Developing a Spiritual Leadership Curriculum at West University Church of Christ

In the fall of 2015, I worked with a small group of congregational members to develop a spiritual leadership curriculum for the West Houston Church of Christ. Many of the congregation’s leaders were feeling a sense of burnout and weariness in ministry. They yearned to deepen their own connection with God to energize their ministry. This article relates the history of the congregation before the intervention, outlines the process of the intervention, from its theological underpinnings to the development of the curriculum, and finally, examines the efficacy of this intervention

Evaluation of NEXRAD-based sub-daily Intensity Duration Frequency Curves over CONUS

The establishment of design storm parameters is a critical step in hydrologic design and flood-risk management. Intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) curves are commonly used as they yield the expected intensity of a given storm duration and frequency of occurrence. Due to the long record length and reliability of the data, rain gauges have been used historically to generate at-point IDF curves. However, limitation in gauge coverage or distribution can result in uncertainties in IDF generation from the data interpolation methods. A potential solution to this limitation is the incorporation of radar-based Quantitative Precipitation Estimates (QPEs) in deriving IDF relationships. Radar-based estimates offer areal coverage where rain gauges may not exist, however are associated with other limitations such as the space/time resolution of the radar measurement and also errors from atmospheric attenuation, beam blockage, and range effect. The objective of this work is to evaluate the usability of radar-based estimates for deriving IDF curves. Evaluation is carried out over continental United States, focusing on the major climatic zones defined by the Koppen climate classification system, along with a separate evaluation grouping based on an elevation threshold. The Radar QPE are based on the National Weather Service Stage IV data, a bias corrected product mosaicked over the continental United States at 4km spatial and hourly temporal resolution. Reference precipitation estimates were based on NOAA hourly gauge observations available from 1948 to 2017. The gauges were selected through a quality control process to assure gauges had at least 50 years of record with less than 10% of missing data. The radar pixels covering the location of the gauges were selected for comparison. To compare between the short record lengths of the radar product (2002-2017), the annual maximum series of each gauge was sampled with replacement into a synthetic 15-year annual maximum series and bootstrapped 1000 times. IDF relationships were generated by fitting a generalized extreme value distribution to the annual maximum series for durations of 1 h, 3 h, 6h, 12 h, and 24 h. The results of the analysis highlight the uncertainty in radar-based IDF curves due to the short record length of the radar QPE uncertainty and further emphasize the geographical dependence of the accuracy in IDF estimates. Findings from this study are expected to offer valuable insight on the analysis of radar-based rainfall climatology for hydrologic designs and further advance current knowledge on the use of remote sensing observations for frequency analysis of precipitation extremes

The Impact of Trauma-Informed Environment on Middle School Teachers\u27 Self-Efficacy Towards Students with Disruptive Behaviors: A Causal-Comparative Study

The purpose of this causal-comparative study was to examine whether there is a difference in teacher self-efficacy (TSE) for educators who participate in, receive training for, and work in a trauma-informed environment (TIC) versus teachers who do not. Trauma-informed education is a growing trend in K-12 academic settings. But, no known study has shown whether working in a trauma-informed environment has an impact on teacher behaviors and attitudes. The results of this study did not find any statistically significant difference in survey responses from middle school teachers. The researcher used the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) to collect data on efficacy scores from 178 teachers in rural, urban, and suburban districts across six schools. A one-way multivariate of analysis of variance (MANOVA) did not reveal any statistically significant difference in scores. The results may indicate that TIC training does not impact teacher efficacy or that such training helps educators build resiliency to endure traumatic environments. The investigator recommends more research on TIC and teacher behaviors. A conclusion from this causal-comparative study is that since results were similar across three school districts, there may be a state-wide control that accounts for the current condition of TSE for middle school educators. Conversely, people who stay in education may have higher resiliency skills than people in other professions, making the environment less likely to predict teacher behaviors and attitudes

Perceptions of Recreational Bridge Decking Materials by U.S. Architectural and Engineering Firms

This paper examines recreational bridge decking material specifiers to better understand substitution opportunities for wood/natural fiber-plastic composites (WPCs). The WPC industry in the United States has enjoyed success in several residential construction applications including decking/railing, doors, and windows. As new WPC technologies and advancements evolve, potential exists to expand into an array of new products, including structural components for housing, marine, and transportation infrastructure applications. Specifically, this research investigates the perceptions of U.S. architectural and engineering (A&E) firms regarding the industrial infrastructure materials used in recreational bridge decking.Through various exploratory methods, private U.S. A&Es were identified as key decision-makers in the recreational bridge construction industry and were subsequently examined via email/Internet surveys. A&Es indicated their highest level of influence in the recreational bridge decking process was in Project Design (4.14) followed by Material Selection (3.53) (5-point scale). Architects and engineers average self-rated Knowledge Of and Experience With WPCs were 2.10 and 1.48, respectively, well below the neutral point (3.0) on the 5-point scale. The two most important and most appealing recreational bridge decking material/service attributes were Low Maintenance and Decay Resistance. A&Es identified Decking and Marine Applications as the top two applications where WPCs could be used as a wood substitute. The Internet, Trade/Industry Journals, Conferences/Seminars, and Word of Mouth were the most important methods used by A&Es to learn about new industrial infrastructure materials

Formulating an Intentional Curriculum for Spiritual Leadership Development at the West University Church of Christ

This project addresses the lack of a formal curriculum for spiritual leadership formation in the West University Church of Christ in Houston, Texas. While the West University Church of Christ has been blessed by strong congregational leaders in both the past and present, recent conversations revealed the need for a deeper connection to God and a better understanding of spiritual leadership on the part of the congregation’s leaders. The problem I identified was a lack of understanding about spiritual leadership in contrast to secular understandings of leadership and the lack of a formal curriculum to help address this problem. This project assembled a small, diverse group of congregational members to create a spiritual leadership curriculum that helps develop a Christian phronesis among the current leaders of the congregation. This group met for a weekend retreat to examine the background of Philippians, spiritual leadership, and a theology of phronesis. Afterwards, the group assembled for eight sessions to develop a spiritual leadership curriculum. Using the Christ Hymn of Philippians 2:5-11 as its foundation, this curriculum defines spiritual leadership as fulfilling Paul\u27s calling to develop the phronesis of Christ through study, reflection, and intentional spiritual practices and then helping others do the same in their own lives. Each week was organized around a theme from Philippians and the Christ Hymn. During the week the team implemented spiritual practices in their own lives. When they assembled together, the team reflected on those experiences together, brainstormed questions to address the weekly theme, and developed a spiritual leadership lesson that utilized biblical study, reflection, and spiritual disciplines. I assessed the validity of this curriculum through the triangulation of researcher field notes, insider evaluation, and the evaluation of an outside expert. According to these three areas of evaluation, the curriculum is an effective way to develop spiritual leadership in a congregation. This project thesis explores the theological foundations of the curriculum, the method of its construction, and its practical possibilities for future leadership development at the West University Church of Christ

Toward an integrative understanding of social behavior: new models and new opportunities.

Social interactions among conspecifics are a fundamental and adaptively significant component of the biology of numerous species. Such interactions give rise to group living as well as many of the complex forms of cooperation and conflict that occur within animal groups. Although previous conceptual models have focused on the ecological causes and fitness consequences of variation in social interactions, recent developments in endocrinology, neuroscience, and molecular genetics offer exciting opportunities to develop more integrated research programs that will facilitate new insights into the physiological causes and consequences of social variation. Here, we propose an integrative framework of social behavior that emphasizes relationships between ultimate-level function and proximate-level mechanism, thereby providing a foundation for exploring the full diversity of factors that underlie variation in social interactions, and ultimately sociality. In addition to identifying new model systems for the study of human psychopathologies, this framework provides a mechanistic basis for predicting how social behavior will change in response to environmental variation. We argue that the study of non-model organisms is essential for implementing this integrative model of social behavior because such species can be studied simultaneously in the lab and field, thereby allowing integration of rigorously controlled experimental manipulations with detailed observations of the ecological contexts in which interactions among conspecifics occur