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Eating in South Jersey Is Better Than They Thought @LaceyPatch.com

John and Lisa Howard-Fusco’s food blog helps locals and visitors find the best of the South Jersey food scene.

Eating in South Jersey isn’t what Forked River residents John and Lisa Howard-Fusco expected.

The blog they launched in 2008 grew out of their surprise at finding great food in South Jersey when they moved from North Jersey to be closer to their families. The couple never expected their hobby to catch the attention of The New York Times and New Jersey Monthly, but Eating in South Jersey has.

More importantly, the blog has become popular with local readers, many of whom look to the site to find out what’s going on in the South Jersey food scene.

“People read us. Let me tell you, we were pretty surprised,” said Lisa.

“A lot of the New Jersey media doesn’t give South Jersey its due at all,” she said. “We would go to all these wonderful places, but they wouldn’t stay open because nobody knew about them.” …

To learn about South Jersey’s hidden foodie gems, read the rest at Lacey Patch.

 Posted on April 22, 2011 by

 Blogging, Community, Culture, Family, Food, Public Square

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What Does It Mean to Live a Missional Life? @TheHighCalling

A Christian radio station commissioned a listener survey and learned that less than 100 people were tuning in to its programming. Instead of being concerned, management’s response was to say that it didn’t matter because their sole responsibility was to get the station’s message out.

Hearing this story in a Consumer Behavior class at Wheaton College was a defining moment in branding expert Karen Dougherty’s vocational journey. “They didn’t care how the receivers on the other end actually connected with the message,” said Dougherty.

The story illustrates a problem that Laity Leadership Institute Senior Fellow Darrell Guder and his colleagues tackled in their 1998 landmark book, Missional Church: A Vision for Sending of the Church in North America.

In the introduction, Guder identified these crises in the Western church: “diminishing numbers, clergy burnout, the loss of youth, the end of denominational loyalty, biblical illiteracy, divisions in the ranks, the electronic church and its various corruptions, the irrelevance of traditional forms of worship, the loss of genuine spirituality, and widespread confusion about both the purpose and the message of the church of Jesus Christ.”

I talked with Guder at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he is the Henry Winters Luce Professor of Missional and Ecumenical Theology, about what it means to live out the Christian faith in light of these crises.

Read the rest here.

 Posted on April 19, 2011 by

 church life, Community, Culture, Faith, Leadership, Public Square, Theology, Vocation, Walkin' the Talk

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Evil Through the Eye of the Lens @NJShorePatch

Jewish Federation of Monmouth County hosts documentary screening and discussion on Nazi-era progaganda; honors Congressman Christopher Smith.

April 11 022What do a Congressman, a documentary about Nazi filmmakers, and a 10-time Emmy Award winning director have in common?

A discussion about propaganda and human rights, of course!

Evil Through the Eye of the Lens, an event held at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Monmouth County in Deal Monday night,  combined a 100-minute subtitled documentary about Nazi filmmaker Veit Harlan, a talk on the difference between propaganda and art by acclaimed filmmaker David Grubin, and humanitarian awards for United States Congressman Christopher Smith and executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education Paul Winkler.

Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Suss is the compelling story of the only Nazi filmmaker who was prosecuted (and acquitted) of war crimes for the Nazi propaganda films he made. More than this though, it is the story of his family’s complicated relationship with its legacy. …

 Posted on April 15, 2011 by

 Art, Community, Culture, Ethics, Faith, Family, History, Public Square, Redemption, Social Action, Vocation

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What Makes Those Roller Girls Skate? @NJShorePatch

Jersey Shore Roller Girls season opener gives this longtime fan a glimpse into what propels so many of us to love roller derby.

Jersey Shore Roller Girls 2011 Season OpenerIt was a standing room only crowd for the Jersey Shore Roller Girls season opener at Convention Hall in Asbury Park Saturday night.

The Anchor Assassins scored a decisive win (163-134) over Murder Beach Militia. It was redemption after losing to the team by five points in the 2010 championship bout. …

The bout was fun, but what I really wanted to know was what motivated these women to pursue the flat track version of a sport I vicariously competed in when I was watching bank track bouts on Saturday afternoons back in the 1970s. …

Find out what keeps them and us hooked at NJ Shore Patch.

 Posted on March 30, 2011 by

 Community, Culture, Family, Friendship, Public Square, Vocation

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Lessons from Elite Leaders: What Have We Learned? Part 8 of 8 @TheHighCalling

Highlights from the series.

For seven weeks, The High Calling has engaged with the ideas Laity Leadership Institute Senior Fellow D. Michael explored in his new PLATINUM Study on elite leaders.

In “Limits, Accountability, & Marriage,” we learned that setting limits on ambition, being accountable to peers, and getting married are important contributors to career success. A regular practice of Sabbath rest, for example, differentiates people who are successful over the long haul from those who experience significant difficulty creating life/work balance. We also learned that small groups can provide the kind of personal support leaders need, but only if we allow ourselves to be vulnerable to our peers. Finally, we learned that a strong social support networks like marriage are vital to managing the challenges of demanding leadership roles. …

Find out what else we learned at The High Calling.

 Posted on March 30, 2011 by

 Capitalism, Community, Ethics, Faith, Family, Leadership, Public Square, Social Action, Theology, Vocation, Walkin' the Talk

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Out of the Darkness and Into the Light for Suicide Prevention @NJShorePatch

Remembering my son and walking off my grief with other survivors.

gabe art photoMonday, March 28 will mark the third anniversary of my son Gabriel’s death by suicide. Instead of wallowing in the grief that continues to haunt my life, I’ve decided to walk it off this year.

Not literally, of course, because one doesn’t shake this kind of loss, but in real ways that do me and others good I am walking off the stigma and ignorance that suicide inspires.

Right now I’m in training. Come June, I’ll join thousands of other suicide survivors to walk 18 miles from dusk until dawn at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s annual Out of the Darkness Overnight Walk.

As the name suggests, the walk is a fundraiser that seeks to bring the issue of suicide “out of the darkness and into the light.” This year, it will be held in New York City on June 4-5. If you’ve lost a loved one to suicide or just want to support efforts to prevent the 11th leading cause of death in the United States, I hope you’ll join me!

Here’s why …

To find out the answer, go to one of the NJ Shore Patch sites.

 3 Comments

 Posted on March 23, 2011 by

 Community, Family, Gabriel Gifford Scheller, grief, Leadership, Psychiatry, Psychology, Public Square, Redemption, Social Action, Walkin' the Talk

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How I Learned to Love a Show about Mormon Polygamy @Her.meneutics

Despite its troubling views on marriage and family, HBO’s Big Love always felt like an allegory for real people I know.

Years before TLC launched its polygamous reality show Sister Wives, Tom Hanks and company produced HBO’s award-winning drama series Big Love, about a family of polygamists who emerged out of a creepy Mormon splinter group.

I’ve watched all five seasons of Big Love, including Sunday night’s series finale. Creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer told the Los Angeles Times this week that the series emerged from their marriage, with the goal of communicating the idea that marriages can endure change. What appealed to me about the show was how it parsed the challenges of breaking free from a closed religious community while grappling with the community’s best ideals and penetrating reach. …

Read the whole review here.

 Posted on March 22, 2011 by

 Community, Democracy, Faith, Family, Her.meneutics, Public Square, Redemption, Theology, Walkin' the Talk

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Iron Chef Got Her Start as “Girl Next Door” at Lacey Township High School @LaceyPatch

Home Economics classes were catalyst for Dena Marino’s culinary career.

Although food was a central part of life for acclaimed chef Dena Marino’s Italian American family, it was in Home Economics courses at Lacey Township High School that she realized she could aspire to a culinary career.

In January Marino competed against Masaharu Morimoto on on The Food Network’s popular show, Iron Chef America. She’d previously appeared on Gordon Elliot’s show, Follow that Food and Tom Colicchio’s Eat, Drink, or Die, but those experiences were nothing like competing against a champion opponent and a ticking clock. …

Find out how the local girl made it big at Lacey Patch.

 Posted on March 16, 2011 by

 Community, Culture, Family, Vocation

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One Church Said Yes to Perinatal Wellness @NJShorePatch

Rachel McKibben’s experience with Postpartum Psychosis inspired her to accept help on behalf of others.

Regional Perinatal Consortium of Monmouth and Ocean Counties (RPCMOC) health educator Amy Goldberg mailed 600 fliers to local religious organizations offering her program on pregnancy related emotional wellness.

One person responded.

That person was Rachel McKibben, director of youth and family ministries at Trinity Episcopal Church in Red Bank. For McKibben, the flier didn’t just represent another ministry opportunity; it was a highly personal invitation to do something about an issue that has shaped her own life.

McKibben is one of a tiny percentage of women who have experienced Postpartum Psychosis.  Although she had no history of mental illness and no symptoms after her first pregnancy, she did have some risk factors for Postpartum Depression (PPD)….

To find out how Rachel dealt with this terrifying experience, and what the signs, symptoms, and solutions are for PPD, go here, or here, or here, or one of the other Jersey Shore Patch.com sites.

 Posted on March 16, 2011 by

 church life, Community, Faith, Family, Medicine, Psychiatry, Psychology, Redemption, Walkin' the Talk

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When Tragedies Are too Big to Absorb, How Do We Find and Give Comfort? @TheHuffingtonPost

I wonder if any of us is really capable of handling the scope of sorrow that technology now exposes us to.

On Friday, as the world was rightly absorbed with the epic tragedy in Japan, I was reporting on a local tragedy for Patch.com. A young man, Matthew C. Blum, 32, of Forked River, New Jersey, had collapsed and died after leaving a recreational hockey game because he didn’t feel well.

Blum was married just four months ago and his wife learned two weeks ago that she is expecting their first baby. A season of celebration was inexplicably shattered for this family.

As I sat next to Blum’s young, pregnant widow in the living room of her in-laws’ house absorbing one family’s grief, I was incapable of absorbing anything more epic than that.

I felt this way after the Haiti earthquake last year, only the reason was more personal. Still mourning the death of my son in 2008, I was incapable of taking in any more sorrow. My personal grief has, to some degree, emotionally disconnected me from global tragedies.

I wonder though if any of us is really capable of handling the scope of sorrow that technology now exposes us to. Famine, earthquake, tsunami, terrorism, genocide: it’s enough to tempt one to believe end times prophets have a point. …

Read the rest here.

 Posted on March 14, 2011 by

 Community, Faith, Family, grief, Redemption, Technology, The Huffington Post, Walkin' the Talk

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Lessons from Elite Leaders: A Theology of Power for the Workplace, Part 6 of 8 @TheHighCalling

How can powerful leaders be effective and responsible?

In a 2009 Journal of Religious Leadership article, Laity Leadership Senior Fellow D. Michael Lindsay wrote that evangelicals populate halls of power, but generally “have no theological framework for managing the privileges that accompany the mantle of public leadership.” He then outlined a theology of power that can help us consider how to wield power effectively and responsibly.

“Christians in public leadership would be wise to pursue their lives in ways different from the dominant culture, especially in terms of their consumption practices and workplace politics,” he said. Lindsay drew this conclusion after analyzing anecdotal evidence that suggests “whatever suspicions non-religious colleagues may have of these Christians emerge not from hostility toward the teachings of Jesus but from the lifestyles of those who claim to be his followers.”

For example, two business leaders, MCI WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers and Enron Corporation CEO Kenneth Lay, have been depicted as notoriously corrupt. Yet both were active in their churches. Conversely, when Tyco International needed to “renew its commitment to ethics, it hired Eric Pillmore as senior vice president of corporate governance. Obviously, Pillmore’s faith and work is the public witness we want to emulate. But how do we ground such a witness theologically?

Find out the answer to that question here.

 Posted on March 14, 2011 by

 Community, Ethics, Leadership, Public Square, Theology, Vocation, Walkin' the Talk

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Lessons from Elite Leaders: Speaking in Different Registers at Work, Part 5 of 8 @TheHighCalling

People are afraid of evangelicals. Why? Laity Leadership Senior Fellow D. Michael Lindsay says his latest research shows that those outside the evangelical fold have fears about evangelicals based on two things:

  1. They’re afraid evangelicals won’t do the  things they say they’ll do.
  2. They’re afraid evangelicals will do some of the things they say they’ll do.

For example, people don’t believe it when an evangelical leader says, “I draw on my faith; it gives me a sense of meaning and purpose; it sacrilizes my work and helps me face some of the challenges that come my way, but I’m not here to convert you or force faith down your throat, or manipulate the work place so that it becomes like a church.”

Likewise, if they’re asked a generic question like, “Do you think evangelicals are trying to take over the country?” they may say yes. But when they’re asked about particular evangelicals they have encountered in leadership, they generally express positive attitudes. The exception is in the political realm, where Lindsay finds significant polarization. He says, “I bracket that off because I don’t know how, as a social analyst, to separate out someone’s faith from their politics. I think so much of how we respond relates to how those things work hand in hand in the political sector.”

He says we need to learn how to “speak in different registers” at work in order to alleviate these fears. …

To find out what he means, read the whole article at The High Calling.

 2 Comments

 Posted on March 7, 2011 by

 Community, Culture, Ethics, Leadership, Politics, Public Square, Vocation, Walkin' the Talk

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