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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. Wit

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