Monthly Archives: January 2009

Religious Life and Leadership 1

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In the Torah it is written, “We see things not as they are, but as as we are.” What follows reveals more about me, my life experience, and my worldview than anything else. No one will agree with everything, but I hope something resonates with someone.

This will be a sporadic series and this post is all prelude. 

SOME CONTEXT

• My family wasn’t particularly religious, but my mom often took us to church and it was important to her that my sibs and I get confirmed. In the Lutheran church, confirmation involves a middle school religious education program that culminates in adult church membership.

• In SoCal, in high school, I got involved with a very dynamic church youth group. We spent time in Tijuana orphanages, we took turns leading high school bible studies, and our choir toured every summer. A few of my best friends from this time period are pastors in SoCal and one heads up the largest homeless organization in L.A. 

• I am a Christian, but as I age, I’m increasingly comfortable with questions and ambiguity. I’m more interested in spiritual vitality than religious orthodoxy.

• My education and international travel experiences have led me to conclude that Western Christianity doesn’t have a monopoly on religious truth.

• I identify more with Christians who emphasize social justice than ones who stress evangelism and one set of religious truths.

• Sometimes I feel alienated within the church as a result of literal interpretations of the bible, Republican politics, materialism, patriarchal language, and cultural sameness.

• Solitude, moving in nature (lake swimming, trail running, cycling), the arts, and close interpersonal relations are integral to my spiritual vitality.

CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY’S INFLUENCE

In 2003, I was living in Southwestern China for a few months. My family and I met some missionaries or “English teachers” including a Nigerian citizen. He was the most exuberant and zealous Christian I had ever met. I was intrigued by his story including his facility with the language. He explained to me that his Nigerian mother tongue was tonal and so Mandarin was a snap. Nigeria, like a lot of Central and Northern African countries, is divided by Muslims in the North and Christians in the South.

All I could think about was what would his life have been like if he had been born a few hundred kilometers farther north. My guess is he would have become an exuberant and zealous Muslim iman. That lead me to wonder how different my spiritual journey would have been if I had been born in a predominantly Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, or secular region of the world.

A FEW LIMITATIONS

My wide-angle lens view of teaching excellence informs the limits of my observations/thinking on religious life and leadership. If most people were asked where does excellent teaching take place, they’d said “the classroom, of course.” But I think of excellent teaching as consisting of at least five things most of which are not classroom-based: 1) creative and conscientious planning; 2) the classroom activities that most people focus on exclusively which we could flesh out but don’t need to for my purposes here; 3) thoughtful assessment of student work; 4) purposeful reflection and revision of the original plan; 5) caring and constructive outside of class interactions with students. 

In my faith tradition, leaders are most commonly referred to as pastors. When it comes to my pastors, I typically only see the equivalent of number two, the Sunday morning activities. I suspect the best pastors work especially effectively out of view building leadership teams, visiting people in hospitals, counseling people, conducting weddings and funerals, and doing service in the community among others things of which I’m ignorant. 

If my pastor friends were to come watch me teach, they’d only get a feel for a portion of my professional life. Similarly, on Sunday mornings, I’m only seeing a portion of pastoral life.

Also, I don’t know how religious leaders evaluate themselves. I’m sure there’s wide ranging differences from the easily measurable (e.g., increasing attendance figures, giving, etc.) to the more intangible (e.g., deepening faith and spiritual maturity, positive impact on the community, world, etc.)

RELEVANT EDUCATIONAL BELIEFS

• I believe the educative effect is greatest when students do something rather than when something is done to them. Sounds awfully basic, but is far more radical a notion than you might imagine. Far too often in K-12 schooling, things are done to students. Put differently, the best teachers promote active learning. I believe religious leaders should promote active learning/growth too.

• Teaching excellence takes many forms. Similarly, I suspect religious leadership excellence takes many forms. 

To be continued.

 

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Teaching War

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For all the excellent work social historians have done the last few decades, most social studies teachers still teach top-down history. This is history as experienced by presidents, generals, business chieftains, not ordinary citizens. Wars garner lots of attention and tend to be taught as too-sterile sequences of events.

Few teachers and students purposefully and carefully examine the human costs of war and peace movements are usually ignored altogether.

Too often a hawkish teaching of war is wrapped in one dimensional patriotism that devalues the constitution and the commitments, courage, and contributions of conscientious objectors. 

Iraq and Afghanistan offer daily reminders of the human costs of war, whether it’s the loss of military and civilian lives, the ripple effects on loved ones at home, or the psychological legacy of post traumatic stress syndrome.

When I was in Victoria, B.C. last week, I read the Globe and Mail. I was riveted by a picture on the front page of Sergeant Gregory John Kruse and his 11 year old daughter, Kari, who looked a lot like my daughters at the same age. Sergeant Kruse died in Kandahar province a few days ago from an improvised explosive device. 

A week before Christmas a soldier knocked on his wife’s door bearing a gift from him. Jill, his wife, said that’s the kind of thoughtful guy he was. He’d picked out a precious stone two months earlier while he was home on leave from his mission. The paper explained, “He had arranged for a fellow soldier to pick up and deliver the rock so it would be under the tree at their home in Pembroke, Ont., on the 25th.”

“Another soldier knocked on the same family door yesterday,” the story continued, “this time bearing grim tidings that Sgt. Kruse was dead.” “It was a beautiful sapphire diamond necklace, and now I don’t want it,” Ms. Kruse said. “I want him. I just want him. I loved him so much. It seems so surreal that he’s gone.” 

More students will learn that war is incredibly destructive to both sides and represents huge failures in diplomacy when more social studies teachers incorporate the Jill and Katie Kruse’s of the world into the curriculum.

Fitness Year in Review

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I pity my running homies who don’t keep training logs because they don’t get to slice and dice the numbers. Hard to believe they’re content to maintain their physical and mental health with no clue about how this year compares to any other. I suppose they’re still good peeps. And my handy dandy GPS and I are happy to pick up the slack. Truth be told, they like my post run reports where I reveal how far we ran and sometimes even provide mile splits.

On the fitness front, 2008 was an excellent year, most notably because I was injury free and had a lot of fun. I’ve struggled with a balky lower back in the past so I don’t know if I’ve ever had as injury free a 12 month run. I even managed some decent workouts during last week’s bronchitis battle which was probably as sick as I got all year. I attribute my health to three things. First, living in icy Norway in February meant an unusually light second month with several off days. In hindsight, that forced rest was probably needed. Second, I didn’t make time to lift weights this year. I have decent weight lifting form, and lord knows I keep things very light and easy, but I still often accumulate aches and pains as a result of lifting. Third, I’ve done more push ups than normal which have strengthened my core. I need to get more consistent with push ups and planking in 09.

SWIMMING—241,600 meters.

A solid year highlighted by the recent PR in the 500 free. I’ve enjoyed doing more stroke work than ever before. It’s neat to see a little bit of improvement in the fly, breast, and back. The Black Hills triathlon swim was another highlight, but for the sake of kharma, I need to make a correction related to that race report. If you remember it, I talked about setting records for each split. I had an excellent swim, but upon further review, the swim and run were short. 

CYCLING—2,318 miles.

I was most surprised by how well I rode in the summer/fall without any real spring build. How to explain that? I guess I’d credit the bit of base I’ve built over the past four summers. Turns out there was some money in the account when I went to make withdrawals. It was fun mixing it up in the front of the club and riding nearly as well as friends who had more miles in their legs. My cycling season is in two parts, pre-RAMROD and post-RAMROD. I ride much better in August and September because of the spike in fitness I get from drilling myself on Mount Rainier in late-July. It serves as a booster shot. This year my 100 mile solo tune-up before Ramrod was THE single most important outing of the year. Thanks to that effort, RAMROD wasn’t a complete sufferfest. After RAMROD I enjoyed hanging on club rides without completely shelling myself and pushing the pace on occasion. 

RUNNING—1,489 miles.

I was privileged to run in new locales abroad including Norway, Berlin, Munich, through a Tuscany vineyard, and even a hotel dreadmill in Tallin, Estonia. I also enjoyed training with PC, The Malamute, and Double S. I did my best to elevate our Saturday morning conversations, but can’t say I was too successful. The Portland Marathon and Seattle Half both went well and were fun in a “that was painful, glad it’s over” kind of way. I most enjoy trail running and one silver lining of the recession is all of the development that was planned in our area is on hold; as a result, our trails are still intact. One difference this year was the utter lack of speed/track work. Just didn’t make it a priority. 

2009

After years of slight increases in volume, I don’t plan on committing any more time to physical activity in 2009. Now the question is what’s the best swimming/cycling/running balance? This year I anticipate swimming a similar distance, but borrowing some from running in order to add to cycling. Beyond that my frame of mind will be similar—remember life is fragile and appreciate and celebrate good health.

Postscript

Three favorite memories from the year. The first was a spontaneous March day of cross country skiing with Tore in Norway. Tore was patient and encouraging and the conditions and scenery were off the charts. Epic in the truest sense of the word. The second was a very tough, very steep May run/hike up a fog-covered side of the Swiss Alps in Grindenwald, Switzerland. I was serenaded by cow bells in absolutely beautiful scenery. Third, the final bike ride on a few different Mount Rainier passes on an unusually nice October day. After a maximum effort to bridge up to a strong group of climbers, I pushed the pace on one of the final segments just short of the top. Once we got to the top, and were able to talk, an amateur racing friend turned to T and me and said, “You guys should be racing. Why aren’t you racing?” I thought to myself, it doesn’t get better than this. Five friends taking turns inflicting pain on one another surrounded by unrivaled beauty. My answer is, as long as I have my health, good friends to push me, and relatively safe natural settings to train in, I’m good.

T’s persistence has paid off in that this year I will post a much shorter fitness update or random thought every other Friday. Look for the first “Friday’s Fitness Footnote” next Friday. Yes, I like alliteration.