Leaders in congregations and Christian organizations wrestle with an unraveling of the world in which they have little experience and training. While they are offered unending resources by experts on leadership, some with claims to biblical blueprints, the challenges seem mismatched to those methods. Branson and Roxburgh frame the situation as one in which "modernity's wager"-the conviction that God is not necessary for life and wisdom and meaning-has defined the Western imagination. Because churches and leaders are colonized by this ethos, even when God is named and beliefs are claimed, approaches to leadership are blind to God's agency. Branson and Roxburgh approach this challenge as a work in practical theology, attending to our cultural context, narratives of God's disruptive initiatives in Scripture, and a reshaping of leadership theories with a priority on God's agency. With years of experience as teachers, consultants, and guides, they name practices which lead to more faithful participation. Leadership, God's Agency, and Disruptions is wide-ranging in cultural and biblical scholarship, challenging in its engagement with numerous leadership studies, and practical with its focus toward the on-the-ground life of churches and organizations.
Leaders in congregations and Christian organizations wrestle with an unraveling of the world in which they have little experience and training. While they are offered unending resources by experts on leadership, some with claims to biblical blueprints, the challenges seem mismatched to those methods. Branson and Roxburgh frame the situation as one in which "modernity's wager"-the conviction that God is not necessary for life and wisdom and meaning-has defined the Western imagination. Because churches and leaders are colonized by this ethos, even when God is named and beliefs are claimed, approaches to leadership are blind to God's agency. Branson and Roxburgh approach this challenge as a work in practical theology, attending to our cultural context, narratives of God's disruptive initiatives in Scripture, and a reshaping of leadership theories with a priority on God's agency. With years of experience as teachers, consultants, and guides, they name practices which lead to more faithful participation. Leadership, God's Agency, and Disruptions is wide-ranging in cultural and biblical scholarship, challenging in its engagement with numerous leadership studies, and practical with its focus toward the on-the-ground life of churches and organizations.
Mark Lau Branson is the Homer Goddard Professor of Ministry of the
Laity at Fuller Theological Seminary. He focuses on contexts and
leadership, and how God's people can attend to God's initiatives.
He is the author of Memories, Hopes & Conversations: Appreciative
Inquiry, Missional Engagement, & Congregational Change, and (with
Juan Martínez) Churches, Cultures and Leadership.
Alan J. Roxburgh is a pastor, seminary professor, and mentor in
leadership and missional transformation, and has written thirteen
books on missional leadership and culture change. In his work he
addresses questions of church and mission, convinced the Spirit is
fermenting a movement of God's people that can't be contained in
narratives of renewal, reform, or fixing existing systems.
"What does theology look like after the so-called 'practical turn'?
If some might still think such a 'turn' is optional, this book
calls that bluff: scriptural reading and theological reflection are
situated in a dynamic 'in-between space' that enables ongoing
inquiry into and discernment about God's agency in a fluid world
through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. This is not about divine
usefulness but about Christian leadership and discipleship being
continually renewed and reformed by what God is doing."
--Amos Yong, Fuller Theological Seminary
"Leadership, God's Agency, and Disruptions is a wonderfully
brilliant book by two world class thinkers on leadership. Read it
and allow the leadership you have known to be unraveled. Know that,
by the time you're finished reading, you'll be re-constructed as a
Christian leader. Instead of techniques, you'll be given a new way
of being that is found in the very center of God's agency, not your
own."
--David Fitch, Northern Seminary
"In a noisy field of Christian leadership books touting the secrets
to effective ministry, Branson and Roxburgh have raised a clarion
call to reorient leadership around God's agency rather than
management techniques. Its biblical depth and theological rigor may
make you doubt you've ever read a book that deserves to be called a
'theology of leadership' before. This masterpiece of practical
theology is now my go-to recommendation on leadership for teachers
and practitioners."
--Christopher B. James, University of Dubuque Theological
Seminary
"There are many books that offer descriptors of that which is wrong
with the church in the Western world. Few, however, offer a way
forward that is not merely a reflection of the current fixation of
the West with methods, techniques, and programmes. . . . Mark and
Alan's offering brings together a well-tuned intellectual and
academic perception, practical engagement in ministry, and a
significant insight into what the journey ahead might be."
--Martin Robinson, ForMission College, Birmingham, United Kingdom
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