What do Quakers Bring to Leadership? Plenty. Quakers have contributed a great deal to the understanding of leadership. Many ideas that seem new and fresh in today’s leadership literature were normative for Quakers from the beginning. Our foreparents such as George Fox, Margaret Fell, Elizabeth Fry, Joseph Gurney, and many others practiced a unique form of leadership in Quaker meetings not at all natural in 17th century Europe. Read the rest of this article.

By Arthur Roberts: What does it means to “be in harmony” with Friends’ principles? Our book of Christian discipline describes faith expressed both in word and in deed. Sound doctrine and right conduct belong together. You don’t want a pastor or elder who teaches sound doctrine but is addicted to pornography, nor a morally upright youth leader who discounts the resurrection as a myth. Read the rest of this article.

As Friends, we try to make a “record” of the fact that God has already uniquely called and gifted an individual for public ministry. We don’t “ordain” and somehow give the person special power they didn’t have from God already. We assume God does the ordaining and our task is to be a community that looks for those people God has called to public ministry and then name it as a community. Read one person’s experience.

In January, the Latin American Center for Theological Studies (CETLA) completed its first cycle of seven courses for its Certificate in Bible Ministry. This is a partnership program between NWYM Latino Ministries and Barclay College. Antonio Mandujano, pastoring a second Spanish-speaking congregation under Iglesia Amigos en Newberg, was the first graduate. Read more about this program.

The wise old saying goes, “Don’t give a poor person a fish. Teach him to fish.” For me that saying becomes, “Don’t just give someone a book. Teach her to write!” Slowly I have comme to the realization that the best literature for the Aymara people would be books, stories, and songs written by Aymara writers. Read about Nancy’s journey.