Here’s a collection of interesting, thought-provoking articles from around the web from recent weeks. For more links, check out our Flipboard magazines: Leadership Network Today, Leadership Network Deep Trends, and Ideas to Implementation to Impact, where we curate the best in innovative ideas for church leaders.
1. Why the Church Can Rescue Us from Our Smartphones (Washington Post) If the churches came to understand that the greatest threat to faith today is not hedonism but distraction, perhaps they might begin to appeal anew to a frazzled digital generation.
2. Why Most People Leave Religion – They Just Stop Believing (Religion News) It’s bad news for organized religion: A majority of the religiously unaffiliated — the so-called “nones” — say they fell away from faith not because of any negative experience, but because they “stopped believing,” usually before the age of 30.
3. New Research Shows Why Focus On Teams, Not Just Leaders, Is Key To Business Performance (Forbes) The big change in leadership is the movement away from “positional leadership” (ie. I am the leader because I am the VP) to team leadership through expertise, passion, energy, and empowerment.
4. Converting Churches to Condos Brings Logistical,Social Challenges (Washington Post) For observers of Washington’s real estate scene, the trend has been impossible to miss: As churches’ congregations move to the suburbs and D.C. property values soar, increasing numbers of religious institutions are selling their properties in the city, usually with plans to move closer to their congregants.
5. The Millennial Majority is Transforming Your Culture (Deloitte)Millennials are disrupting the status quo, and many are seeking purpose-driven work in their organizations. A new report analyzing three years of data collected by Deloitte discovered that millennials want to be all in without sacrificing the flexibility to be who they are at work and live a fulfilling life outside of it. With their rising status as leaders combined with their work and development preferences, millennials are shifting the cultural norms for organizations today.
6. On Receiving and Truly Hearing Radical Candor (First Round) Getting pointed feedback isn’t easy for anyone. And it can be even harder for managers who rarely receive it once they get to a certain level. But being able to not just take, but truly hear and understand Radical Candor is one of the most important skills you can learn in your career.
7. Help for Your Church from Peter Drucker (Church Central) Drucker told a group of senior pastors of large congregations: “Other than President of the United States, the three most difficult jobs in America today are president of a large university, administrator of a large hospital and pastor of a large church.”
8. How Decades of Divorce Helped Erode Religion (Washington Post) Two widely recognized trends in American society might have something to do with each other. A new study from the Public Religion Research Institute says they do. The children of divorced parents have grown up to be adults of no religion.
9. 7 Leadership Superpowers You Might Not Know You Have (Read Think) Guiding vision, passion, and integrity are well known leadership traits. But there are lesser known leadership traits, as well-in fact, some historically have been perceived as weaknesses. These hidden traits can be developed and nurtured to help further your career and your role as a leader, at work, in your community, or in life in general. See if you just might have some or all of these personal qualities that lend well to leadership.
10. Dallas Seminary Becomes 1st in U.S. to Make Course on Child Sex Abuse a Must for Would-Be Clergy (Dallas News) While numerous seminaries and divinity schools in the U.S. require students to take a course that deals with issues of sexual abuse in religious institutions, Dallas Theological Seminary appears to be the first to make a course focused entirely on child sexual abuse a requirement for graduation.
