I surveyed over 500 pastors and executive directors of Christian ministries a while ago (here are the results) and discovered there is a concensus that how we refer to non-local church Christian ministries is a problem. Both pastors and executive directors objected to calling non-denominational ministries “parachurch” because para means alongside (hence outside). They see unaffiliated ministry [...]
Harvard Business School: Final Reflections
Well, I’m home from an amazing seven days at HBS. From noon last Sunday to noon Saturday, this was a whirlwind of learning and thinking like I’ve never experienced. Those of you in nonprofit leadership, you have to go. It’s running next summer from July 18 – 24 and is worth every penny. Check it out. [...]
Living with history
There are certain places where you are far more aware than usual that you are a link in the chain of generations that span from ancient history to today. Boston is one of those places. You can’t go anywhere, it seems, without being aware of the many generations who have gone before. Everywhere you look there [...]
“I didn’t sign up for this!”
Just a short thought today. I’ve sat on a couple of boards over the years, and when it comes time to select a board chair most of the discussion is around a person’s ability to lead a meeting. There are other considerations, but this seems to be the main one. Today we had a case study [...]
A beautiful moment!
We live in “living groups” of 8 people here at Harvard, which means we have 8 bedrooms and a huge living/meeting room/kitchenette. At breakfast today, one of my living group members told of a potentially life-changing moment that occured thirty or so years ago. I’ll call him Ben. Today, Ben is CEO of an almost [...]
Rev. John Pellowe, MBA, DMin
