Link To Love

So, I'm blogging about Barbara Walter's new book and the importance of love as you're leading organizations through change over at A.R.E. today. And I think it might be helpful and interesting to anybody out there who cares about revitalizing the mainline, especially church leaders who occasionally get sucked up into thinking that "the secret" to renewal is found in a business seminar somewhere. There's good stuff coming out of the business world, of course. But nobody beats Jesus when it comes to knowing a thing or two about transformation. "Love God," he said. "Love one another. And love your neighbor as yourself." Could it be any simpler? Anyway, here's an excerpt (below) from today's A.R.E. post, "The Power Of Love":

I don't know, maybe I'm a little odd for somebody over the age of 35, but I've never had much of an opinion about Barbara Walters, one way or the other. I don't watch "The View." I don't have any plans to read her new book. Still, I've been interested in the reaction to Barbara Walters on the release of her autobiography, called "The Audition," from pundits, other media types, bloggers, etc. In the June issue of The Atlantic, Caitlin Flanagan is especially tough of Walters. Her review is titled, "The Uses of Enchantment." And her blistering criticism of Walters is, in a sentence, that "Barbara Walters got the story by giving her subjects what they wanted." And what exactly is it that Walters gave them? According to Flanagan: Love.

Barbara Walters fell in love with the people she interviewed. She cared about them. She was interested in what they had to say. She assumed, in every case, no matter who they were or what they were accused of doing, that there was another side to the story...that there was their side.

And that made all the difference.

Go read the rest of the post. And, while you're at it, sign up for our next webinar - it's on Tuesday, May 27th, at 7 p.m. CST. It's free. :)

Comments

[duane_gaukel]

That's so awesome!!! I wonder if Caitlin Flanagan realizes that her sour grapes just made Barbara Walters look great! What a great reminder that if we really love the people around us, the people God puts in our lives every day, then we will find ourselves really being the church. How cool that would be!

[PS]

What always seemed so amazing about a BW interview is how she would seem to get people's trust. She would even hold hands with some of the people.

Haven't read the book, etc. but the reaction on the ABC comments that I read about the interviews of her were quite negative.

[Tom in Ontario]

That's hillarious. Does Flanagan really think she's ripping Barbara? It makes her sound wonderful to me.

By the way, I do watch "The View" from time to time and Barbara is usually the only one there with her head screwed on straight.