Leadership
Showing 1–75 of 77 results
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Moral Leadership : Integrity, Courage, Imagination
$26.00Add to cartAddressing the crises in American public life–whether in a local community, an educational institution, or a global organization–calls for genuine moral leadership, anchored in intellectual and ethical integrity, a vision of and commitment to the public good, and personal investment in transformative community.
Drawing on a lifetime of witnessing, emulating, and nurturing leaders, Robert Michael Franklin proposes a model for such leadership at every level of public life. Moral Leadership offers ways in which readers in whatever context can discover and foster those qualities in themselves, and become the change they want to see.
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Big Shoes To Fill
$26.99Add to cartHow to step into an inherited leadership role and guide your team through a polished transition process.
Starting something from the ground up is challenging. But how about transitioning into the leadership role of an existing organization? No matter how qualified you are, it can feel like an impossible juggling act to manage expectations without creating unnecessary conflict. Or to build trust and learn from others while implementing changes.
And yet most leaders step into roles they didn’t create. You have to navigate special personal, professional, and organizational needs that take into account the entire team and requires a certain mindset that doesn’t come naturally to many leaders.
Gavin Adams has spent his professional life innovating solutions and implementing strategies for leaders of businesses and ministries. Whether you’re a first-time manager, a CEO, or a church pastor, Big Shoes to Fill will help you more confidently step into a new role and effectively lead your inherited team through that tricky transitional process. You’ll learn how to:
*Reduce the time it takes for you to transition from positional authority to relational influence.
*Understand the tensions and problems associated with stepping into new leadership spaces.
*Create a learning environment focused on teams that expedites trust.
*Guide everyone through the emotional demands of change
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Ultimate Guide To Developing Leaders
$27.99Add to cartWhat is the secret sauce for every kind of organization?
What is the secret to organizational success? Whether the goal is developing a new product, establishing a new location, launching a new initiative, starting a new team, or improving your existing one, what will determine its success? The leaders! For any team, small business, large corporation, non-profit organization, or government entity, the key to accomplishing today’s goals and achieving tomorrow’s success depends on its present and future leaders.
Few people know more about developing leaders than John C. Maxwell, the bestselling leadership author in history. In the last twenty-five years, he has grown from equipping a handful of leaders in one organization to developing millions of business, government, and non-profit leaders in every country around the world.
In The Ultimate Guide to Developing Leaders, Maxwell teaches everything leaders need to know about how to develop leaders in their team or organization. Readers will learn how to:
*Become developers of people.
*Identify people with leadership potential.
*Recruit, train, and motivate emerging leaders.
*Empower new leaders to lead.
*Coach new and existing leaders to higher levels of achievement.
*Teach their leaders how to develop other leaders.Anyone frustrated by leadership limitations in their organization needs to read The Ultimate Guide to Developing Leaders. If they follow the practical steps it offers, they will create a leadership pipeline that will never run dry.
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Conviction To Lead (Revised)
$26.99Add to cartChristian leadership cannot be separated from passionately held beliefs. Only if you are deeply committed to truth will you be ready for leadership. You can be part of a generation that is simultaneously leading with conviction and driven by the conviction to lead. The generation that accomplishes this will set the world on fire.–Al Mohler, The Conviction to Lead.
Mohler’s wisdom will inspire, and this new edition features additional proven principles and updates throughout. While many leadership books focus on management or administration, the central focus of The Conviction to Lead is on changing minds.
Using his own experiences and examples from history, Dr. Mohler demonstrates that real leadership is a transferring of conviction to others, affecting their actions, motivations, intuition, and commitment. This practical guide walks the reader through what a leader needs to know, do, and be in order to affect change.
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Leading Well : A Black Woman’s Guide To Wholistic, Barrier-Breaking Leaders
$29.99Add to cartA Black Woman’s Guide to Effective, Barrier-Breaking Leadership
Black women in leadership positions often experience resistance, both from external forces and from within. If you are a leader in your profession, community, or church, you may have been made to feel like an outsider–someone who must prove herself again and again to be worthy of following. Maybe you’re tired, resentful, or beaten-down by the sense that you’ll just never be good enough for some people.
Take heart and take a seat at the table with Jeanne Porter King. Drawing from the biblical account of the Samaritan woman at the well, King shows how this outsider and outcast has been reduced to a stereotype by the same racist and sexist forces that attempt to reduce you to a stereotype and hinder your God-given call to leadership. She then shows how God uniquely positioned and equipped her to lead her people to the truth despite attempts to keep her silent and small.
If you long to lead from a strong spiritual core rather than a set of expectations you had no part in setting, this book offers you the inspiration, encouragement, and practical tools to make leading well a reality in your life.
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Leadership Is Overrated
$29.99Add to cartAn award-winning pair of executive consultants reveal why to be successful, businesses need self-leading teams, not just good leadership.
“In a society so obsessed with leadership, why are we so bad at it?”
Despite the countless seminars, courses, and management books designed to hone good leaders, over 79% of employees leave their jobs due to poor leadership. Why is this happening? Award-winning executive consultant Chris Mefford and retired, high-ranking US Navy SEAL trainer Kyle Buckett argue that organizations need more than just leaders. They need successful teams.
Mefford and Buckett are passionate about how our leadership model has failed and spotlight a new work culture that actually works. In Leadership Is Overrated, they draw on the SEAL model and on their decades of knowledge and experience coaching industry leaders to answer the question: what makes a productive team? The surprising truth is that behind every successful team is a cadre of empowered, self-starting employees.
In this revolutionary guide, Mefford and Buckett share crucial leadership strategies to help organizations revamp their work culture, throw out stifling hierarchical leadership models, and embrace a dynamic, results-oriented, and successful self-led team-oriented model instead.
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Churches Cultures And Leadership Second Edition
$30.00Add to cartWe live in a culturally diverse society.
As the church continues to heed Christ’s call to reflect the multiethnic character of his people, pastors and lay leaders need to gain skills and competencies to serve in multicultural contexts, both inside and beyond their congregations. With this book, Mark Lau Branson and Juan F. Martinez equip leaders to create environments that make God’s reconciling initiatives apparent in church life and in missional engagement with their neighborhoods and cities.
Drawing on courses they’ve taught at Fuller Theological Seminary, Branson and Martinez take an interdisciplinary approach that integrates biblical and theological study with sociology, cultural anthropology, leadership studies, and communications. The result is a rich blend of astute analysis and guidance for the practical implementation of a deeper intercultural life for the church.
Case studies, Bible studies, and exercises for personal and group reflection address real-life challenges and opportunities that arise in multiethnic contexts. Churches, Cultures, and Leadership offers not a static model but a praxis of paying attention, study, and discernment that can lead to genuine reconciliation and shared life empowered by the gospel.
This new edition is updated throughout to address current trends and sources, particularly emphasizing the continuing power of racism and how churches should respond.
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Godbearing Life : The Art Of Soul Tending For Youth Ministry
$26.99Add to cartA generation ago, The Godbearing Life charted a new course for youth ministry to fuel the faith both of young people and the adults who minister with them. It is founded on the truth that we are all Godbearers to one another, and therefore youth ministry is more about people than programs. Youth ministry is ministry that invites young people into deep soul work and spiritual friendships.
Like the original, The Godbearing Life, Revised Edition is conversationally written, grounded in scripture, and grows out of all three authors’ own pastoral experience. The update addresses the profound shifts in society and ministry over the past twenty-five years-from the interconnection of technology to the professionalization of youth ministry. This book reimagines the means of Godbearing youth ministry in a post-pandemic digital age in the twenty-first century while holding on to the fact that young people are continuously transformed by the message.
The Godbearing Life, Revised Edition offers a new generation of church leaders the same depth of spiritual wisdom that shifted the ground for youth workers two decades ago. The basic message is this: young people need adults who practice faith alongside them.
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Better In 52 Weeks
$29.95Add to cartDecrease the overwhelm in pursuing individual achievement and business success and take action with more confidence with Mary C. Kelly’s weekly guided journal for busy professionals.
Leaders and business professionals need quick solutions for common challenges–from boosting productivity, to improving sales and marketing, to enhancing strategic planning, to building stronger, more engaged teams. Better in 52 Weeks shares a year’s worth of 5-Minute Business and Leadership Success Plans that will enable you to work smarter, plan better, and move your career or business forward and live a less stressful life!
These 5-Minute Plans are the same ones that business coach and retired Navy commander Mary C. Kelly, PhD, CSP, uses with her executive clients to help their teams build a strong foundation for innovation, efficiency, and business growth. Now you, too, can benefit from the comprehensive, actionable plans and obtain results in all dimensions of your personal and professional life. In only five minutes each week, you’ll learn to focus on, strengthen, and take action on the following areas:
*Business planning
*Business growth
*Leading people
*Personal development
*Productivity
*TeamworkBy planning ahead, you can spend more time on the work that truly moves your life and business forward–creative thinking and personal and professional growth. Whether you’re making a financial plan, or a plan to cultivate gratitude, or a plan to facilitate effective meetings, every exercise will take you one step closer to the success you envision. The combination of 5-Minute Plans and daily checklists will ensure your progress compounds.
Included with the book is online access to fillable PDF versions of all 5-Minute Plans–with bonus plans added regularly.
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Leadership Not By The Book
$26.99Add to cartIf conventional leadership wisdom is to be believed, Hobby Lobby shouldn’t work. So why does it?
David Green, the founder of Hobby Lobby and an unlikely leader, grew his company from a $600 startup to a $8 billion company that gives 50 percent of its profits away to fund initiatives all over the world. He blazed his own path in business, drawn not from business gurus but from the pages of Scripture.
In this inspirational book, David Green challenges talented leaders with hearts committed to Christ to consider this question: What if God wants to use you to do a new, even greater work? To raise up and encourage the next generation of leaders, David Green shares 12 unconventional principles that drive Hobby Lobby. These core principles can open doors to greater success in business and life.
Whether you lead a business or a nonprofit, a small business or a multinational corporation, a start-up or a department, this book will show you how breaking the conventional “rules” of business may be the best decision you ever make.
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Lead Like It Matters
$28.99Add to cartDiscover the secret to igniting a life-giving, soul-transforming, people-inspiring movement in your organization, church, or ministry.
New York Times bestselling author Craig Groeschel is the founding and senior pastor of Life.Church, an innovative multisite church known around the world and an organization that Glassdoor has named a #1 U.S. Best Place to Work. But it didn’t happen by accident. In 1996, a handful of congregants worshipped together in a two-car garage. Today, the church welcomes tens of thousands of attendees in multiple states across the country and globally at Life.Church Online.
Lead Like It Matters presents Groeschel’s transformative insights on how to effectively build a thriving, enduring ministry and organization. Using his skills as a top leader, he combines straight-talk and wry honesty with biblical and leadership principles to equip you with the tools to:
*Recognize when your organization or ministry has the indefinable but tangible it that leads to success
*Identify and implement seven leadership principles for a church that lasts
*Ignite a fire in your team to leave behind what we’ve always done for the meaningful ministry you know is possible
*Discover the three areas every leader must master for success
Lead Like It Matters reveals the secret for building ministry momentum and then keeping it going.
*This is a completely revised and updated version of the book previously published as It.
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21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership 25th Anniversary Edition (Anniversary)
$27.99Add to cartIf you’ve never read The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, you’ve been missing out on one of the best-selling leadership books of all time. If you have read the original version, then you’ll love this new expanded and updated one.
Internationally recognized leadership expert, speaker, and author John C. Maxwell has taken this million-seller and made it even better:
*Every Law of Leadership has been sharpened and updated
*Seventeen new leadership stories are included
*Two new Laws of Leadership are introduced
*New evaluation tool will reveal your leadership strengths-and weaknesses
*New application exercises in every chapter will help you growWhy would Dr. Maxwell make changes to his best-selling book? “A book is a conversation between the author and reader,” says Maxwell. “It’s been ten years since I wrote The 21 Laws of Leadership. I’ve grown a lot since then. I’ve taught these laws in dozens of countries around the world. This new edition gives me the opportunity to share what I’ve learned.”
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Pursuing Gods Will Together
$27.00Add to cartChurch boards and other Christian leadership teams have long relied on models adapted from the business world. Ruth Haley Barton, president of the Transforming Center, helps teams transition to a much more fitting model–the spiritual community that practices discernment together.
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Tempered Resilience : How Leaders Are Formed In The Crucible Of Change
$26.00Add to cartWhat type of leadership is needed in a moment that demands adaptive change? Exploring the qualities of adaptive leadership within churches and nonprofit organizations, Tod Bolsinger deftly examines both the external challenges we face and the internal resistance that holds us back, showing how leaders can become both stronger and more flexible.
What type of leadership is needed in a moment that demands adaptive change? Tod Bolsinger, author of Canoeing the Mountains, is uniquely positioned to explore the qualities of adaptive leadership in contexts ranging from churches to nonprofit organizations. He deftly examines both the external challenges we face and the internal resistance that holds us back. Bolsinger writes: “To temper describes the process of heating, holding, hammering, cooling, and reheating that adds stress to raw iron until it becomes a glistening knife blade or chisel tip.” When reflection and relationships are combined into a life of deliberate practice, leaders become both stronger and more flexible. As a result, these resilient leaders are able to offer greater wisdom and skill to the organizations they serve. Also available: Tempered Resilience Study Guide
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Love Works Updated And Expanded Edition (Expanded)
$25.99Add to cartHarness the meaning of love, the verb, to improve your corporate culture and bottom line with the help of Joel Manby, former President and CEO of both SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment and Herschend Enterprises. Joel won the respect of America with his appearance on the CBS reality TV series Undercover Boss.
A highly successful corporate executive, Joel Manby is unlike most other CEOs. As the 18 million viewers of Undercover Boss witnessed, Manby has a unique style of leadership–servant leadership–which has a profound impact on his employees.
In this updated and expanded edition of Love Works, Manby demonstrates that leading with love is effective even in extremely difficult business environments, which he experienced at SeaWorld. With an all-new introduction and two additional chapters, Manby shares more of his own leadership and personal stories, giving insight that will help you become a more effective leader by:
*Cultivating a culture that builds improved employee engagement and long-term success
*Outlining seven time-proven principles that break down the natural walls within the workplace
*Overcoming personal failures at work and home
*Empowering your managers and employees
*Disarming difficulties in the workplaceDiscover the truth of the power of love to change the course of your business and your life today!
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Free To Focus
$28.99Add to cartEveryone gets 168 hours a week, but it never feels like enough, does it? Work gobbles up the lion’s share–many professionals are working as much as 70 hours a week–leaving less and less for rest, exercise, family, and friends. You know, all those things that make life great.
Most people think productivity is about finding or saving time. But it’s not. It’s about making our time work for us. Just imagine having free time again. It’s not a pipe dream.
In Free to Focus, New York Times bestselling author Michael Hyatt reveals to readers nine proven ways to win at work so they are finally free to succeed at the rest of life–their health, relationships, hobbies, and more. He helps readers redefine their goals, evaluate what’s working, cut out the nonessentials, focus on the most important tasks, manage their time and energy, and build momentum for a lifetime of success.
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Communication IQ : A Proven Way To Influence, Lead, And Motivate People
$27.99Add to cart“By languages, in all their facets, we can live in peace or go to war. We sing songs in harmony, or shout insults in anger. We experience connection or disconnection. We work together in peace or in pain. The choice is ours.”–Anna Kendall
Every so often, we meet people with whom we find it difficult to communicate. For one reason or another, we don’t seem to be on the same wavelength–it’s as if we’re speaking different languages. It’s frustrating when we try to discuss something with them or understand their point of view.
The late renowned management consultant Peter Drucker claimed that 80 percent of all management problems were the result of faulty communication. Poor communication also causes strife in many relationships.
Fred and Anna Kendall set out to discover how different people prefer to communicate and what methods they use to do so. The result is the Kendalls’ Life Languages program, which has been used successfully by tens of thousands of people around the world.In Communication I.Q., the Kendalls share information about three communication intelligence categories–kinetic/action, emotive/feeling, and cognitive/thinking–and the seven Life Languages–Mover, Doer, Influencer, Responder, Shaper, Producer, and Contemplator. Each Life Language has a filter through which one views life and communication, a need that provides feelings of acceptance and love when it’s met, a key character strength, a learning style, and other traits. The Kendalls’ goal is to empower people to learn how to use their Life Language to better communicate with others in their personal lives, their careers, and the world at large, while also gaining a greater self-awareness of their own strengths and passions.
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Dare To Lead
$28.00Add to cartBrown has spent the past two decades studying the emotions and experiences that give meaning to our lives, and the past seven years working with transformative leaders and teams spanning the globe. She found that leaders in organizations ranging from small entrepreneurial startups and family-owned businesses to nonprofits, civic organizations, and Fortune 50 companies all ask the same question: how do you cultivate braver, more daring leaders, and how do you embed the value of courage in your culture?
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Curating Church : Strategies For Innovative Worship
$31.99Add to cartIf we are willing to shift our approach to church, we will better connect with increasingly heterogeneous cultures. This shifting requires curation. Church leaders must learn to be curators! Churches in modernity were set up to facilitate a particular kind of experience with God. Church was its own (protected) culture. In the wake of postmodernity, facilitated by new forms of (digital) communication, we are entering a new epoch in the history of the church. Curators manage the tasks of connection, preservation, and transformation, in their care for cultural artifacts and communities. When someone serves as a curator, they make connections between different elements in the culture, preserving the best of cultural traditions, and promoting fresh ways of thinking and being in the world. What might this work of curation mean for us? In Curating Church, readers learn how curation can reorient and sharpen the ways and work of the church. Curation can inform how we connect with cultures beyond the church, preserve what is best in the rich history of Christian thought and expression, and nurture spaces where contemporary persons may be transformed by the gospel. This book helps readers to understand with new richness the church and the world, and it equips them to become active in making those connections-as curators-with and for others.
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Strengthening The Soul Of Your Leadership (Expanded)
$26.00Add to cartForeword By Gary A. Haugen
Introduction
1. When Leaders Lose Their Souls
2. What Lies Beneath
3. The Place Of Our Own Conversion
4. The Practice Of Paying Attention
5. The Conundrum Of Calling
6. Guiding Others On The Spiritual Journey
7. Living Within Limits
8. Spiritual Rhythms In The Life Of The Leader
9. Leadership As Intercession
10. The Loneliness Of Leadership
11. From Isolation To Leadership Community
12. Finding God’s Will Together
13. Re-envisioning The Promised Land
Afterword By Leighton Ford
Discussion Guide
Appendix: How Is It With Your Soul?
GratitudesAdditional Info
“I’m tired of helping others enjoy God-I just want to enjoy God for myself.”With this painful admission, Ruth Haley Barton invites us to an honest exploration of what happens when spiritual leaders lose track of their souls. Weaving together contemporary illustrations with penetrating insight from the life of Moses, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership explores topics such as
responding to the dynamics of calling
facing the loneliness of leadership
leading from your authentic self
cultivating spiritual community
reenvisioning the promised land
discerning God’s will togetherEach chapter includes a spiritual practice to ensure your soul gets the nourishment it needs. Forging and maintaining a life-giving connection with God is the best choice you can make for yourself and for those you lead.
This expanded edition includes a new appendix for self-evaluation, “How Is It with Your Soul?” and a flexible six- or twelve-week discussion guide for groups.
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Leading Wisdom : Asian And Asian North American Women
$42.00Add to cartDiscussions about leadership, even those centered on women, often overlook contributions made by Asian and Asian North American women. Now, Su Yon Pak and Jung Ha Kim share stories of Asian and Asian North American women who found their ways, sometimes circuitously, sometimes unexpectedly, into leadership roles.
Divided into three sections-“Remembering Wisdom,” Unsettling Wisdom,” and “Inciting Wisdom”-the book presents narratives of leadership experiences in the fields of social activism, parish ministry, teaching, U.S. Army chaplaincy, religious history, Christian denominational work, theology, nonprofit organization, theological social ethics, clinical spiritual care education in healthcare systems, and community organizing.
Leading Wisdom challenges conventional understanding through its creative reimagining of what it means to lead.
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How To Lead When Youre Not In Charge
$25.99Add to cartEvery leader, young or old, resonates with the dead-end feeling of not being in charge. Too often, the lack of authority paralyzes leaders, believing they must wait to be in charge until they can lead. One of the greatest myths of leadership is that you must be in charge in order to lead. Great leaders don’t buy it. Great leaders lead with or without the authority to lead. Because every road of leadership forks at the intersection of authority and influence, learning to cultivate influence without authority is foundational to navigate culture today.
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No Limits : Blow The Cap Off Your Capacity (Large Type)
$41.00Add to cartWe often treat the word capacity as if it were a natural law of limitation. Unfortunately, most of us are much more comfortable defining what we perceive as off limits rather than what’s really possible. Could it be that many of us have failed to expand our potential because we have allowed what we perceive as capacity to define us? What if our limits are not really our limits?
In his newest book, John Maxwell identifies 17 core capacities. Some of these are abilities we all already possess, such as energy, creativity and leadership. Others are aspects of our lives controlled by our choices, like our attitudes, character, and intentionality. Maxwell examines each of these capacities, and provides clear and actionable advice on how you can increase your potential in each. He will guide you on how to identify, grow, and apply your critical capacities. Once you’ve blown the “cap” off your capacities, you’ll find yourself more successful–and fulfilled–in your daily life.
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Church As Movement
$30.00Add to cartForeword
Introduction
Prologue
Part I: Distributing
1. Movement Mentality
2. Polycentric LeadershipPart II: Discipleship
3. Being Disciples
4. Making DisciplesPart III: Designing
5. Missional Theology
6. Ecclesial ArchitecturePart IV: Doing
7. Community Formation
8. Incarnational PracticeEpilogue
Additional Info
A training resource to help readers plant missional-incarnational churches, written by leading thinkers and practitioners in the area of church planting and missional living. This book is a thorough, comprehensive manual to help those on the long and challenging journey of church planting to survive and thrive. -
Emotionally Healthy Leader
$26.99Add to cartThere is an immense difference between a Christian and a secular leader. Secular leaders learn best practices and strategies from the most successful global leaders and then do their best to implement them. They are secular in that they manage to lead without God. While we can, and should, learn from best secular leadership practices, Christian leadership is different. Christian leaders lead from an interior life with Jesus Christ. Our lives are defined by Jesus who calls us to follow Him, and do His will. We lead from a position of dependence and communion with Him. Moreover, our vision is more than earthly measures of success. Christian leaders lead people to Jesus so that their lives might be powerfully transformed by Him. Yet we cannot give what we do not possess. We must be increasingly transformed first. The first half of The Emotionally Healthy Leader looks at four foundational areas often overlooked in developing leaders: facing our shadow, leading out of our marriage or singleness, slowing down for loving union with Jesus, and practicing Sabbath delight. Who we are, our “being”, is primary, impacting all our exterior activity. Scazzero then examines the intersection of our inner lives with the practical, everyday “doing” of leadership – planning and decision-making, culture and team buildings, community and dual relationships, and endings and new beginnings. Forged out of hard lessons learned in 26 years of leading a large, growing, complex, missional, multiracial church in New York City, The Emotionally Healthy Leader offers a unique integration of how who we are profoundly impacts what we do as leaders. It looks at how all our decisions and activities each day flow out of our inner walk with Christ. The Emotionally Healthy Leader goes beyond a quick fix or a new technique to core, beneath-the-surface issues of uniquely Christian leadership. This book is more than a book you will read; it is a resource you will come back to over and over again.
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Brain Savvy Leaders
$27.99Add to cartLeadership is tough. Church leadership can be even tougher. Leadership demands constant reframing and reappraisal of the situation, focus, objectivity, honest appraisal of yourself and others, and astute evaluation of available resources. Church leadership is all that and more. To be an effective church leader, you also have to love and have others’ best interest at heart. You have to align yourself and your church with God’s desire to transform lives for the better, both within and beyond your reach.
Using up-to-date research from brain science in easy-to-understand language, author Charles Stone will help you increase your personal productivity, handle stress and your emotions in constructive ways, create and sustain collaborative teams, and manage change in your church. Using illustrations and acronyms, Dr. Stone will show you how brain science can complement and reinforce what the Bible says about life and leadership. He will show you how basic brain processes affect leadership and your team’s ability to follow while becoming more cohesive and collaborative.
Each chapter gives practical tips and actionable steps to help leaders improve personal and organizational skills.
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Worship Together In Your Church As In Heaven
$25.99Add to cartIf we hope to share the message of Christ with people in this changed world, we must examine and reshape our worship. Our communities and our neighborhoods are becoming increasingly multicultural. Is the same thing true at your church? Is the worship at your church reflective of heaven?
The Bible is clear that one day people from every tribe, language, and nation will gather together to worship Jesus together in heaven. More often than not, however, our worship here on earth is segregated, preferential, one-dimensional, and united around a musical style rather than the person of Jesus Christ. This kind of worship is not only incomplete, but it is dangerous, leading us farther and farther away from the kind of worship that heaven is about. Multicultural worship doesn’t just happen. The church is in need of pastors, worship leaders, and worshipers who, with their hearts fixed on heaven, will not settle for the separate but equal mentality in worship.
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Theology From The Trenches
$26.00Add to cartWhile urban pastors devote time and energy to all the typical demands of ministry, they also grapple with challenges endemic to city life. Achieving a measure of balance amid these competing demands and responsibilities can be daunting. Using his experiences as a pastor in urban settings for nearly three decades, Roger J. Gench offers pastors a close look at the challenges that come from being involved in urban ministry.
Throughout, he integrates memoir, sermons, and essays on social ministry, and reflections on the theology and spirituality of parish life. In each chapter, Gench offers his own stories and reflections and then invites readers to consider the relevance for their own ministry. Urban pastors will not only find themselves relating to Gench’s experiences but will also uncover practical help for their ministry.
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Organizational Leadership : Foundations And Practices For Christians
$35.00Add to cartPreface
Section 1: Theological Foundations For Christian Leadership
Chapter 1: Called To Lead: How Do I Know? Timothy G. Dolan
Chapter 2: Leadership In The Context Of A Christian Worldview Gayne J. Anacker And John R. Shoup
Chapter 3: Towards A Biblical Theology Of Leadership Rick Langer
Section 2: Theoretical Foundations For Christian Leadership
Chapter 4: The Leadership River: Historical Currents Of Management And Leadership Theory John S. (Jack) Burns
Chapter 5: The Sea Of Complexity: Emerging Understandings Of Management, Leadership, And Organizations John S. (Jack) Burns
Section 3: Key Skills And Practices In Christian Leadership
Chapter 6: A Christian Context For Interpersonal And Organizational Communication
Ronald K. PyleChapter 7: Conflict And Negotiation John S. (Jack) Burns
Chapter 8: Decision-Making Theory, Strategies And Skills John R. Shoup, Chris McHorney
Chapter 9: Christian Leadership And Financial Integrity: Temptation, Transformation And Transparency R. Scott Rodin
Chapter 10: Sustaining The Leader Timothy G. Dolan
PostScript
Additional Info
Kingdom leadership does not begin and end at the church door. Christians are called to conduct leadership in government, commerce, schools, neighborhoods, families, para-church ministries and a myriad other contexts. God has given us many gifts, and our responsibility is to be stewards of those gifts, and use them to do the King’s work. In that context, this comprehensive text explores key facets of leadership from a Christian worldview so as to equip people to conduct leadership more authentically than would be possible under alternative paradigms. The book begins with the seldom considered theological foundations of leadership while also tracing the historic roots of management, organization and leadership theories. All of this leads to a robust discussion of five essential challenges and practices–communication, negotiation, decision-making, financial stewardship and personal development. The combined efforts of these experts in the field provide a practical theology of leadership from a Christian worldview for emerging and established leaders. Here is the foundation needed for those who want to conduct leadership in a manner consistent with their faith in both religious and nonreligious organizational contexts. -
Christopraxis : A Practical Theology Of The Cross
$39.00Add to cartContents:
Part 1
1. A Theobiographical Starting Point
2. Setting The Terrain
3. Concrete Lived Cases Of Ministerial Encounters With Divine Action
4. Dominant Models Of Practical Theology
Part 2
5. A Christopraxis Practical Theology Of The Cross
6. Practical Theology Into Nothingness
7. The Concurring Of The Divine With The Human
Part 3
8. Critical Realism And Practical Theology
9. Human Action And Interdisciplinarity In Light Of A Critical RealistChristopraxis Practical TheologyAdditional Info
Finding practical theology not always able to present frameworks for understanding concrete and lived experience with divine action, Andrew Root seeks to reset the edifice of practical theology on a new foundation. While not minimizing its commitment to the lived and concrete, Root argues that practical theology has neglected deeper theological underpinnings.Christopraxis seeks to create a practical theology that is properly and fully theological, post-postmodern, post-Aristotelian, and that attends to doctrines such as divine action and justification.
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Nehemiah Effect : Ancient Wisdom From The Worlds First Agile Projects
$28.99Add to cartThe rapid convergence of technological and knowledge growth is resulting in disruptive change unlike any in human history. So why go back 2,500 years for a business leadership and project management model?
According to today’s experts, Nehemiah’s building the 4.5-mile wall around Jerusalem in 445 BC should have taken years with a huge labor force. But he accomplished it with 150 leaders and an enormous volunteer team in 52 days. His book is a roadmap on how to accomplish seemingly impossible goals using a Business Agile framework.
The Nehemiah Effect combines new mindsets, methodologies, and technologies with proven, ancient wisdom to deliver surprising results for today’s business leaders and project managers.
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Table Manners : Liturgical Leadership For The Mission Of The Church
$35.99Add to cartThere is a growing (if not urgent) need for those being trained for ordained (and lay) ministry to be provided with a more solid grounding in liturgical principles, and Simon Reynolds seeks to address this by demonstrating how good liturgical leadership can be the foundation from which all other theological, historical, pastoral and missiological issues arise.
Table Manners attempts to avoid being a ‘party’ book and will consciously avoid issues of churchmanship (except in pointing to what is positive in the various Christian traditions). Rather, it is written from the conviction that (i) a proper understanding of the Eucharist, and a theologically-informed approach to celebrating it (even if this manifests itself in many different styles), should mean that worshippers can go to churches of an unfamiliar tradition and yet still be caught up in the action, because what is essential and enlarging about good liturgical celebration would be recognisable; and (ii) that the success of presidency also demands the liturgical education of the whole people of God, because until they know what to ask for, their expectations will remain constrained.
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Resilient Ministry : What Pastors Told Us About Surviving And Thriving
$27.00Add to cartIntroduction
1 Life In Pastoral Ministry
2 The Five Themes Of Resilient Ministry
3 Evaluating Spiritual Formation
4 Pursuing Spiritual Formation
5 Self-Care: Burning On, Not Burning Out
6 Self-Care: Pacing Our Lifestyles
7 Understanding Emotional Intelligence
8 Developing Emotional Intelligence
9 Exploring Cultural Differences
10 Improving Cultural Intelligence
11 Marriage And Family: Stressed By Ministry
12 More Marriage And Family Stressors
13 Leadership Poetry
14 Leadership Plumbing
15 Concluding Insights And Next Steps
Appendix A: Research Methods Of The Pastors Summit
Appendix B: Questions For Personal Evaluation And Annual Reviews
Appendix C: Emotions Checklist
Appendix D: Constructing And Interviewing A Family Diagram
Appendix E: Best Practices For Forming Peer Cohorts
NotesAdditional Info
What does it take to have fruitful ministry over the long haul? The stresses of pastoring are well known and can be a match for even the best-prepared, most experienced in ministry–multiple tasks, long hours, taxing responsibilities and, yes, some challenging personalities. Too often the results can be burnout, being run out or just feeling worn out. To find out how pastors can thrive as well as survive, the authors undertook a five-year in-depth research project among working pastors. Here in this ground-breaking book is the distilled wisdom of dozens of pastors who have been on the front lines of ministry. We hear from them what works, what doesn’t and what distinctive issues people in ministry face. The authors uncover five key themes that promote healthy, sustainable ministry that lasts–spiritual formation, self-care, emotional and cultural intelligence, marriage and family, leadership and management. These themes are unpacked from the vantage point of ministry on the ground. Questions for personal evaluation and reflection are included throughout the book to bring home the significance of each section. This is the perfect companion for a peer cohort of pastors to read together. It can also be of value to church boards and others who want to better understand how to help sustain their pastors in ministry. In short, this is a book pastors can’t live without. -
Deep Mentoring : Guiding Others On Their Leadership Journey
$28.00Add to cartRandy Reese and Robert Loane believe good leaders are developed in and through slow, deep mentoring. This book is designed to help you understand how to come alongside others as a guide and a friend, to invest in their spiritual formation and leadership. If you want long-term impact on the lives of future leaders, here is your guide.
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1st Gentleman : Role Of The Female Pastor’s Husband
$30.95Add to cartFemale leadership has been a topic of debate for centuries between theologians and laity, Christians and non-Christians, as well as men and women. This study will present a theological analysis of the debate concerning male and female roles in leadership positions and ministry. An analysis of the role of the female pastor’s spouse, the effects of sexism in religion, and how it has influenced the ecclesiology of the church will be examined as well. Reflections of case studies employing biblical narratives of couples in the Bible will be used to substantiate the roles of women leaders and their spouses. Each scenario identifies the particular role of the husband and the wife, specifically when the wife is the spiritual leader.
Read with anticipation the outcome of biblical interpretation of the roles of the female leader and their spouses.
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Fresh : An Introduction To Fresh Expressions Of Church And Pioneer Ministry
$35.99Add to cartFresh ! offers a strong rationale for fresh expressions and pioneer ministries rooted in scripture and in the breath of the Christian tradition. This is tested against the realities of contemporary British culture and critiques of the notion of Fresh Expressions. It offers practical guidance for starting and sustaining such ministries in the long term. It provides a survey of best practice within Fresh Expressions and pioneer ministry.Fresh ! comes out of the mature reflection of church leaders and theologians who have been active in such ministries over a number of years, showing how such ministries are integral to the work of the church both now and over the long term.This is combined with valuable practical advice – the best kind of practical theology.
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Journey To Competitive Advantage Through Servant Leadership
$30.95Add to cartWith today’s tough economic environment and declining trust in leaders, companies are in desperate need of leaders who can provide the vision, goals, and direction needed to develop and maximize the full potential of their people and the business results.
The Journey To Competitive Advantage Through Servant Leadership was written to help organizations and leaders understand that building a sustainable competitive advantage depends on how people are treated-and the best way to create a competitive advantage is by developing an environment of caring, mutual trust and respect between the leaders and their people.Servant leaders have learned that focusing their efforts and strategy on developing the full potential of their associates helps create a winning partnership for the people and the business.
To help leaders develop this collaborative environment, the author shares his own leadership journey both the successes and struggles. He compiles the lessons of a lifetime into one comprehensive document that can help point the way for leaders to the fulfilling life of “servant leadership”-that powerful, almost mystical capability to help people achieve beyond their fondest dreams, while living a life of faith and making priceless contributions to the people God brings into their life. He takes a highly ethical and moral approach to developing employees, leading your business and balancing your life. He provides practical examples of how to build a business of which you can be proud by helping people succeed and achieve their goals which is a time proven way to ensure that you too will succeed.If you are seeking to improve your career, be a leader in all you do, build a business of integrity, or balance your life with better relationships – this book is for you!
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Consultancy Skills For Mission And Ministry
$35.99Add to cartConsultancy Skills for Mission and Ministry provides a readable handbook to doing consultancy in church based organisations. Many of those who exercise ministry in churches move into roles where they are expected to supervise and support ministers and church leaders in their work. Consultancy is an effective way of doing this and provides skills and theoretical frameworks for both those working explicitly as consultants to ministers and church workers and leaders as well as for officers in churches such as Archdeacons, Superintendents, Mission Officers, local church and regional development advisers or those involved in continuing professional development. Often people moving into these roles are not provided with the specific skills and knowledge they need. Other groups who will find this book useful will include consultants who operate in commercial, public and voluntary organisations but who need to know how to apply their skills in church settings and students on courses in consultancy.
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Becoming The Pastor You Hope To Be
$29.00Add to cartBecoming the Pastor You Hope to Be unapologetically urges clergy readers to develop practices that will help them become more excellent ministers. A long-time field educator, now serving as a denominational staff person responsible for ministerial formation, Barbara Blodgett believes excellence is a matter of doing simple things with care and consistency. Ministers who commit themselves to excellence will grow and flourish, and even become happier in ministry.Blodgett urges ministers to resist praise and instead to ask for feedback, to seek the company of mentors who are better than the reader is at what he or she does, to be vulnerable before their peers in order to learn from them, and to define themselves as a leader who does not merely take activist stances but risks entering into deep, transformative relationships. Improvement in ministry, Blodgett argues, comes about not through extraordinary leaps and bounds but rather through adopting simple habits and carrying through on small but thoughtfully made choices.
Blodgett urges ministers to resist praise and instead to ask for feedback, to seek the company of mentors who are better than the reader is at what he or she does, to be vulnerable before their peers in order to learn from them, and to define themselves as a leader who does not merely take activist stances but risks entering into deep, transformative relationships. Improvement in ministry, Blodgett argues, comes about not through extraordinary leaps and bounds but rather through adoptingsimple habits and carrying through on small but thoughtfully made choices.
Addressed to ministers, Becoming the Pastor You Hope to Be is also a valuable resource for discernment committees, Christian educators, leaders of continuing education and lay education programs, and all those who partner with theological schools to help form ministers, both lay and ordained.
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Reframing Hope : Vital Ministry In A New Generation
$29.00Add to cartMuch has been written about the changing landscape the church finds itself in, and even more about the church’s waning influence in our culture. From her vantage point as an under-40 pastor, Carol Howard Merritt, author of Tribal Church, moves away from the handwringing toward a discovery of what ministry in, with, and by a new generation might look like. What does the substance of hope look like right now? What does hope look like when it is framed in a new generation? Motivated by these questions, Merritt writes Reframing Hope with the understanding that we are not creating from nothing the vital ministry of the next generation. Instead, we are working through what we have, sorting out the best parts, acknowledging and healing from the worst, and reframing it all.
She explores the spirit of collaboration that has grown up in our culture as the diffusion of authority continues to move toward a network of sharing resources and information. She shares the spiritual longing she sees in those of her generation and acknowledges that people will no longer settle for one-way preaching and entertaining services-they want their worship to become meaningful; they want their spirituality to lead to action. Merritt believes that if we can manage to navigate many of these important shifts, the years ahead are full of hope, but only if we recognize and welcome the changes that will come and open ourselves to what new adaptations will bring to us.
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Leading The Congregation (Revised)
$34.99Add to cartLeading the Congregation is a complete and definitive guide to the practice of church leadership. The book describes essential paradigms for the leader that integrate spiritual integrity and service within a “systems” view of the congregation and its ministry.
This revised and updated version focuses on the challenges of congregational leadership in a culture that has fewer ties to Christian faith. The authors lay out the dual contexts in which church leaders must function-within the congregation, and as the congregation’s representative to the community-and they explain the very different skill sets required to flourish in each. Underlying the revised edition is an insistence on the congregational leader’s call from God, and cultivation of her or his relationship with God. Leadership is not the same thing as charisma, they explain; it is rather a set of attitudes and practices that each of us can and must master if we are to be worthy servants of Christ.
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For The Parish
$35.99Add to cartFresh Expressions of Church are most significant development in the Church of England in recent decades. Many have called for a thorough theological engagement with the movement. The Church of England is engaging in radical new departures when the ecclesiological thinking for such experiments is far from complete. Parishes are the mainstay of the ‘inherited church’. Frequently they are belittled and cast as either unhelpful or irrelevant. The authors argue for the vitality of the parish, both for mission and for discipleship. The authors argue that the forms of the church are to be an embodiment of her faith. They should therefore be more determined by our theological traditions than by the surrounding culture. They show that the traditions of the parish church represent ways in which time, space, community are ordered in relation to God and the gospel.
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Spiritual Formations Of Leaders
$29.99Add to cartWhy do the demands of leadership often draw leaders away from intimacy with God? How can I keep from burning out and bailing out? How can we develop effective lifelong leaders who are being spiritually transformed as they abide in Christ? Spiritual leadership formation happens only in God’s presence by meeting with Him in the soul room and then walking with Him into the leadership room where He further works in you and through you. Gain seasoned insights for God’s transformation process.
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Everyone Communicates Few Connect
$26.99Add to cartThe world’s most respected leadership expert gives five principles and five practices for breaking the invisible barrier to leadership and personal success. You have a good idea but can’t convince your peers of its merit. You crafted a groundbreaking strategy, but the team trudges on in the same old way. Certain people move forward in their career while you seem to be stuck. If this describes you or someone you know, the problem is not the quality of what you have to offer. The problem is how you connect with people to create the results you desire. In Everyone Communicates, Few Connect, John Maxwell takes readers through the Five Connecting Principles and the Five Connecting Practices of top-notch achievers. He believes that a person’s ability to create change and results in any organization-be it a company, church, nonprofit, or even a family-is directly tied to the ability to use the teachings of this book.
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Turning Point That Changed Everything
$26.99Add to cartIn every person’s life, there comes a moment in time when circumstances or events require decisions and responses that greatly determine the future. This book has no design to be another volume on leadership techniques. Rather, it is a candid exploration of those unexpected turns birthed out of the experience of being confronted with a reversal of circumstances in the life of an individual. Frankly, it is a study about the drama of life. The intention of the author is to give a sincere and straightforward examination of why turnabouts often get high-jacked and fail to live up to people’s expectations. Even more, individuals will find a plea for courage and faith when things do not occur as they once envisioned they would. Consequently, it is a clarion call for courage to go further than some would desire, but also a caution to impatient leaders to be watchful of their own intentions to push a change further than would be wise. In the end, some leaders must be willing to consider a more contemplative life built on valuing people above their own ideological mindset.
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NEW Outreach : Doing Good The Better Way
$28.95Add to cartThis is not a book about why people give; it is a guide for how to create outreach partnerships to provide better aid and assistance, more efficiently and responsibly. Written in clear, concise language and complemented by practical worksheets, it explores the entire step-by-step process of outreach, from motivations and documentation of available resources, to desired outcomes and proven methods to achieve goals.
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All Shall Be Well
$26.95Add to cartApproaches emotional and vocational wellness from a faith perspective, unlike majority of general-market wellness books.
Uses established and well-recognized CREDO model as framework.
CREDO has established partnerships with the Presbyterian Church and othe rmainline denominations.
This relevatn, timely, and substantive book addresses the CREDO approach to wellness.Chapters explore the theology of wellness and identity, core values, creativity and passion, renewal, emotional health, spiritual practices, balance, transformation, and fitness.
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Strategic Leadership For A Change
$29.00Add to cartMany congregations are experiencing significant change both within and beyond their walls, and both members and leaders feel a sense of loss in the midst of these changes. In the midst of change, loss, and grief, congregations yearn for leadership-typically with differing expectations of what constitutes effective leadership in response to their needs, hopes, and priorities. At the same time, congregations resist leadership. After all, leadership assumes those who follow will be open to more change.
Strategic Leadership for a Change provides congregational leaders with new insights and tools for understanding the relationships among change, attachment, loss, and grief. It also helps to facilitate the process of grieving, comprehend the centrality of vision, and demonstrate theological reflection in the midst of change, loss, grief, and attaching anew. All this occurs as the congregation aligns its vision with God’s and understands processes of change as processes of fulfillment.
Drawing on attachment theory, leadership studies, and biblical and theological resources, McFayden’s work is invaluable for leaders whose congregations face change, experience loss, wonder about their future, and yearn for leadership.
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Transforming Disciples
$26.95Add to cartMaking disciples through Christian formation too often looks like a limited number of educational programs offered to child, teen, and adult “consumers” who move on if they don’t find what they want. How can we make the transition from consumer religion to participatory faith by building congregational relationships that nourish people spiritually and empower them to risk living, worshipping, learning, and serving God and each other in new and enlivening ways?
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Innovative Planning : Your Church In 4-D
$27.99Add to cartFor leaders of small organizations – churches and businesses – who do not have a regular, ongoing planning process, this book will be your guide to becoming an innovative planner for your group’s future.
This book presents a solid process for developing complete organizational planning – from vision, to mission, to strategies. It also includes the day-to-day operations – the level at which the vision ultimately comes to fruition.
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Leading From The Second Chair
$29.00Add to cartAbout Leadership Network.
Foreword (Greg L. Hawkins).Preface.
1. Living In The Paradoxes.
2. Am I A Second Chair Leader?
THE FIRST PARADOX
Subordinate-Leader.3. Taking It From The Top.
4. Crossing The Line.
A Word To First Chairs On The Subordinate-Leader Paradox.
THE SECOND PARADOX
Deep-Wide.5. A Matter Of Perspective.
6. Building The Team . . . One Relationship At A Time.
7. Putting It Into Practice.
A Word To First Chairs On The Deep-Wide Paradox.
THE THIRD PARADOX
Contentment-Dreaming.8. Contentment In The Second Chair.
9. Dreaming In The Second Chair.
10. Leaving The Second Chair.
A Word To First Chairs On The Contentment-Dreaming Paradox.
Epilogue.
The People Behind The Stories: Profiles Of Second Chair Leaders.
Bibliography.
Acknowledgments.
About The Authors.
Index.
Additional Info
LEADING FROM THE SECOND CHAIR will raise awareness of the need for strong leaders in secondary positions. It will describe the value they can bring to their organization and to primary leaders when they are serving at their full potential. It will reshape the way they view their role, with an emphasis on their own responsibility as leaders. It recognizes the unique challenges and frustrations of serving in a subordinate position and equips these leaders with the attitudes and skills that they will need to survive and thrive in this new paradigm.
Because of the scarcity of resources for second chair leaders, particularly those in the church, this book will offer a practical way to improve the performance of any organization. Leading Congregational Change discussed the importance of a “vision community”–a diverse group of key members who discern and implement the vision for a congregation–to guide the transformation of a church. This work will extend the theme of an empowered leadership team as we explore how individual clergy and laity can lead effectively. -
Sermons On The First Readings Series 2 Cycle B
$36.95Add to cartThe Old Testament details the epic faith story of ancient people who, just like us today, seek God’s answers to complex problems. Yet because pastors sometimes overlook this rich source of preaching texts, many people in the pews are not as knowledgeable as they could be of the Hebrew scriptures and their profound lessons for modern living. In this inspiring collection of spiritually enlightening messages based on the First Readings from Cycle B of the Revised Common Lectionary, four master preachers demonstrate the continuing relevance of passages from the Old Testament and the Book of Acts. Building on stories in which God moves ordinary people to extraordinary heights, these sermons for each Sunday and major celebration throughout the entire church year powerfully proclaim timeless themes of justice and righteousness while reminding us that God’s grace is the model for the Christian community’s core values of self-giving love and forgiveness. Each thought-provoking message is filled with compelling stories and illustrations from everyday life, and challenges readers to love and serve the Lord, trusting in divine providence even in the midst of a world that sometimes seems cruel and senseless.
This essential resource is useful for:
? Fresh homiletical approaches to the lectionary texts
? Preaching illustrations
? Understanding scripture passages
? Bible study and discussion groups
? Personal devotions and inspirational reading -
Culture Shift : Transforming Your Church From The Inside Out
$27.00Add to cartAbout Leadership Network.
Foreword (Erwin Raphael McManus).Preface.
PART ONE: Awakening To Culture.
1. Why Culture Matters.
2. Your Destiny In Seed Form.
3. What You Think Is What You See.
PART TWO: Birthing The Culture.
4. Totems: Identifying Your Church’s Culture.
5. How To Shift Your Church’s Culture.
6. Divine Partnership.
PART THREE: Growing The Culture At New Hope O’ahu.
7. Identifying New Hope’s Totems.
8. Culture Setters.
9. Plug-and-Play Subculture Vs. Authentic Culture.
10. Creating And Re-Creating Culture.
PART FOUR: Growing The Culture At Fellowship Bible Church.
11. Identifying Fellowship Bible’s Totems.
12. The Power Of A Disciplined Vision.
13. Learning To Spot Opportunity.
14. Courageous Adjustments To Safeguard The Values.
PART FIVE: Advancing The Culture.
15. Irresistible Culture.
Notes.
Appendix One: Involvement And Satisfaction Survey.
Appendix Two: Sample Pages From A Life Journal.
Bibliography.
Acknowledgments.
About The Authors.
Index.
Additional Info
Culture Shift, written for church leaders, ministers, pastors, ministry teams, and lay leaders, leads you through the process of identifying your church’s distinctive culture, gives you practical tools to change it from the inside-out, and provides steps to keep your new culture aligned with your church’s mission. Real transformation is not about working harder at what you’re already doing or even copying another church’s approach but about changing church culture at a foundational level. -
Hidden Lives Of Congregations
$30.00Add to cartFaced with crisis, lack of direction, or just plain “stuckness,” many congregations and their leaders are content to deal only with surface issues and symptoms-only to discover that the same problems keep recurring, often in different, and more serious, ways. In The Hidden Lives of Congregations, Christian educator and consultant Israel Galindo takes leaders below the surface of congregational life to provide a comprehensive, holistic look at the corporate nature of church relationships and the invisible dynamics at play.
Informed by family systems theory and grounded in a wide-ranging ecclesiological understanding, Galindo unpacks clearly the factors of congregational lifespan, size, spirituality, and identity and shows how these work together to form the congregation’s hidden life. He provides useful tools for diagnosing and understanding how one’s congregation fits into the various categories he names and suggests what leadership skills are necessary to get beyond the impasse of surface issues and help the congregation achieve its mission.
The Hidden Lives of Congregations provides one of the most far-reaching looks into the invisible nature of faith communities written in recent years. For seminaries and divinity schools, it provides a standard text for getting a solid start in congregational practices; for experienced pastors, it provides support for renewing ministry; for lay leaders and committees, it offers insight to deepening mutual ministry. Israel Galindo has written an indispensable manual that leaders will return to repeatedly for new wisdom and guidance on the unseen mechanisms that drive congregational life.
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Becoming Barnabas : The Ministry Of Encouragement
$28.00Add to cartWestern culture has made a cult of success, and the church has accepted the larger culture’s definition, focusing on success as growth in membership and budget, rather growth in faithfulness as disciples of Jesus. When we do not measure up, we become discouraged, disillusioned, and perhaps even envious.
Paul Moots offers a welcome antidote: a vision for the ministry of encouragement. Based on his study of the book of Acts, Moots has identified five incidents from the ministry of Barnabas, an easily overlooked character, that provide a starting point to explore encouragement and how it can work in a congregation. Moots then examines five components of this ministry: partnership, hospitality, courage, reconciliation, and authenticity.
Moots details numerous examples to show how the ministry of encouragement offers a workable, effective pattern for church leadership. “I am convinced,” he writes, “that accepting Barnabas as my model has changed my ministry for the better and that Barnabas’s example can benefit any pastor and congregation who take his lessons seriously.”
Barnabas and his ministry of encouragement offer us a focus for the vital, messy, and exhilarating work required of us as faith communities. Foreword by Robert Reber
“At last! Here is a leadership book that provides practical help for congregations of every size and setting and pastors with a variety of gifts. Drawing from his own experience as a pastor, Moots shares a model of faithful ministry that is within the reach of every pastor, layperson, and congregation.”-Rueben P. Job
“In an age when so many pastors and leaders are discouraged, no work of the Spirit is more needed or more welcome than encouragement. Moots’s book moves beyond diagnosis and actually shows readers how to ‘become Barnabas’ in ministries of partnership, hospitality, courage, and reconciliation.”-Donna Duensing
Paul Moots has served as pastor in a variety of settings in his 22 years of ministry: associate pastor, campus ministry, pastor of an urban congregation, and his current position in the village church of First United Methodist in Mount Sterling, Ohio.
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Take The Next Step
$25.99Add to cartTransformational leaders know how to build on their church’s identity. They know how to make the story of change the next chapter in the book of the congregation’s life, rather than throwing the book away and trying to start over. An astute student of management and leadership theory, Weems offers congregational leaders essential insights into how they can bring about authentic and faithful growth. Includes congregational case studies, visual illustrations of key ideas, and insights from other leadership experts.
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Who Am I
$26.99Add to cartThe great British historian Arnold Toynbee emphasized that “God revealed himself through human history,” and he related that to leaders. That is true-God is calling his people for his kingdom and glory on the earth. When God called Abram, Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, and Saul, they all obeyed him. Leaders are important. They determine the future and human history. Our society needs spiritual leaders because they teach us God’s will. In this complicated, immoral society, true leaders are essential for spiritual movement and cultural improvement. What is spirituality? It is not Plato’s dualism, which classifies the body and spirit. But it does include the total personality. Christian spirituality represents a deep relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ-a spiritual, deep, meaningful experience with God.
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Unexpected Journey : Reflections On Pastoral Ministry
$26.00Add to cartJ. Philip Wogaman offers candid reflections on his service as Senior Minister at Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C.- an unexpected journey that he began at the age of sixty – following a career as an ethics professor. Wogaman chronicles the task he faced as a new pastor, tasks with which every pastor deals-effective and faithful preaching, balancing pastoral and prophetic roles, presenting the church to the public media, dealing with prominent church members, and addressing stewardship. He also discusses the challenges of succeeding a long-loved pastor who departed under a cloud, the responsibilities of pasturing to a president, and his efforts to balance the roles of a pastor against such a dramatic backdrop. Identifying his own successes and mistakes, Wogaman provides fresh insights on parish ministry that are sure to become guideposts for all pastors.
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Projects That Matter
$26.00Add to cartProjects That Matter is a primer for project leaders and teams about basic project planning and evaluation. Intended for the nonexpert, the book introduces readers to the five basic elements of project design and describes in detail a six-step process for designing and implementing a project evaluation and for disseminating evaluation findings. Project leaders in congregations, colleges and seminaries, camps and other specialized ministries, and other religious settings will find Cahalan’s guidance clear and invaluable.
Cahalan presents evaluation as a form of collaborative inquiry and shows how leaders can use evaluation design to develop effective project plans and prepare case statements for donors or grant proposals for foundations. She introduces project planning and evaluation as mission-related practices and invites leaders to consider how their tradition’s particular mission and beliefs influence the way they plan and evaluate. In the final chapter, she makes explicit her own theological presuppositions-that the virtues of discernment, stewardship, and prudence are essential for good project planning and evaluation. Foreword by Craig Dykstra.
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Redeveloping The Congregation
$26.00Add to cartWhat makes it possible for a church to reverse course from decline or stagnation into longlasting vitality? How can a church immigrate from a congealing present into a compelling future? What can a congregation do to experience continuous, deep change rather than just temporary, surface improvement? How does a person lead redevelopment?
The three authors of this book address these and other questions by building on an eight-step framework for lasting change developed by John P. Kotter, noted former professor of organizational behavior at Harvard Business School. His work on organizational change is heralded in the secular world as foundational, and Smith, Sellon, and Grossman have found that his findings hold true for congregations as well.
Each chapter in this book comprises three sections: mentor, companion and coach. The mentor section discusses principles and concepts to be addressed in each of the eight steps; the companion section gives readers a sense of what leading change is actually like for a congregational leader; and the coach section provides specific ways for leaders to develop the unique change processes that will be effective in their church. Foreword by Anthony G. Pappas.
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5 Dysfuncions Of A Team
$27.00Add to cartIn The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Patrick Lencioni once again offers a leadership fable that is as enthralling and instructive as his first two best-selling books, The Five Temptations of a CEO and The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive. This time, he turns his keen intellect and storytelling power to the fascinating, complex world of teams.
Kathryn Petersen, Decision Tech’s CEO, faces the ultimate leadership crisis: Uniting a team in such disarray that it threatens to bring down the entire company. Will she succeed? Will she be fired? Will the company fail? Lencioni’s utterly gripping tale serves as a timeless reminder that leadership requires as much courage as it does insight.
Throughout the story, Lencioni reveals the five dysfunctions which go to the very heart of why teams even the best ones-often struggle. He outlines a powerful model and actionable steps that can be used to overcome these common hurdles and build a cohesive, effective team. Just as with his other books, Lencioni has written a compelling fable with a powerful yet deceptively simple message for all those who strive to be exceptional team leaders.
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Fling Open The Doors
$26.99Add to cartThe temptation to focus only on their own internal problems and issues is powerful for congregations. Without realizing it, even churches that have a long tradition of outreach and social involvement become centered on issues of institutional survival and preservation. Worst of all are congregations that adopt a “fortress mentality,” addressing the larger community rarely, and only in the “language of Zion” when they do. In this book, Paul Nixon paints a picture of what community-based ministry is all about. Drawing on his experiences within a congregation that has seen twenty-five years of increased worship attendance, he lays out practical steps that churches can take to plant themselves firmly within the lives of the communities they serve. Written with an infectious sense of hope, this book will become a critical tool for church leaders seeking to transform their congregations into outward-looking.
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Multigenerational Congregation : Meeting The Leadership Challenge
$26.00Add to cartCongregations need to learn new cultural languages and practices in order to speak to and be heard by new generations of people. But how do congregations enter the wilderness of ministry with these new generations when many of those in the entourage do not appreciate the trip?
In contrast to many writers about church growth, Rendle works with three important observations:
Most congregations are not “pure markets,” discrete groups with uniform values and behaviors, that can be targeted to the exclusion of all other audiences;
Some of the differences and discomforts experienced in the congregation are based on the members’ tenure, or length of membership, rather than their age;
Leadership in congregations is not a matter of marketplace savvy but of spiritual authenticity in which we continue to shape our faith tradition to be heard and understood by a changing culture.
Rendle shows us how to talk with and really understand one generational cohort while another cohort is present “looking over one’s shoulder.” Foreword by Lovett H. Weems, Jr., President, Saint Paul School of Theology. -
Raising The Roof
$26.00Add to cartPastoral-to-program size change is frequently described as the most challenging of growth transitions for congregations. Now Alban senior consultant Alice Mann, author of The In-Between Church: Navigating Size Transitions in Congregations, addresses the difficulties of that transition in this resource designed specifically for a congregational learning team.
Conceptualized and developed by Mann for an Alban on-line seminar program test event conducted with 12 congregations in transition, her newest book features a five-step process enabling the learning team to engage a wider circle of congregational leaders and members in study, discernment, and planning. Never-before published resources include discussion of a major new concept-passive barriers to growth-plus Mann’s “System Change Index” tool to help congregations measure their progress from pastoral-size to program-size ways of operating.
From preparing the congregation’s board and members, selecting the person to guide the learning process, and recruiting the learning team, to creating and celebrating a plan for congregational learning and action, Mann provides all the resources a congregation needs to address this significant size transition period.
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Pastoral Leadership : A Handbook Of Resources For Effective Congregational
$30.99Add to cartThis comprehensive problem-solving reference for pastors provides theological foundations and experience-tested techniques for effective clergy leadership.
Robert D. Dale offers insight into the dynamics of clergy management by placing leadership into a congregational context and stressing servanthood as the primary biblical leadership image. Following a discussion of the three critical dimensions of organizational effectiveness, Dale explores and critiques the four basic leadership styles: catalyst, commander, encourager, and hermit. Out of this background exploration, Dale discloses decision-making guidelines that have proved effective in helping clergy: resolve conflicts; lead churches through change; define the congregation’s dream; budget resources effectively; manage meetings; build teams; and, motivate oneself and others.
Pastoral Leadership concludes with a unique look at the effects of clergy leadership on the pastor as a person, offering valuable insight into clergy spirituality, burnout, family demands, and career development. Notes, a bibliography, and review questions accompany each chapter.
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Next Steps In Community Ministry
$29.00Add to cartDudley and a research team go back to 24 ministries still in existence five years after the Church and Community Project’s completion. They discovered:
how the myths and expectations of funding, lay/clergy leadership, and church/society partnerships were shattered by what is doable;
how the often Herculean efforts frustrated and tired participants, who were then uplifted and sustained by making a difference;
how faith was the foundation for action, and how, through action, the poor, the homeless, and others in need became real people and not statistics.
Perhaps most important is the discovery that community ministry takes shape in ways unique to local issues of theology, church size, social location, and cultural composition. -
Leading The Team Based Church
$26.95Add to cartTHE BIBLICAL CASE FOR TEAM-BASED MINISTRY: REFLECTING THE GOD WE SERVE.
Learning The Circle Dance Of God.Building On A Receptive Cultural Environment.
THE DANCE OF LEADERSHIP: BUILDING GRACEFUL MINISTRY TEAMS.
The Covenanting Team.
The Visionary Team.
The Culture-Creating Team.
The Collaborative Team.
The Trusting Team.
The Empowering Team.
The Learning Team.
Epilogue: A Word Of Encouragement.
Resource: Two Examples Of Staff Covenants.
References.
Index.
Additional Info
In Leading the Team-Based Church, George Cladis issues a clarion call for ministry teams to embrace a fresh leadership model that is not based on hierarchy, but on a process of collaboration that mirrors the relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He reminds us that today’s cultural environment–where authority has basis in trust, innovation reaps rewards, and spirituality takes root in life and work–has matured past the need for the hierarchy of traditional church leadership where the pastor had the final say. Through down-to-earth stories from his own experience and those of clergy in both mainline and evangelical churches, Cladis offers an exciting alternative to the traditional forms of church leadership, enabling pastors, congregational leaders, and staff to breathe new life into their ministries and unleash the full potential of the entire ministry team.Cladis, pastor of a fast-growing mainline congregation, demonstrates how cultural changes affecting all our institutions–not just the church–are making it easier to adopt this new model of leadership. Cladis’s practical advice will enable ministry teams to work together in ways that both embody the Christian message and call forth the full creativity and love of the entire team.
“Just when it seems that all that can be said has been said on the subject of ‘teams’, just when one has tired of the gumming of the label ‘team’ on everything in sight, along comes perhaps the most significant religious book on teams yet published. Cladis juxtaposes the theological and cultural context for team-based ministry in a model presentation of what a conversation between Bible, theology, and culture should look like.”–Leonard Sweet, dean, The Theological School and vice president, Drew University
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Leadership Is The Key
$25.99Add to cartEvery clergyperson has a persona: the public role he or she assumes in performing ministry for a congregation or organization. For example, the roles of preaching, pastoring, and church administration “go with the territory” in most congregations. These tasks are part of the employment contract.
Every clergyperson also has an anima: the true inner self, reflecting deeply held ideals of conduct. Because this inner core of being controls how a pastor lives out the details of ministry, anima determines how effectively he or she fits the needs of a particular congregation or ministry role. For example, a minister who relates poorly to youth is seldom productive as a youth minister.
Listing twelve elements of the pastor’s anima mix, Herb Miller asserts that clergy are effective to the extent that the conscious and unconscious choices they make in developing each of these elements fit the needs of the congregation or church organization they serve. In Leadership Is the Key, he offers practical ways to influence these choices and maximize effectiveness in ministry.
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Clergy Killers : Guidance For Pastors And Congregation Under Attack
$30.00Add to cartIn a startling survey by Leadership, it was discovered that 23 percent of Protestant clergy have been fired at least once, and, even more significantly, 41 percent of congregations have fired at least two pastors. Rediger offers conflict management tactics for these “abusive” congregations.
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Seeker And Servant
$35.00Add to cartThis collection of original essays expands on visionary Robert K. Greenleaf’s servant-leadership theme. It offers thought-provoking ideas on how religious institutions and individuals can serve in a more caring way by applying the ideas and ideals of Greenleaf’s servant-leadership vision.
