Brian Allain

From “Wired to Lead: Being the Leader the Church Didn’t Think You Could Be” by Suzanne Nadell What can the church do? Well, I believe we must start by talking about this. Nothing will happen without taking that first step. Honest conversations will be uncomfortable, and that’s okay because discomfort leads to vulnerability and transformation. […]

From “The Soulwork of Justice: Four Movements for Contemplative Action” by Wesley Granberg-Michaelson. Here’s what happens. Our self-sufficiency, which works well because we are smart and talented, keeps us from vulnerable commitments to others, pushing us into lonely emptiness and isolation. Our certainty, reinforced through a thirst for psychic security, becomes rigid and judgmental, repressing

From “Walk with Me: A Journey through the Landscape of Trauma” by Ellen Corcella The divorce left me to ping-pong between my parents. I was the telegraph line through which they communicated their resentments, anger, and irritation. I was the weapon each used to retaliate against the other. I was referee, negotiator, and confidante. Sometimes

From “Dropout to Doctorate: Breaking the Chains of Educational Injustice” By Terrence Lester, PhD The interplay of poverty and racial injustice introduces an additional layer of complexity to the struggle of someone navigating all this, often placing them at a significant disadvantage when it comes to educational achievement. It creates the type of barriers that

From “The Soulwork of Justice: Four Movements for Contemplative Action” by Wesley Granberg-Michaelson. Destroying false protective coverings allows the emergence of what is true. Layers of dross hide your connection to being held in God’s love, reflecting back the image of God. You are kept isolated from this, just as the plaster and clay shrouded

From “Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Help Others, Do Work that Matters, and Make Smarter Choices About Giving Back” by William Macaskill Your choice of career is a choice about how to spend more than eighty thousand hours over the course of your life, which means it makes sense to invest

From “Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation” by Parker J. Palmer I was in my early thirties when I began, literally, to wake up to questions about my vocation. By all appearances, things were going well, but the soul does not put much stock in appearances. Seeking a path more purposeful

From “Trust the Whisper: How Answering Quiet Callings Inspires Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary Grace“ by Kathy Izard For me, trusting the whispers in my life signaled the beginning of answering all of those questions. I’d been certain my to-do voice would guide me to discover how I would finally leave the world a better place.

From “Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation” by Steven Johnson The snap judgments of intuition – as powerful as they can be – are rarities in the history of world-changing ideas. Most hunches that turn into important innovations unfold over much longer time frames. They start with a vague, hard-to-describe sense

From “Walk with Me: A Journey through the Landscape of Trauma” by Ellen Corcella In the mornings, I woke up to a pretense of normalcy. My mother had oatmeal, toast, and orange juice on the kitchen table: my father read the newspaper; and we were shuffled off to school. My father conspired in the cover-up.