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Many years ago on one of my trips to Nigeria, I visited a hospital outside of Jos that was doing work with the AIDS epidemic. Some of the offices were simply shipping containers, those huge steel makeshift rooms that felt like 120 degrees inside. In the hospital where they did lab testing hung a single light bulb from a porcelain socket with loose wires knitted together. In regular fashion, the electricity would go out citywide, the gas-powered generators would belch on

We just celebrated the semiquincentennial birthday of the USA. America is a complicated country of high ideals, filled with a rich history of stunning achievements and abject failures, and reflective of the human condition. It echoes the issues we have with one another when we simply want things to be black and white, good and evil. This or that. Heroes and villains. But humans, like the countries they inhabit, aren’t that easy to categorize. Yes, there are legitimate h

In between meetings with people, you’ll usually find me at a fast-food restaurant. Bear with me for a minute. Over the years, I’ve modified Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs” to something a bit more, uh, specific. Starting at the top of my triangle is Jesus—that’s kind of obvious for a former pastor, right? Then next is family: my wife, two amazing daughters, and a gaggle of grandkids. Next is friends: how can you beat a circle of friends in a cozy pub with some Old Fashioneds

Recently, I stumbled across an old Christianity Today magazine from 2007. As I thumbed through it, it seemed so quaint in what the American Church, specifically evangelicals, were wrestling with at the time—and in my humble opinion, how much more tragic and embarrassing the evangelical picture is now. But what struck me most was a multi-page spread on Hillsong Church titled Taking Revival to the World. As you probably know, Hillsong is a non-denominational evangelical- ch

“The words of the wise prod us to live well. They’re like nails hammered home, holding life together. They are given by God, the one Shepherd. But regarding anything beyond this, dear friend, go easy. There’s no end to the publishing of books, and constant study wears you out so you’re no good for anything else.” ECCLESIASTES 12:12 (THE MESSAGE) That quote is, of course, from the book of Ecclesiastes. Take your Zoloft before reading: the author is painfully honest about the

Powerful things happen when your Mission meets your Messages in an intentional way.

There was a time when the average human considered a grain of sand the smallest object in the universe.

I am writing this on Pentecost Sunday evening. This morning I listened to the devotional on the Lectio 365 app, which by the way, if you don’t have it, you need it. Trust me. I was struck by Pete Greig’s quote from Dr. Chris Green, Professor of Public Theology at Southeastern University, Florida and Bishop of the Diocese of St. Anthony (CEEC): “Whatever we might've heard, Pentecost is not the story of devout believers lost in prayer, hidden away in an upper room, caught

At one point in my life, I found myself working as an engineer in a commercial recording studio in Cincinnati. On off-times, the owner let me use the then state-of-the-art 24-track room to record different friends and musicians. One was Tim Spransy, a fabulous guitarist—and equally amazing painter (visit his artwork here)—who had done a stint in the Christian rock band Servant back in the day. Tim had a moving, beautiful solo acoustic guitar song called Kristallnacht. You

Way back in 1982, an eclectic documentary came to theaters: Koyaanisqatsi. Scored with a hypnotic Philip Glass soundtrack, it was unsettling in its barrage of images. Filled with time-lapse photography of busy city streets, subways, and factories—and having no dialogue—it reflected the meaning of its title: a Hopi word meaning "life out of balance." I remember seeing it at the Esquire Theater in Clifton in Cincinnati. Much like the film, I’ve wondered what it would look

Maybe it’s time we leaders reconsider how we think about power. In relationships. In politics. In culture. In organizations.

Taking a hard look—both philosophically and practically—at our church systems that not only denigrate our fellow image-bearers but limit ministry outcomes is the work of leadership.

A recent article in Forbes reported on the growing divide between leaders of organizations and their employees. It made the point that the billions of dollars corporations spend on leadership development is missing a key aspect when preparing people for senior positions and what they need once they are in those positions. The report first noted that employee engagement is continuing to drop, according to the latest Gallup surveys. As you might guess, this is not good: t

Currently, I’m working with a church that has had a very difficult senior pastor succession. It was a perfect storm of events and leadership challenges. Then things went seriously south. The pressure was so severe that the new senior pastor resigned. In writing their report, I included the following personal story: I have been on both sides of a megachurch succession—both were challenging for different reasons—one was successful but difficult, and one less successful

I’ve written before about organizational integrity, one of the four critical components we’ve identified in healthy organizations. But let me offer a real-life example. The Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical company is a humongous corporation, with reported revenues of $89 billion in 2025. Their reputation has taken some serious—and deserved—hits over the last couple of decades, from consumer fraud settlements to ongoing lawsuits regarding the link between their baby powde

“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.” Oft attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, this quote exemplifies the activistic nature of passionate leaders: sometimes you just need to do something. Anything. It’s hard to steer a car when it’s not moving. This doesn’t sound very spiritual, but often people just want to see their church or organization doing somethi

When my dad died at 56, I had a hard time sleeping. It wasn't over my own sense of loss, but the sadness of thinking of my mom going to bed alone after decades of marriage. I kept thinking of how strange and disorienting her deep aloneness must have felt. Perhaps it was a psychogenetic connection? Regardless, it affected me for many months. Or maybe it was simply empathy. Too bad, because in the last few years, empathy has taken a beating. Much of that criticism has

The goal of these posts is to offer pragmatic help to leaders of churches and nonprofits. I have been fascinated by leadership models and organizational constructs for decades. But here’s the reality: every situation and context is different. There is no "one size fits all" when it comes to leadership. For instance… My history is an amalgam of widely varied experiences. I began as a musician, playing in cover bands in dive bars before I could even drive. I once played

And now for something different. This is a prayer/poem for all followers of Jesus, but especially for we leaders who are in a hurry to run fast and far. The Kite Here in the closet, discarded and still, I am the kite of winterkill. Wanting no more but currents to sail, Buried in tangles of string and tail. But oh! Come the day when the April wind Is high, the door opens and light screams in. Yanked from my corner and scattering dust, My arms stretched taut to catch eac

© The Peaceable Kingdom | John August Swanson The mission of these posts is to offer practical help for leaders of churches and nonprofits—addressing a need we’ve identified as “organizational discipleship.” When I led a church, I welcomed any resource that could make me a better leader, from outside consultants and mentors to conferences and books on personal development. I owned dozens of leadership volumes. However, the challenge in writing these articles today is the

James Alison—a British theologian and Catholic priest whom I may not always agree with—made an interesting comment on a podcast several years ago. I stumbled across it in the book Cross Purposes by Jonathan Rauch. When asked to summarize in three sentences what Jesus was trying to teach us, Alison responded with three tenets: "I think the first one would be ‘Do not be afraid.’ . . . The second one would be, ‘Imitate me.’ And the third one would be, ‘Forgive each other

Back when I was pastoring, a professional poker player attended our church regularly. He had won national championships and various World Series of Poker events. One weekend he caught me between services and asked, “Hey Dave, what do you think about gambling?” “Depends on what you think about tithing,” I responded. Okay, I agree it was flippant. And I do have some thoughts about gambling, including the oft-repeated line, “State lotteries are a tax on stupid.” I do

I am a product of the Jesus Movement that swept across the U.S. in the early 1970s. Many of my generation felt betrayed by how our elders and government responded to the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, the corruption of the Nixon/Agnew administration, women’s liberation, and other societal fissures. Timothy Leary’s “tune in, turn on, drop out” mantra seemed reasonable in light of our disillusionment with institutions that appeared blind to the inevitable course of

Some years ago, we expanded our work into the faith-based nonprofit space. The origin story of The Elemental Group was initially focused on churches, particularly those that didn’t have the resources to engage with consultancies that larger churches had. And that’s what we did for years. Then, at one point, a megachurch asked us to help assess the health and effectiveness of the dozens of nonprofits they supported financially. What’s more, could we not only survey and a