Brian Allain

From “The Language of the Soul: Meeting God in the Longings of Our Hearts” by Jeff Crosby  A person who has wrestled as much as and as deeply as anyone I know with questions of vocation and occupation is Steven Garber. He founded a not-for-profit called the Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation and Culture, designed […]

From “Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life” by Richard Rohr This pattern of resistance is so clear and even so defeating for Jesus that he makes what sounds like one of his most unkind statements: ”Do not give to dogs what is holy, or throw your pearls before swine. They will

From “Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation” by Parker J. Palmer A third shadow common among leaders is “functional atheism,” the belief that ultimate responsibility for everything rests with us. This is the unconscious, unexamined conviction that if anything decent is going to happen here, we are the ones who must

From “Trust the Whisper: How Answering Quiet Callings Inspires Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary Grace“ by Kathy Izard From Denver Moore to Livvi and all the God Dots in between, each story I’ve shared in this book is evidence to me of a greater weave in the world. As I’ve tried to understand how all the

From “What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Howard Thurman” by Lerita Coleman Brown Vital to the exercise of Inner Authority is the practice of discernment. Discernment is the spiritual practice of decision-making by which we bring decisions into prayer. Spiritual leader Rose Mary Dougherty notes, “The eye of the heart grows accustomed

From “Healing the Heart of Democracy: The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit” by Parker J. Palmer  As I listen in on private and public conversations about the problems of American democracy, I’m struck time and again by how often our political talk is about people who aren’t in the room.

By Mark Schaefer Read the free article here

From “Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life” by Henri Nouwen with Michael J. Christensen and Rebecca J. Laird “What does God want from me?” is a question we all ask, not once and for all but throughout our lives. Should I get a job or go back to school, get ordained or do lay

From “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” by Carol S. Dweck, PhD Just learning about the growth mindset can cause a big shift in the way people think about themselves and their lives. So each year in my undergraduate course, I teach about these mindsets – not only because they are part of the topic

From “Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation” by Steven Johnson The most striking discovery in Dunbar’s study turned out to be the physical location where most of the important breakthroughs occurred. With a science like molecular biology, we inevitably have an image in our heads of the scientist alone in the