Kelly and Michèle O’Donnell

Kelly and Michèle O’Donnell are Consulting Psychologists and passionate about good practice in Christian organizations, promoting leadership integrity and understanding the psychological processes that help or hinder integrity. They are also actively involved in the health, development, and humanitarian sectors.

Their long-term commitment to promoting integrity and confronting corruption–especially among the international Church-Mission Community–is reflected in efforts such as the Into Integrity (In2) podcasts and blogposts. A major part of In2 has been Kelly’s combined food fast and hunger strike (two 20-day periods) to draw attention to the lack of disclosures by specific organizations and people affected by the international Nordic Capital Investment KB fraud (NCI) as well as the related dismissals that Michèle and he received. You can listen to and read about his fast and strike journey on the above two links.

Kelly and Michèle are founders of Member Care Associates (MCA), actively engage in the PETRA People Network, coordinate Global Integrity Day-9 June, and have served on the Executive Team for the Lausanne Movement-World Evangelical Alliance Integrity and Ant-Corruption Network (Kelly currently).

Selected resources from Kelly and Michèle:

A Summons to a Global Integrity Movement: Fighting Self-Deception and Corruption, Lausanne Global Analysis, March 2018
Several resources in the “Global Integrity” section, Member Care Associates website
An overview of the NCI KB fraud that has especially impacted the Church-Mission Community, top of the PETRA People website along with updates and resources on the PETRA People weblog

1 Comment

Good articles! Great questions. Absolutely necessary.

Another question: How do we root out “greed”? In ourselves and others? the Bible says, “The LOVE of money is the root of all evil”. Haven’t seen anyone address this psychological issue yet. I would suggest that most “investors” were lured into the hope or the “guarantee” of getting HUGE (unreasonably high) return on their money (15%) and the potential of getting so much “more” than what anyone else was offering or “guaranteeing at the time. Who wouldn’t “want” a guaranteed 15% return on their so-called “investment”?

Someone asked JD Rockefeller, “How much is enough?” His answer: “Just a little bit more!” How do we overcome the psychology of greed in our lives, in our relationships, and in our organizations? And I am addressing this question, like you, to Christian organizations around the world as well as to myself and other individuals and couples.

Kelly & Michele O’Donnell, what prompted or motivated you, as a couple, to invest a large amount of money in this scheme? And did you question or investigate the people and organization behind this scheme before doing so? Did any other “investors”? But what motivates us when we see this kind of a “guaranteed return” on a potential investment? And what do we do about the possibility of “greed” (or LOVE of money) potentially brewing up in ourselves, marriages, or organizations?

Thanks for sharing the OT verse at the beginning of this newsletter: “Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts. And see if there be any wicked way in me. And lead me in the way everlasting.” Ps. 139: 23-24.

Can we learn to practice this kind of soul-searching and integrity with one another without judging or unfairly questioning the others’ motives? And can we “invite” others to speak the “truth in love” into our lives on a regular basis? Maybe that would help.

Joseph Bobb says:

October 1, 2020 at 6:45 pm

Good articles! Great questions. Absolutely necessary.

Another question: How do we root out “greed”? In ourselves and others? the Bible says, “The LOVE of money is the root of all evil”. Haven’t seen anyone address this psychological issue yet. I would suggest that most “investors” were lured into the hope or the “guarantee” of getting HUGE (unreasonably high) return on their money (15%) and the potential of getting so much “more” than what anyone else was offering or “guaranteeing at the time. Who wouldn’t “want” a guaranteed 15% return on their so-called “investment”?

Someone asked JD Rockefeller, “How much is enough?” His answer: “Just a little bit more!” How do we overcome the psychology of greed in our lives, in our relationships, and in our organizations? And I am addressing this question, like you, to Christian organizations around the world as well as to myself and other individuals and couples.

Kelly & Michele O’Donnell, what prompted or motivated you, as a couple, to invest a large amount of money in this scheme? And did you question or investigate the people and organization behind this scheme before doing so? Did any other “investors”? But what motivates us when we see this kind of a “guaranteed return” on a potential investment? And what do we do about the possibility of “greed” (or LOVE of money) potentially brewing up in ourselves, marriages, or organizations?

Thanks for sharing the OT verse at the beginning of this newsletter: “Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts. And see if there be any wicked way in me. And lead me in the way everlasting.” Ps. 139: 23-24.

Can we learn to practice this kind of soul-searching and integrity with one another without judging or unfairly questioning the others’ motives? And can we “invite” others to speak the “truth in love” into our lives on a regular basis? Maybe that would help.