Welcome to From the CEO, the place to find posts from John Ashmen, President Emeritus of Citygate Network. This page will curate archived writings, as well as future posts.
I had the board chair at a member organization reach out to me the other day to say that their current CEO wants to have the title of president emeritus once the new president starts
Throughout my time at Citygate Network (and at Christian Camp and Conference Association before that), I’ve seen scores of leaders exit the ministry highway...
I had a call last week from a CEO who was asking about staff retention. She wanted to know what trends we were seeing and how other member organizations in Citygate Network were doing with getting staff to stick around.
Earlier this month, a friend sent me a video of people packed in a sanctuary singing worship songs. I first thought it was Philadelphia’s 10th Presbyterian Church...
I have a large three-ring binder (plus an electronic file on my laptop) full of articles that talk about the failures of the Housing First philosophy...
Solomon said, “A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken”
This is your busiest time of the year. Your facilities have heavy usage, and there will likely be some breakage and repair work as you continue to serve the multitude that looks to you for critical care.
The bombardment of political ads leading up to the U.S. mid-term elections is leaving giant craters in the American landscape. Such rancor shows how divided we are in these early years of the 21st Century.
Earlier this month I had breakfast with Josiah Haken. Josiah is the CEO of City Relief, a Citygate Network member organization that serves desperate and destitute people in New York and North Jersey.
One of the sessions in last week’s CEO Summit was titled “It Could All Change in an Instant.” James Li was the instructor. He is one of North America’s foremost experts on security at soft-target locations, particularly churches and ministry organizations.
The last day of this month I turn 70. As we all get older, we tend to think more about our legacy and how we will be remembered. But the truth is, legacies and memories have a limited shelf life.
Last week, I was the guest of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a legal organization committed to protecting religious liberty, free speech, traditional marriage and family, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
Stephen Eide is a Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow and the author of a new book. He called me the other day at the urging of some mutual friends. He wanted to learn more about Citygate Network and get my perspective on some things for an upcoming article.
If you know your history, you probably drew some eerie parallels between Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and Adolf Hitler’s annexation of the Sudetenland.
Most of you have been out on the dance floor with strategic plans before. Sometimes you do the twist, sometimes you tap dance, and sometimes you waltz your way off the floor, right through the curtains.
Nothing tells tales like numbers: NASDAQ closes down 12 points...gross national product sees increase of more than $16 million...average gas price in Canada tops $1.30 per liter...worldwide Coronavirus recovery cases now at 30,359...monthly screen time up 11 percent...
It’s happening! The solid foundational belief that Housing First is the only way to effectively address the problem of homelessness is cracking, and in some cases, crumbling.
When we started talking about SOGI issues back in 2014, less than 11 percent of our members said their boards had reviewed policies, procedures, and foundational paperwork...
Citygate Network’s rebranding and refocusing continues to move forward and gain momentum. In line with that, our board recently took a look at what we called the Five Models for Membership...
Nowhere is the problem of unsheltered homeless people as bad as what you’ll find in California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and even Alaska...
Becoming Citygate Network allows us to be very intentional about balancing our communications and content between the rescuing that missions and kindred ministries do and the life-transformation work that we need to fully embrace going forward.