my faith has been birthed and nurtured. How could power possibly be lacking when people interact with God’s Word? Oh, there are numerous ways.

5)  The Idolatry of Individualism
The term “idolatry” is somewhat foreign to many Christians. It connotes images of gold-covered statues and flaky figurines.  We’re not so dumb as to let such things lead us away from the Eternal One.   But what about when the term is linked to one of our culture’s highest values?  That’s a tad less comfortable.

6) You Are Not a Computer (Try as You May)
Technology is meant to serve us. Instead it increasingly runs us — and runs us down.  Tony Schwarz of HBR brings these words of balance to how to live plugged-in without being sucked dry.

Have a great weekend, friends–renew yourself and reverence God.

Saturday Six-Pack (11)

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It feels like Saturdays roll around every seven days or so!  And with THIS particular one, I extend a warm welcome to you this realm of “Wandering & Wondering”.

Each weekend, the Six-Pack gathers a half-dozen articles that have informed or inspired over the past week.  Most are faith-focused or ministry-geared; others fall under my “disorderly pile of who-knows-what” catch-all qualifier!

Today’s collection:

1) The Historical Reliability of the New Testament
Craig Blomberg is a world-renowned biblical scholar, and he’s got a dozen reasons why he is confident of the New Testament’s historical reliability.

2) The Art of Being a Jerk Online
If you’ve ever felt that cyber-etiquette had become too refined or you felt a need to make a negative impression, Frank Viola has ten fool-proven methods on how to lose friends and irritate people online.

3) Nine Ways to Fight the Temptation of Pornography
To anyone who’s ever felt the allure of this destructive bait, B.J. Stockman offers nine tips that may help.

4) Why Personal Development is So Hard
Ever wanted to change for the better, then realized how uphill the climb was?  John Richardson sets up for some significant revelation on this front.  (Translation: Reading THIS article will queue you up for reading a few more posts on this blog.)

5) Where People Get Scripture Wrong
Taken as a whole, the Church clearly can’t live without the Bible—but it doesn’t seem to have much idea how to live with it, either.  N.T. Wright points out common “right” and “left” misreadings of the Bible.

6) A Super Efficient Email Process
How much of your time gets swallowed up by cyber-communication?  If you said, “More than I’d like” in any form or phrasing, then Peter Bregman’s piece from the Harvard Business Review might be your prescription for taking back control of your inbox.

Have a great weekend, friends–renew yourself and reverence God.

Saturday Six-Pack (7)

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Welcome to the weekend, for another installment of the Saturday Six-Pack.

Typically, these online offerings are faith-focused or ministry-geared, but occasionally they fall into the “disorderly pile of who-knows-what” description in my blog’s tagline!

This week’s half-dozen:

1) Proof of a Good God: ‘Crucified Under Pontius Pilate’
Thoughtfully written by Mark Galli, this piece looks at Jesus’ crucifixion as they key strand to answering the question: Can we trust God to be truly good?  Tie-ins are made to the discussion around Rob Bell’s “Love Wins”.

2) The ‘Above All’ Commandment of the Sabbath
Need a call from God to quit striving after transformation?  Look no farther than one of the Ten Commandments.

3) ‘Blue Like Jazz’ Opened Yesterday
The film based on Donald Miller’s best-selling book opened yesterday in select theaters.  Head here if you need some help catching up on this not-featured-on-Entertainment-Tonight piece of work.

4) The Good Life: An Interview with Trip Lee
I’ve never been a huge rap fan, but for some reason, I’ve been inundated with notice this week about Trip Lee’s latest release.  If you care to learn of the life and faith behind this rising artist, Tim Challies’ post is worth a bit of your weekend.

5) The Staggering Demand for Pornography
Chaplain Mike presents some shocking research on the vast power of the internet to spread this soul-crippling poison.  How do Christians pursue purity in the world-of-the-web?

6) Creativity Lessons from Charles Dickens and Steve Jobs
Every leader in our rapidly-changing world needs well-honed creativity.  The lives of Dickens and Jobs offer some helpful trends to notice in how creativity is nurtured.  So says Anne Kreamer of the Harvard Business Review.

There you have it, a Saturday smattering to fill you.  Have a great weekend, friends–renew yourself and reverence God.

Saturday Six-Pack (6)

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Welcome to the weekend, and thanks for spending some time “Wandering & Wondering”.

Typically, the Saturday Six-Pack features articles that are faith-focused or ministry-geared, but I reserve the right to live up to the “disorderly pile of who-knows-what” tagline at the top of this page!  This particular edition covers everything from conflict, to creativity, from iPhone addictions to inbred elephants. (Yes, you read that correctly.)

Without further delay:

1) Why Conflict in Life is Terrific
A better life can be found on the other side of conflict.  Donald Miller provides some guidance on how to navigate those potential-filled times of tension.

2) Creativity, Excellence,… and Patience
If you want to be great at whatever you do, then check this brief read out.  If you don’t want to be great at whatever you do, then find something else to do.

3) Our Hearts, Desperately Deceptive
If you can guess the connection between pears, prostitution, and the crookedness of the human heart, then don’t click on this one.  But if you can’t…

4) Quotes for Lent
The season of Lent is all but finished for another year, but this wonderful list of quotes might help you look back on the season that was and help you consider what God may have wanted to do in your life over the past forty days.

5) How Can I Stop Using My Phone all the Time and Actually Connect with Real People in the Real World?
After awarding this post with the longest-title-in-in-the-history-of-the-Saturday-Six-Pack trophy, I now direct any technology-trapped readers to rediscover the world that is NOT contained on that admittedly incredible screen in your pocket.  How to create a bit more freedom from the phone?  Read on.

6) Stop Inbreeding Innovation
Any article that begins with a paragraph about inbred elephants gets stuck in the Six-Pack; that is one of this blog’s founding principles.  That said, when the trunked beasts and their dangerously narrow family trees is set aside, what you’ll find here is a challenge to broaden your chances at fresh and creative ideas.  If you could use that, you could use a lesson in pachyderm sperm bank management first.

Have a great weekend, friends–renew yourself and reverence God.