Acceptance of Fallibility

Notes on John McKnight and “The Gift of Fallibility”

I’m attending an amazing conference in San Antonio titled “Our Abundant Communities: Neighborly Nourishment in the Wilderness.” Here are my notes from John McKnight’s session titled “The Gift of Fallibility.” (The following notes are close to being quotes but there is...

The Therapeutic Neighborhood

If you have a deeply troubling personal problem, where do you turn?  To a cleric? A psychologist? A counselor? A therapist? Each is a hired professional with different approaches to our dilemmas. But suppose they didn’t exist. Where would you...

The Last Shot in DC

It is one thing to talk about Abundance, another to actually find it. Susan Doherty's story does that. It briefly chronicles the emergence of talent that in the normal course of events would remain essentially invisible and unrealized. Thanks to the Plexus...

Our Abundant Communities

John, Peter and Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann explore themes of power and patriarchy; human fallibility and gifts; and accumulation and abundance in building and sustaining community in these uncut videos from their two days at Trinity University, San...

Escaping the World of Non-sense

We are slowly surrounding our lives with electrical “inputs” called Internet, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TV, etc.  As a result, many people have unwittingly entered a new land where there are no trees, chirping birds, sunsets, stickball, group singing, people...

How Much Harm Do Social Services Do?

A few weeks ago, I received this email from Dan Oliver of Cleveland, Ohio, asking my thoughts on the role of social service agencies in undercutting the power of families and neighborhoods to solve their own problems: Dear Mr. McKnight, I...

Powering America

In a neighborhood, people are empowered by the work they do together.  Often, they use this power to confront institutions and advocate for the neighborhood’s self-interest.  In this kind of action, power is understood as our ability to get...

The Nervous American Empire or Raise Your Hands Over Your Head and Don’t Move

It will soon be ten years since 9/11 and the effects are still with us. One of the obvious ones is the U.S. military’s adventures in the rest of the world. Just as important, we keep expanding our militarism...

A Conversation with Peter Block

How to encourage movement toward an abundance mindset? In an interview with Seth Resler, Peter expands on  thoughts from his speech accepting Linkage's Lifetime Achievement Award. Read interview.

Repairing Community

In my ancestors’ native Scotland, there were people who were exiled or outcast from their clan.  They were called “broken men.”  They faced a sad destiny wandering the mountains and moors without a community of support or the protection...

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Corporate Capture: Can We Find a Way Out?

This article, published originally by Nonprofit Quarterly, from Nonprofit Quarterly Magazine’s summer 2024 issue, “Escaping Corporate Capture.” The aircraft manufacturer Boeing,...