Leadership Is An Activity, Not A Position

Jill Maidhoff speaking at vigil

Browse the list of summer youth camps at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and parents are bound to find something to suit just about any childhood personality. There are classic youth activities for softball players, theater performances for emerging actors and trendy Lego camps for the STEM-obsessed. The Jewish Community Center, situated…

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Leadership is Risky

Adam Hamilton at pulpit

When Pastor Adam Hamilton embarked on a series of sermons about Moses last year, he knew the gravity of his message. Hamilton knew his call to action had the power to change the lives of children and families forever. So he started at the beginning. Inside Leawood’s United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, the nation’s…

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Anyone Can Lead, Anytime, Anywhere

Pastor Roberson with child

Pastor Adrion Roberson likes to say that youth sports founded his church in Kansas City, Kansas. He has spent 25 years coaching youth football in Wyandotte County and founded the KC United! Youth Sports Initiative – a league that has grown to 65 teams in several Kansas City-area communities. He launched it so working parents…

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The Importance of Engaging Beyond Your Usual Circle

helen stringer in a crowd

When Kansas City Oasis, a nonreligious fellowship, first partnered with a religious organization to serve meals to the needy, some Oasis members expressed concern that their secular group could become fractured. Would the separate factions find shared connections? Would they breach one another’s beliefs or boundaries? These days that concern is hard to remember. The religious group –…

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Tireless Activist Battling Back After Being Hit By Car

The day that a car shattered Steve Israelite’s body in September, he was in a crosswalk on 63rd Street heading to the Panera Bread in Brookside. While there, he planned to check his e-mail because he was early for a meeting with our mutual friend Julie Warm, co-director of the UMKC Service-Learning Program. Steve’s injuries…

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