Scholarships Available for Colleagues
Do some of your colleagues struggle to afford Society membership? Remember, when inviting your friends to join our Society, to encourage them to apply for a scholarship to offset their membership fees. Simply tell them that scholarship instructions are available at registration!
Also, recall that we provide Society promotional materials for your colleagues, small groups, church functions, etc.
What journals do you read?
We would like to promote the Society of Christian Scholars in local, academic journals that you read. Please help by emailing a list of these journals to jfoster@SocietyofChristianScholars.org
Society Opportunities
Library Reading Corner
The aim of the Library Reading Corner is to familiarize Addenda readers with the resources of the Society’s Library in support of its services and mission to equip for redemptive influence in five growth areas: (1) integration of faith and scholarship; (2) spiritual formation; (3) socio-cultural engagement; (4) vocational excellence in research, teaching, and administration; and (5) relational and leader development. Selected resources will take the form of an annotated bibliography as they may relate to the Society’s services such as upcoming or past webinars, activities of online groups such as the Library Reading Group, Continuing the Conversation (related to webinars), or any of the other online groups of the Society.
This month’s Library Reading Corner feature includes three library resources under the library category of Pursuing Vocational Excellence. The following resources provide further reading for the Society’s May 2024 webinar by Rev. Dr. Justyn Terry. View this webinar: ‘Big Picture Leadership.’
Title: The Power of Servant Leadership by Robert Greenleaf
Brief Description: This edited book provides a collection of essays written by Robert Greenleaf, who is recognized in the field of organizational leadership as the father of the servant leadership approach. The essays address leadership in the context of higher education.
Title: Servant Leadership in Higher Education by Anthony J. Scardino
Brief Description:
Scardino examines the effects of servant leadership in the learning environment among self identified servant leaders at Franciscan institutions. He accomplished this by 1) examining to what extent the professors in these institions demonstrate the qualities of servant leadership and 2) examining the relationship between those servant leaders and deep approaches to learning. Scardino, in this doctoral thesis, indicates that there is a link between servant leadership and “deep approaches to learning with a strong correlation to emotional healing.”
Title: The Teacher as a Servant Leader by Richard F. Bowman
Brief Description: This article addresses the servant leadership approach as a ‘resonant moral principle’ which, when embraced by the teacher/professor and included in the teaching/learning process, empowers students to reach their potential.
If you would like to know more about the Society’s library, watch the webinar ‘Nurturing Redemptive Influence through Resources: The Society Library as a Learning Resource’ and/or contact the Society’s librarian, Dr Marlene Hines, at mhines@societyofchristianscholars.org.
Call for Book Reviewers
If you would like to write a 1,000-word review on the following book, please contact Dr Ron Lindo at rlindo@SocietyofChristianScholars.org for further details. Reviews will be highlighted and published in a special section of our Society member site.
African Hermeneutics by Elizabeth Mburu
Upcoming Webinars
Be sure to check the Webinars Page for third-party webinars that are often added on short notice and for updated presenters and topics that may be helpful in equipping you to bring the gospel to bear in your university context.
How to Survive and Thrive on Life’s Highwire by Diane J. Chandler – Thursday, 20 June 2024 at 1400 UTC
How do you keep from collapsing under the weight of competing life priorities? We are burdened by unceasing work demands, burnout, family challenges, frayed emotions, life transitions, and financial uncertainties. Is there such a thing as balanced living?
On Thursday, 20 June 2024 at 1400 UTC, Dr Diane J. Chandler, Associate Professor of Christian Formation and Leadership at Regent University School of Divinity in Virginia Beach, VA (USA), will address how to keep your footing on life’s highwire when time demands threaten to knock you down. Like spiritual highwire aerialists, we must reaffirm basic biblical principles to retain our focus and renew our verve. We will consider the gleanings of one highwire aerialist who knows such challenges and then apply these gleanings to our lives.
Drawing from her book, Christian Spiritual Formation: An Integrated Approach to Personal and Relational Wholeness (IVP Academic, 2014), Dr Chandler provides a unique twist on healthy living in a God-centered approach designed to help you stay on life’s highwire and encourage others (including students and family members) to do the same. In preparation for the webinar, read the ‘Introduction’ to her book for an overview.
Dr Chandler holds a PhD in organizational leadership, an MDiv in practical theology, and an MS in education. She publishes widely on Christian formation and spirituality themes, women in leadership, global leadership, ethical leadership, and professional burnout. Diane travels internationally to equip leaders in various contexts and has a special interest in developing women leaders. In addition, she serves as an ordained elder at New Life Church, a multi-ethnic and multi-site church in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia.
Be sure to register today!
Examining the Research Process: A Perspective by Jim McCloskey – Thursday, 18 July at 1400 UTC
Research is the process of putting different pieces of information together to find patterns, correlations, and connections. When conducting research, you want to connect the significance of your topic to other perspectives or compare your topic with how others have thought about it. Research is an iterative cycle of inquiry, discovery and refinement, rather than a straight line. The process of iteration supports progression, however, as it entails not only moving a research project forward but also a deepening awareness of how this project fits within the context of what has come before as well as present realities.
On Thursday, 18 July 2024 at 1400 UTC, Dr Jim McCloskey, Library Director and Associate Professor at Wilmington University, DE (USA), will offer one perspective on the research process, acknowledging that other non-Western approaches might offer important nuances. In research, there is an element of exploration, careful observation, unpredictability, and reflection. Research can be frustrating because there are so many directions in which to go, but it is also exciting and rewarding when you have forged your own path and arrived at your own destination. This workshop will help you take the essential steps as you proceed through the stages of the research process.
The research stages to be discussed include:
Planning –
Define the problem
Choose your topic and scope
Search for, manage and review the literature
Develop research questions
Designing
Formulate a theoretical framework
Develop a measurement plan or methodology for the variables in the research questions
Develop a data collection plan
Operationalizing
Collect data
Determine how to analyze the data
Organize and synthesize your findings
Recommendations
Disseminate results
Register today for this important webinar that can enhance your research capacity!
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the Addenda are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the Society of Christian Scholars.