Mullings and Musings ~ New Year's Eve Edition

• "Arc of Iraq war told in images" (As this year closes, as the troops return home... seems fitting to reflect on sacrifice, accomplishments, failures... and hopefully, lessons learned. I also thought - it would be quite fitting to add the Iraqi nation and her people to my regular prayer list - as they face a new beginning. May God's name be glorified!)

"The American war in Iraq is over. The last U.S. soldier will be home by Christmas, and for the first time in a decade, no American service member is preparing for deployment in Mesopotamia.

As America leaves the Iraq war, what has the war left America?..."

• "Communications 3.0: Trends that will impact your ministry" (Lots of changing... lots of thinking, planning, strategizing and most of all, praying and listening, that needs to be happening.)

"Organizations need to see that the impact from the web is larger than the technology itself because it reflects a new worldview. There has been a change in how new generations see the world. In his 1993 book, Post-Capitalist Society, the late Peter Drucker worded it this way:

Technology is accelerating this process of change. For example, do you think social media would have taken off as it has if it were around in the 1950s? Or was there a different view of authority that would have discouraged people from posting their opinion online? Part of the explosion of social media is that it aligns with a postmodern worldview. It is important for organizations to see what is underway as more than just technological; it is about a worldview change that is reshaping industries and organizations. The next generation of digital natives is being made in the image of the web."

'Every few hundred years in Western history, there occurs a sharp transformation . . . within a few short decades, society rearranges itself – its worldview; its basic values; its social and political structure; its arts; its key institutions . . . Fifty years later, there is a new world and the people born then cannot even imagine the world in which their grandparents lived and into which their own parents were born. We are currently living through just such a transformation.'

• "Africa's Year of Living Dangerously" (Interesting... 'specially since I live here...)

"To be sure, the threats to Africa's growth are far from over. The eurozone crisis– and its attendant risk of a major recession that will undoubtedly affect Africa – has yet to be resolved. The drought in the Horn was a cruel reminder of how vulnerable the continent is to global climate change.