Regent University to Co-host International Spirituality and Leadership Conference in India

Regent University's School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship will co-host the 2nd International Conference on Integrating Spirituality and Organizational Leadership February 9-12, 2009, at the University of Pondicherry in Pondicherry, India.

Conducted in English, this conference strives to bring together different perspectives, disciplines and spiritual traditions as leading scholars from the USA, Europe and Asia systematically explore the nature, determination and implications of the spiritual dimensions of organizational leadership.

Those wishing to present at the conference must submit their proposals for poster presentations or abstracts for oral presentations by November 30, 2008. Notifications of acceptance will be provided by December 15, 2008. Full papers will then be due by January 15, 2009.

A pre-conference International Research Workshop on Spiritual and Ethical Foundations of Organizational Development will be held February 5-7 and will provide an opportunity for scholars to discuss on-going or proposed research projects and form collaborative relationships aimed at building a formal research base addressing multiple aspects of spirituality in organizations. Workshop participants will present their projects and studies in a roundtable format.

Those wishing to present in the pre-conference workshop must submit their abstracts by November 30, 2008. Notification of acceptance will be provided by December 15, 2008. Full papers will then be due by January 15, 2009

For more information and to register online for the 2nd International Conference on Integrating Spirituality and Organizational Leadership, go to: www.regent.edu/global/conferences

Waiting In Silence

I have not blogged for a while. It has been a real busy time as we finish the semester here at Regent and I recover from an extended travel schedule during the summer months. I have been thinking about the value of silence, rest and stillness. Here is a small section from Thomas Merton on the value of these age-old and devotional disciplines:

“Contemplation is essentially a listening in silence, an expectancy... In other words, the true contemplative is not the one who prepares his mind for a particular message that he wants or expects to hear, but who remains empty because he knows that he can never expect or anticipate the world that will transform his darkness into light. He does not even anticipate a special kind of transformation. He does not demand light instead of darkness. He waits on the Word of God in silence, and when he is ‘answered,’ it is not so much by a world that bursts into his silence. It is by his silence itself suddenly, inexplicably revealing itself to him as a word of great power, full of the voice of God.”

Thomas Merton. Contemplative Prayer. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1969: 90

New Edition of Inner Resources of Leaders Out

The Second Edition of Inner Resources of Leaders is out: http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/innerresources/

Wrestling with the Word

I am re-reading George Cornell's great book; "The Untamed God" again. What struck me again is the way that we have not only shaped our God Image in our own, but also failed to let the Bible speak for itself. The following quote from Cornell is worthy of reflection:

“The Bible is the record of those Divine breakthroughs into human history. ‘God’s search for man,’ it is described, rather than being our search for God. And its accents are considered a key for discerning the continuing Divine activity in the present. Unlike most religious literature, it is not chiefly a collection of noble sayings, but a drum-roll of events, people, struggles, great and terrible, of frailty, doubts, and heroism, of the ultimate might of right. Scripture isn’t meant as [mere] scientific exposition or as mere history. It is ‘salvation history’, a universal spiritual drama of an overarching compassion and concern for human integrity, of an unwavering love that seeks an answering affirmation. It is a vivid, sometimes parabolic account of God’s persistent, unrelenting quest for us and our stumbling, often faithless response.”

Cornell G 1975. The Untamed God. New York: Harper and Row Publishers