City As Playground

the Street and the Academy

Cities, by their very nature, point us to the contradictions and paradoxes that are an inseparable aspect of our world. To love cities - as the Leadership Foundations global network seeks to embody - is to embrace these contradictions.

Join us in this episode where we explore the contradiction and tension between two sources of authority - the Street and the Academy - and how both have something to teach us about our urban world.

Can You Imagine a Playground? - A Just City

Can you imagine a city that is just? A city where everyone - regardless of background, birth family, race, or creed - receives what they need to fully thrive as human beings...

Justin Beene, President of the Leadership Foundation of Grand Rapids, Center for Community Transformation (GRCCT), joins us to explore the shape of God's justice in his city.  Dr. Beene describes how GRCCT is seeking to extend opportunity in a city ranked amongst the worst economically for African-Americans. 

• • Statistic cited from Forbes Magazine, 2015. 
  • Grand Rapids Center for Community Transformation

Traditioned Innovation: An Invitation into Brave Space

What if instead of seeking safe spaces, we worked to create brave spaces, spaces where we could bring our deepest selves, our deepest vulnerabilities to the table in a way that might make real transformation possible? Rev. Jen Bailey, founder of the Faith Matters Network joins us to explore the possibility of building trust across our deepest and most intractable lines of difference, recognizing that all social change happens at the speed of trust.

Traditioned Innovation: A Way of Proceeding

Is leadership about making important decisions? 

Or is it more about a way of going about making decisions? To borrow a phrase from the Jesuits, what is a "way of proceeding" that allows us to move forward together in these uncertain times?

We are join by Lisa Slayton, Leadership Foundations board member, organizational consultant and founder of Tamim Partners to explore the shape of discernment in pursuit of a more just and equitable urban future. 

Public Theology for the Common Good

How do the deep resources of our faith help us to more deeply engage the Public Square? Can a Public Theology help us find a way through these divided and polarized times to work together toward the Common Good?

Anne Snyder, the Editor-in-Chief of Comment Magazine and the host of Breaking Ground, a collaborative web commons, joins us to explore these topics as we seek a public theology for the common good. 

 

 

Leadership as Accompaniment

Pancho Argüelles, Executive Director of the Living Hope Wheel Chair Association, joins us for this episode exploring spiritual and social aspects of Accompaniment.

City as Playground? You've got to be Kidding Me!

Leadership in a time of Covid - Part I - Join Leadership Foundations President, Dave Hillis, and podcast host Rick Enloe as they introduce a conversation on what real Leadership looks like amidst a time of crisis. 

For this multipart series we'll be exploring the notion of "Nonreactive Leadership," and the promise it holds for our cities, particularly in this time of global crisis. 

As a guide, we'll be delving into this topic with this provocative statement that theologian James Alison offers: "Neither reactive Churches, nor reactive organizations [nor reactive leaders] can be part of the sign of the beginning of gathered humanity reconciled with God. The fact is that the meaning of the Gospel, the life of God, the sense of the Spirit, is never to be found in reactive spaces. It is always and only found in the hard-won space where rivalry has broken down and forgiveness emerges.”   

The Leaders in Leadership Foundations

This episode begins a new series of the LF podcast which will feature the heroic stories of leaders throughout the LF network. Rick and Dave begin by discussing Bob Terry’s definition of leadership as well as Marshall Gant’s framework of storytelling which will be used in the upcoming interviews of LF leaders. Please join us for the upcoming episodes as we tour LF cities and leaders. Listen here and send any questions or comments to info@leadershipfoundations.org.

Eucharistic Leadership Review- Episode 37

How does the Eucharist impact and shape leadership? In this episode, Dave and Rick look back on the last 10 months and our dive into the idea of Eucharistic leadership and its four movements- taken, blessed, broken, and given. Together they discuss the key questions and lessons that surfaced and the implications these have for our leadership and everyday lives.

Eucharistic Leadership: Given- Episode 36

What is the purpose of being given and how does it impact leadership? In this episode, Dave and Rick talk with Jack Fortin, Chair of the Leadership Foundations Board and Senior Fellow at Augsburg College, about the importance of this action in Eucharistic leadership- being given for the sake of our community. They explore the idea of being given power so that we, individually and corporately, may give it away to others, thereby acting as servant leaders and establishing trustworthiness, which is central to giving.