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Sunday, November 14, 2010

Quote: Servant leadership is a question of heart

"We have attempted to change leaders from the outside. In recent years we have found that effective leadership is an inside job. It is a question of heart. It's all about leadership character and intention. Why are you leading? Answering this question is so important. You can't fake being a servant leader" (Blanchard, 2007 p258).

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Quote: Learning from experience

"The most powerful learning comes from direct experience. Indeed we learn eating, crawling, walking and communicating through direct trial and error ... But what happens when we can no longer observe the consequences of our actions? What happens if the primary consequences of our actions are in the future or a distant part of the larger system within which we operate? ... When our actions have consequences beyond our learning horizon, it becomes impossible to learn from direct experience."

This is one of the challenges that make it difficult to learn to be more sustainable.

Important Lessons from the Bible

Why Jesus came:
"that the world might be saved through him"
John 3:17

Who Jesus is going to use to save the world:
"For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God."
Romans 8:19

Our role on earth:
"The LORD God put the man in the Garden of Eden to take care of it and to look after it."
Genesis 2:15

The Five Pillars of A Christian Theology of Sustainability

1. God is the creator, sustainer and redeemer of creation.

2. Covenantal Stewardship (we have a covenant with God as stewards of the earth).

3. The creation-fall-redemption paradigm (God made a good world; human failure broke the relationships between god, man and creation; Christ provides hope for all creation).

4.Bodily resurrection(we will rise with bodies, not as spirits)

5.New Creation (a new Heaven and new Earth refers to a renewal and an earthing of heaven, not starting over).

Adapted from When Enough is Enough: A Christian Framework for Environmental Sustainability, Edited by R.J. Berry, Published by Inter-Varsity Press, 2007, Nottingham p43+