Ray Ozzies Role at Microsoft

Ray Ozzies Role at Microsoft Introduction Ray Ozzie was the known to play a major role at the lotus notes before he became the Chief Software Architect of the Microsoft team (Microsoft, 2010). In 2005, he aimed to webify† Microsoft in order to level up with the wide use of internet and search engines such as Yahoo! and Google. He had to create a management strategy in order to find out the best way to share the information through his colleagues and be able to sum up the ideas on how to maintain the revenues of the company. The case study, Ray Ozzie, Software Strategist†, relates with the everyday processes, practices and activities that are involved in creating a strategy. Why was the Semiahmoo retreat not successful in creating sustained momentum around the issue of Microsofts core? The March retreat of the companys top 110 or so executives including Bill Gates was not successful because they failed to discuss the key factors about the Microsofts core. It is said that the company relied on selling proprietary software straight to users or to the manufacturers of computer for pre-installation on machines. However, the strategy was being challenged by free open-source software like linux and web- based companies whose software was free off the internet and supported by advertising such as Google or Yahoo!. This seemed to leave the company behind the emerging software that offers free access over the internet and is able to use by the customers directly. The companys processes of reaching the market have had difficulties most especially the shipping of products. Retreat at Semiahmoo was not able to initiate a clear discussion of the things that Microsoft has to do in order to get back to the emerging companies in the Information Technology industry today. They have got breakout sessions in order to brainstorm various strategic issues and it was observed that the people within the company relate to Bill. It appeared to be more of a team building for the executives and the group refused to organise the issues covering the strategy or the issue of the Microsofts core. They argued it was untimely and likely to cause unnecessary apprehension to engage more people as it involves the past strategies. Thus, the momentum from the retreat on Semiahmoo did not have enough space to tackle the said issue. The importance of focus on the processes and practices with regard to the activities of the company is given much attention rather than the issue of sustaining the strategy for selling products in a unique manner (Christensen, 1997). The practice of strategy involves the important components of how the organisation manages its people and links the outcomes from strategising events, activities, meetings and other. In addition to, the focus of the group went to the attraction of the place, perhaps, and the experience to bond with each other. The strategic challenge that Microsoft was facing was not clearly defined as well. The team relied on the past strategy and thought it was irrelevant to review. The retreat ended without accomplishing what was really tasked to do because the team overlooked the criticisms about the past strategies without realising that it is important to be able to figure out what specific changes to focus on or where exactly they should concentrate. Why was Ozzie more successful in creating follow-on action after the Robinswood retreat? After the Semiahmoo retreat, the company had a second retreat because the first attempt to create a strategy for the Microsofts core evaporated. Ozzie took charge of the second retreat and it was successful. Although Ozzie have not tried working intimately with the team, he took his chance on delivering and defining the strategic challenge that the company was facing. The retreat was held as Robinswood house where in it appeared to be substandard unlike the Semiahmoo retreat. Ozzie provided a 51- page memo beforehand that describes his diagnosis of the strategic challenge facing Microsoft. He detailed out the challenges for the company through his friendly mood and did not confront anyone with the past mistakes of the company. He opened up a discussion through an invigorating exercise about the unfavourable things happening in the present technical and organisational strategy of the company (Fried, 2009). Thus, it gave the team a chance to speak up and raise the issues with regard to the mistakes of the company on its operations most especially the issues that they have to solve most especially the fluctuating revenues of Microsoft. The meeting resulted on a more intense discussion with the team about the future strategies that could benefit the organisation. A progress was made although a good deal of controversy was still present. Furthermore, Ozzie put a highlight on the changing environment and the importance of service to the clients. The communications technologies have drastically developed into a more convenient form. In the modern world, the people pay much attention to the interaction with the company and its products and services and how they are able to use in a simple way. The businesses are directly reaching the customers with lower costs and provide a great service. Technology companies are now practicing ways to sell the products without the hassle of shipping and most importantly with lower costs such as downloading the application directly from the website supported by advertisements and the like. As Ozzie have seen, Microsoft is not developing a strategy on how to compete within the industry most especially the strategy of advertising- supported services and software over the internet. The strategy depicts innovation and fives the foundation for the web developers to improve and develop the services to the customers. Microsoft has to embrace this kind of business strategy in order to come up with a more practical way to reach and interact with the market and benefit the company with remarkable revenue. The company have to reflect on its past mistakes and relate to the present environment to be able to emerge with what is going in the market. The leadership responsibilities, strengths and weaknesses of the company should be discussed in a genial manner so an immediate response from the team could result to a better strategy to solve the challenges. The business might be at risk if the team fails to handle the dilemma accordingly and did not maintain an open communication (Levy, 2008). Comment on Ozzies communications strategy with regard to the Internet Services Disruption. The communication strategy of Ozzie is indeed a good way to reach the executive staff and he explained clearly what his goals are for the company. According to the memo, he has a lot of positive reasons to innovate more with regard to the strategic challenge that the company is facing. He delivered the memo very well such as stating that the leaders understand the efficiency of eradicating the hindrances on developing products. Reorganisation is considered to be an important step for improving the alertness of the company (Ozzie, 2005). He maintained a positive outlook on the past strategy of the company although it prevailed to put the business at risk. He still considered past strategies to start the development of the company on what he aims on his recent strategies. It is a very good way to motivate the organisation to move on to the next stage and be able to encourage them to participate and work accordingly. His idea of differentiating the strategy from the past developments of the company made it significant to understand the whole point. He immediately perceived the feedbacks of the readers so he addressed, in advanced, the possible doubts of the readers of his memo. Ozzie continues to innovate as he mentioned a continuous change every five years for the company to cope with the changing environment of the market considering that technology is growing rapidly. His focus on the recent strategic issues gives the memo a clearer objective to increase the motivation for the team to work well on creating new products and continuously creating a solution to the challenges. Ozzie is catered to the transformation of the company into a more user-friendly and interactive to reach the customers, partners and other for bigger opportunities (Ozzie, 2005). Thus, Ozzies communication strategy promotes a vision and a set of well- defined goals and objective that makes a dependable leader to integrate the varied activities and ideas of the whole team. Conclusion Ray Ozzie worked well on the creation of new strategies for the Microsoft such as going live and being more interactive with its users. Advertising-supported software and other internet-based applications are emerging in the market and are doing well with its revenues. The techniques of internet advertising have drastically affected by the innovations on technology. The use of broadband is considered to be a blanket for the market starting from the purchase of the computer up to the installation of its software and applications. Hence, it calls for an extensive innovation for Microsoft to comprehend with the use of the World Wide Web. Works Cited Ray Ozzie, Software Strategist: Case Study† (Please put the details of the book where you get the case study) Christensen, C. The Innovators Dilemma, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, 1997 Fried, I. Ray Ozzies view from the clouds†, cnet news. (November 18, 2009) from http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10400244-56.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1 retrieved 02/19/10. Levy, S. Ray Ozzie Wants to Push Microsoft Back Into Startup Mode†, Wired Magazine: 16.12. (November 24, 2008) from http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-12/ff_ozzie retrieved 02/19/10. Microsoft. Microsoft Announces Plans for July 2008 Transition for Bill Gates†, Microsoft New Center (2010) from http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/jun06/06-15CorpNewsPR.mspx retrieved 02/20/10. Ozzie, R. Internet Services Disruption†, (October 28, 2005), from http://www.scripting.com/disruption/ozzie/TheInternetServicesDisruptio.htm retrieved 02/19/10.

Reality TV VS Real Life TV Essay

Reality TV vs. Real Life TV One of the main sources of news and entertainment is television. Every household has a television set in their home which the family consumes hours watching. Many reality TV shows are based on shallow and vague values. The growing trend in television now for our culture is â€Å"REALITY TV† (real life on TV). Just like the appeal to junk food or the internet reality TV has a dominant effect on our children and us as adults. There is real life and there is TV-life under influence of which viewers fall. Under the name of â€Å"Reality TV† viewers expect something as â€Å"real life on TV†. But while reality TV may seem like a harmless form of entertainment, the damage (which is done so subtly) is very powerful and therefore it deserves a closer look. So the question is ‘Do we really need another reality TV show or perhaps it’s time for a reality check?’ â€Å"Reality television is a genre of television programming which generally is unscripted, documenting actual events over fiction and featuring ‘ordinary’ people over professional actors.† . Reality TV has appeared following the creation of television broadcasting in the 1940s. What we know of as reality TV now started with such shows as â€Å"Candid Camera† (1948). Reality TV programs are rapidly developing and gaining more and more popularity changing contents of the programs according to time changes: participants become more opened to the viewers—which attracts constant interest to reality shows. The most popular reality TV shows today are: â€Å"The Bachelor†, â€Å"Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire†, â€Å"Survivor†. All over the world, on multiple TV-channels, millions of people are watching the products of reality TV. Reality shows are covering most valuable aspects of life: family relationships, love, and money. The main purposes of those shows are either fun, or competition amusement. So here is the true reality behind reality TV. Reality TV, which is in the business of making us feel good rather than be good, actually contributes to the growing problems in our society by celebrating human weakness rather than hum an excellence. Reality TV doesn’t empower us, but rather overpowers us by taking our innate power and inner knowing and spirituality away from us, leaving us feeling insecure, inadequate, less fulfilled, isolated and confused by virtue of the promotion of anti-social behavior, excessive self-indulgence, self-entitlement, greed, compromised integrity, obsession with winning at  all costs, and erosion in morality. All reality shows have their own level of gossip, some more than others. The Housewives series are known for carrying with them a swirl of scandal ranging from cheating husbands, missing child support and even suicides. Courtroom shows like â€Å"People’s Court† and â€Å"Divorce Court† also brings drama to viewers as cases of divorce, property damage and landlord negligence lead to explosive episodes of screaming matches and much mallet smashing. Although none of us wish to be tied up in such hairy messes and sticky situations, it is amusing to watch others ba ttle it out in what can be considered no less than a complete display of trashy behavior. We like to know what is going on behind closed doors and if it involves some type of controversy, that just makes it all the more intriguing. The Real World is often created with being the first reality tv show, but you can go back even further to the Fifties when Candid Camera first aired. It was a show of regular people put in adverse, funny situations and we got to see how they reacted first hand. We love Candid Camera. It ran in some form for fifteen seasons, spawned countless other shows (America’s Funniest Home Videos, Kids Say the Darndest Things and the latest, Punk’d) and will probably come back in some form in the future. Americans also love game shows, which can be compared to reality TV shows. We love to watch people win or lose fortunes within thirty minutes and see how they react to that and each other. Perhaps Dr. Annette Hill, a researcher at the University of Westminster put it best when asked by BBC News why reality TV shows were so popular – â €Å"†We found that, in general, people like to see what happens behind the scenes.† Some shows, such as Deadliest Catch, give us a glimpse into something we might never know about such as the dangerous lives of crab fisherman. Reality TV is at times so utterly fabricated that viewers can’t help but enjoy a different â€Å"reality† from their own. Whether you favor watching reality shows of the rich and famous, the survivors, or the love birds, all anyone wants is an escape from what becomes a monotonous routine. If from such outright mind-numbing shows we can gain either steadfast motivation to become wealthy ourselves or simply affirmation that we are not as screwed up as we think (compared to the nut-jobs on the screen), then I think the hour of reality TV is well spent. Of course, everything looks better through a clear window. So, if you have to watch reality TV smut, at least watch it on any HD service really. You can see all of their REAL wrinkles and cellulite! So what does this actually say about our American culture? Some may believe that our culture can be naà ¯ve and nosey. We enjoy looking into others lives and personal business as and use to their real life dilemmas as entertainment. It’s also fair to say that we are a culture that enjoys other people’s drama. The more fighting and arguing the show has the more we want to watch it. There are critics who judge reality TV and their arguments are worth of attention. Contemporary reality shows are harmful for what they teach the audience. There is an emotional abuse when certain participants fail to win, there is a psychological trauma on the side of viewers when something happens not as they have expected. Physical beauty is presented to be more important than cleverness and intelligence, feelings and emotions are common. If reality TV is so popular, why does most critical commentary regard in a negative light? Traditionally, documentary is considered a â€Å"sober† genre with a strong tradition of social commentary, while reality TV is seems as a trivial one. However, the increase of new hybrids formats blurs this idea finding documentaries based on entertainment and reality shows based on social issues. â€Å"New hybrid versions of documentary and reality television produce a new kind of public sphere in which shared knowledge and the experience of the everyday take centre stage†, Reality TV has broken the boundary between private and public. Audience wants to feel the guilty pleasure, a voyeuristic experience, of feeling part of ordinary people’s lives and them demands to watch it on television. According to Baudrillard, this idea is based on â€Å"a kind of primal pleasure, of anthropological joy in images, a kind of brute fascination unencumbered by aesthetic, moral, social or political judgments† . We have always been interested in other people’s liv es because they are a reflection of our own lives, our own ordinariness. Baudrillard suggests that images â€Å"are immoral, and that their fundamental power lies in this immorality. When you consider the magnitude of the challenges that are facing America today, it becomes obvious that what we need is certainly not another mind-numbing reality TV show, but rather a good reality check. Whether we recognize it or not, America is in desperate need of healing and true revival. It needs a jump-start, not only in the economy, but most importantly a jump-start in the spirit. After all, we are only as strong as our spirit, because when the spirit is weak it’s easier to  become overwhelmed by what life throws our way. But when the spirit is strong, no turbulences can affect us, much like a ship in the vast ocean that can sail smoothly as long as there are no holes in it to make it sink. America could use a reality check if only to reexamine our value system, which is out of balance and has led to social ills and failing systems and institutions. In a conflicted state of uncertainty, doubt and fear, it’s only natural for people to feel overwhelmed, wishing to escape from reality. However, reality TV proves only an artificial relief. It’s obvious that we are looking for love (real joy, fulfillment, meaning and purpose) in all the wrong places. In a culture that demands instant gratification, and relief from everyday anxieties, a quick fix (for coping), seems to be the chosen drug of choice. So now for that reality check; the reality is that the prevailing mentality in American society today is ‘more is better,’ acquiring external riches as opposed to internal riches and that you can get something for nothing. There is a sense of entitlement and an expectation of wanting the good life without having to work hard for it. This is reinforced, glorified and perpetuated by the media with shows like ‘The Lifestyle of The Rich and Famous.’ When all you see is glamour, but not the hard work and sacrifice that goes into achieving success, it only inspires more envy and the desire for a ‘get rich quick’ scheme leading to the erosion of morality and integrity. Works Cited Baudrillard. Represetning Reality. 1991. Bignell, J. Reality TV in the Twenty first Century. New York: Plagrave MacMillan, 2005. en.wikipedia.org. N0vember 2012. Nichols, B. Representing Reality Issues and Concepts in Documentary. 1991.

Johann Kilian and the Wends: the Foundation of Lutheranism in Texas

Through this course (LCMS History) and others, I have heard the story of German Lutherans who left Europe and settled near Saint Louis, Missouri, under the leadership of Martin Stephan and (soon thereafter) C. F. W. Walther. This story seems quite familiar to many of my seminary classmates who originate from the Midwest and nearby regions. As a nearly lifelong resident of Texas, I had never before heard much of that story. The Lutherans in my communities generally have a different history – one involving a people group known as the Wends. These histories have merged at some point between their beginnings and the present; both communities are currently at home in the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod and share in fellowship and confession. Naturally several questions arise for further investigation. Who are the Wendish people? Who led them to America? Why did they come to America? What is their religious history? How did they integrate with the Missouri Synod? Why are they a valuable people group in our church body? Answering each of these essential questions necessitates a fairly broad scope, though certainly a coherent inspection. To address the topics at hand, I will present first a brief overview of the European climate during the time that the Wends left Germany as well as an account of their migration. Second, I will offer a concise biography of Johann Kilian, the early leader of the Texan Wendish community. Third, I will describe historically significant moments of interaction between the Lutheran Wends and the LCMS (and its predecessors and associated church bodies) and illustrate how these events contributed to the Wendish assimilation into the LCMS. Each of these components serves the purpose of presenting the Wendish community as a significant component of American Lutheranism, and one with an enduring impact on the LCMS church body. The necessary information is gathered mostly through printed and published texts on the subject at hand. It is also shaped by personal memory of this topic through experiences with members of the Wendish community as well as its associated institutions. Content in support of my purpose is present in these following paragraphs. European Pressures and the Wendish Migration In the early 19th century, the Wends were culturally and politically suppressed by their dominant political leaders. The land of the Wendish people, Lusatia, was intentionally divided between Saxon and Prussian rule. This virtually eliminated any possibility for national independence; the Wendish language became increasingly distinct between the nationalities (Caldwell1961). Also, they were economically dependent on German landholders and had little opportunity for social success. Those who sought better standards of living left their farmland for cities such as Bautzen and generally assimilated into the German culture in the process. A very small group of the Wends was training for the clergy in Prague and in Leipzig; as these students encountered political theories and topics of higher education they developed into the intelligentsia of the Wendish community. These educated people served as the leadership that the Wends needed to rise out of their lowly confinement (Grider 1982). Religious difficulties also characterized this time period. The Wends experienced great pressure to participate in Prussian Unionism, instituted by the Calvinist-leaning King of Prussia, Frederick William III (Nielsen 1989). Since the time of the Reformation, the majority of the Wendish people had been Protestants. This switch to Lutheranism distinguished the Wends religiously from the mainly Catholic Czechs and Poles with whom they shared many cultural and linguistic similarities (Grider 1982). As a people they were very interested in maintaining a definite and self-defined identity, distinct from surrounding people groups. This mandate of Prussian Unionism was an affront to this endeavor. Many spoke against this offensive consolidation, including Johann Kilian who was at that time a young student of theology at the University of Leipzig. In this context of religious pressure, a group of deeply conservative Wends began worshipping together in a private house-church. By 1845 they had established a small congregation with a building devoted as their worship space. After nine more years enduring religious antagonism, a core group of lay leaders drafted, in 1854, a constitution to govern the migration of the whole congregation to a new land with religious freedom. At this time, the congregation issued a call to Kilian, requesting that he shepherd them on their journey and minister to them in their future situation (Grider 1982). Kilian, eager to employ his missionary education, accepted their call. Additionally â€Å"agricultural disasters† during the mid-1800s spurred the Wends into discussions of leaving Germany/Prussia and seeking a new land for a new opportunity. Some impoverished German farmers, with whom the Wends were amiable, had already immigrated to America and Australia. Their joyous letters to the homeland were published by the German press and encouraged these hopeful Wendish immigrants. Of the Wends immigrating to Texas, the â€Å"first trickle of Wendish adventurers† (Grider 1982) arrived around 1850. A group of 35 set sail for America in 1853 but wrecked off the shore of Cuba. While stranded on the island, many learned how to roll cigars to supplement their income during their stranded time. Eventually compassionate German organizations in Havana, Cuba, and New Orleans funded and arranged for their transport to Galveston. One year after this small group’s arrival in Galveston, the â€Å"highly educated and forceful† (Grider 1982) Pastor Johann Kilian led a boatload of 600 of his congregants, pious and devout Wendish Lutherans, from Germany to Galveston. They made their voyage on the Ben Nevis, still considered within the Texan Wendish community as a counterpart of the English Pilgrims’ Mayflower (Grider 1982). Kilian was the only professional, educated man in the congregation; all the others were farmers and craftsmen. Yet the people possessed between them an adequate variety of skills to guarantee a self-sufficient colony. This group established the town of Serbin, which continues to be a place of cultural influence in central Texas. The Life of Johann Kilian The only son of Wendish farmers in Upper Lusatia, Johann Kilian was born on March 22, 1811. Two years later his mother, Maria Kilian nee Mattig, and his infant sister died. His grandmother helped to care for him for the next three years at which time his father, Peter Kilian, remarried. Soon thereafter his grandmother died. In 1821, while Kilian was ten years old, his father also died. Following the death of his parents, he inherited enough money to fund his education at the gymnasium (high school) in the chief Wendish city of Beutzen (Caldwell 1961). Johann found himself under the care of his uncle who leased the child’s inherited property and used the income to support the boy’s schooling. One can only imagine what sort of psychological impact these deaths must have had on young Kilian. According to Nielsen (2003), â€Å"nothing in his writings indicate any anxiety during these early years. † It is likely that during his youth with his extended family he began to learn about Christian living and developed a deep hope in the resurrection promise. Kilian spent more than four years at the Gymnasium in Beutzen. There he was educated in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, and German; Wendish was only used in private and in his earlier years in grade school. Kilian and some of his classmates organized a Wendish club on campus to facilitate informal conversation in their mother tongue (Nielsen 2003). He was quite successful in Beutzen and soon enrolled at the University of Leipzig to study theology, where he once again encountered a Wendish circle. This organization propagated a rising attitude of Wendish nationalism, especially in contrast with German culture. Rather than associating with this divisive group, Kilian joined a German club whose central goal was â€Å"the preservation of pure Lutheran teaching† (Nielsen 2003). This decision seems to have been more of a growing attraction toward orthodox Lutheranism than a rejection of Wendish culture. It also seems that in this association He was taking a stand in contrast to the majority of the faculty of Leipzig who were heavily influenced by rationalism at the time. In 1835, Kilian obtained his license to preach and was assigned to an assisting position at Hochkirch, a large parish which included several surrounding viliages. The following year, he travelled to Switzerland and attended a small mission school in Basel, remembering his childhood vow to become a foreign missionary. Back in eastern Germany, his uncle (different from the one who had helped to raise him as a child) was the pastor of a Lutheran church in Kotitz; he died while Killian was away at school. Then in 1837 Kilian returned to Kotitz and received his full ordination. This enabled him to assume the senior pastorate there (Nielsen 2003). Most of the Wends in his congregation could not understand German, so Kilian undertook several translation projects for the benefit of his flock. He published a book containing twenty eight hymns in Wendish; some were translations of German hymns and a few were his original pieces. These musical arrangments were very well received by both his own congregation and numerous other Lutheran Wendish assemblies. He continued to translate many German songs and eventually produced more than one hundred of his own hymns (Nielsen 2003). These hymns emphasize the centrality of Jesus in Christian living and often contain declarations of profound hope. Several of his songs and poems are contained in a collection edited by David Zersen (2010). Included, here, is one verse from Kilian’s hymn, â€Å"Blessed Land†: Jesus leads his saints on earth: Witnesses are we! Sadness, trials, suffering? Faithful we will be! Christ is our life. There’s a kingdom waiting there; No more sorrow, no more care. Christ is our life. In addition to his musical translation efforts, Kilian translated the Lutheran Confessions into Wendish. He began with Luther’s Small Catechism in the late 1840s and finished the remainder of the confessions in 1854. Other prominent Wendish intellectuals frequently frowned upon his efforts, insisting that importing German religious thinking would contaminate the Wendish culture. They preferred to advance hopeful nationalism for the Wends and showed little priority for proper doctrinal adherence. Kilian disagreed with their attitude and continued â€Å"translating religious works into the mother tongue to enrich the language and simultaneously nourish religious life† (Nielsen 2003). These exercises in translation eventually led to a reasonable popularity for Kilian, especially among likeminded Wendish Lutherans. One such congregation of people at Weigersdorf was becoming increasingly troubled by the pressures of Prussian Unionism. In 1844 they issued a call to Kilian with hopes that he would agree to lead them in their migration away from their oppressive setting. Kilian accepted the call on two conditions. He required that the congregation would pledge faithfulness to pure Lutheran doctrine and also that the congregation acquire an immigration permit from the appropriate Prussian authorities. (Nielsen 2003). Kilian over the next several years served this as well as other parishes (especially one in Klitten) which shared in the Lutheran confession. During that time, he married Maria Groschel, with whom he had four children while they remained in Europe – only one of which survived into maturity (Nielsen 2003). Religious pressures continued to build until in 1854, a group of 600 Wendish Lutherans (under Kilian’s shepherding) began the process of relocating to Texas. While Kilian is often credited with leadership of this venture, such wording is misleading at best. He did not object to the exodus from Europe, but the instigation of the process was from the laypeople. Kilian’s role was to accompany them as their pastor (Nielsen 2003). The journey was characterized by illness, danger, and loss of life. Kilian was heavily relied upon for his pastoral care at several points on the journey. In one instance while at sea, several people were suffering from sea-sickness below the deck. The captain of the Ben Nevis (the ship that carried them across the Atlantic) instructed that the migrants come up for fresh air to improve their health. Some did not cooperate with the captain’s orders. Kilian gently persuaded those who remained below deck to come up. While this shows the authority the Wends saw in Kilian, it also caused resentment from some because he was exceeding his religious responsibilities. The voyagers eventually crossed the Atlantic and arrived at the port of Galveston. They then travelled to central Texas and established the colony of Serbin. For the next three decades, Kilian served the Texan Wends as their pastor and endeavored to connect them with likeminded believers in their new land (Nielsen 2003). Eventually he was able to forge a confessional relationship with the Missouri Lutherans and connect his people to a larger church body. After Kilian’s death on September 12, 1884, many tributes were written about him. These included a handful of lengthy pieces n Der Luteraner, the official periodical of the synod (Martens 2011). The Texan Road to Missouri â€Å"Religious isolation was not part of his tradition† (Nielsen 2003). In Texas, Kilian became a friend of Caspar Braun, a Lutheran who had already been in Texas for about five years. Braun had formed the Evangelical Lutheran Synod in Texas and served as its first president. While Kilian certainly en joyed his friendship with Braun, he was hesitant to join this Texas Synod because he considered that it shared too many similarities with the Prussian Union which he had left. He also lamented the lack of enriching liturgy in its churches (Nielsen 2003). Rather he became drawn to the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States. Geography was certainly a hindrance to fellowship with this church body, he considered it far less of a barrier than theological incompatibility. In his effort to establish fellowship with the Missouri Synod, he wrote a letter introducing himself and the Wends to C. F. W. Walther, who was also born in 1811. Though Kilian and Walther did attend the University of Leipzig simultaneously in 1832, there is no indication in any of their correspondence that they knew each other before they were in America. Kilian had learned of Walther chiefly through his writings. He owned a copy of Walther’s Stimme der Kirche in der Frage von Kirche und Amt. Kilian agreed with Walther’s position on church polity which â€Å"empowered the voters’ assembly as the supreme authority and diminished the power of the ecclesiastical leaders† (Nielsen 2003). His congregation joined the Missouri Synod in 1866 with Kilian as the first Missouri Synod pastor in the state of Texas. Under Kilian’s pastoral leadership, the Wends became fervent supporters of synodical education and eventually began to issue calls to American-trained pastors. By 1877 nearly a dozen pastors were serving Missouri Synod congregations in Texas and the group gained recognition as the Texas Conference of the Western District. Only a couple years later, the Southern District was organized, ranging from El Paso, Texas, to San Augustine, Florida. Then in 1903, the Texas District of the LCMS was formed; it contained 23 congregations, nearly 40 pastors, and 11 school teachers. Concluding Remarks The Texas District of the LCMS owes its genesis to the migration of the Wends and the pastoral leadership of Johann Kilian. It is now one of the largest districts in the LCMS and has produced more synodical presidents (Behnken, Harms, and Kieschnick) than any other district. The Wendish culture and religious experiences have shaped and continue to shape the theological thinking of Texas Lutherans. It is especially for these reasons that the Wends are a valuable people group in the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod.

Emergency Nursing NUR320 - Assignment 3 Free Essay Example, 2250 words

There are some social, political, and legal context in Australia that should be considered here. In the last decade of conservative Federal government in Australia, there has been an erosion of services to women living with domestic violence. There has been a concerted move toward the consolidation of family which may force a situation in which the perpetrator is in the victims life longer. This has also caused the dismantling of policies and services that are available, including such things as child care subsidies, youth training schemes, youth allowances, legal aid, supported accommodation schemes, and movement to negotiated settlements. All of this affects programs that support women and children in trouble (Wright & Waugh, 2007). This makes it more difficult to get these women and children to safety and keep them there. When violence occurs the victims often come to the emergency room and many of them have never seen a primary physician so the violent episode may just be the tip of what is wrong with them. There is a often a revolving door situation in which the same victims come back with injuries on a regular basis. We will write a custom essay sample on Emergency Nursing NUR320 - Assignment 3 or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now They may also keep coming back with complaints of things like headaches and stomach pain in an attempt at safety. Studies show that this may be the only safe place in which these victims can disclose or plan for escape. These same studies show that a woman's decision to expose abuse can depend on the attitude of the clinician that is caring for her as a victim (Janssen & Holt, 2002) and that nurses attitude may be the victims only hope for escape. It should be noted, however, that one in four women in Australia are abused either by their present partner or have been by a previous partner. That tells us that some emergency department nurses have been abused and some male emergency department nurses are abusers (McClennan, Worster, & Macmillan, 2008). This may be difficult in a situation where women say that the attitude of those that ask often determines whether they will disclose. Nurses in an emergency room atmosphere may have difficulty responding in a caring manner if it requires confronting their own problems with abuse (Laing, 2000). Many of the women in these studies noted that they are often treated negatively and the nurses believe their flimsy stories when they should just ask a few more questions. Women who are ask about violence are twice as likely to disclose but they want to be ask by someone who is listening, supportive, and non-judgmental and that has a good knowledge of community based support services (Davis, 2007).