Leading in DisOrienting Times

V. Nelson Rev. Dr. Gary, Peter Dickens

Description

Jack Mezirow, a leader in education theory, suggests that all transformative learning begins with a 'disorienting dilemma': an idea or experience that challenges or shifts fundamental values and assumptions. Gary Nelson and Peter Dickens, pastors and teachers with vast experience working with congregations and organizations, believe it is time for Christian leaders to be 'disoriented,' for the fundamental values and assumptions of Christian leadership to be reframed and broken down so they can see the leadership task in new ways. Blending current literature from both Christian and secular scholarship with individual and organizational examples, Leading in DisOrienting Times provides support for the concept of servant leadership that may be initially disorienting, but is ultimately liberating.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Christian Board of Publication
• Date de parution: 05 mai 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780827221772
• Langue: English

Extrait

Nowadays we are looking for a new kind of leader that we do not know how to describe. Not a dictator, but not passive either. Relational, but not timid. Relentless with vision, but a collaborator as well. In Leading in Disorienting Times, Gary Nelson and Peter Dickens not only describe this new leadership, they take us through the journey to get there. From their deep and tested wisdom, in both ministry and systems, they display how to do this leadership amidst the unparalleled culture shifts of our day.
-David Fitch, BR Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology, Northern Seminary and Author of Prodigal Christianity
Leading in Disorienting Times will help leaders to nurture healthy churches and effective organizations in the 21st Century. Interpreting a wealth of contemporary literature on leadership through years of experience leading church and non-church communities, Nelson and Dickens show us that leadership is more than tactical and technical. It is relational and transformational. They encourage us that uncertainties and complexities can be places of possibility and vitality when Christian leaders are grounded in God's love and connected to the people they serve. This book can help leaders to thrive despite threatening changes in contexts, communities and world.
-David Goatley, Lott Carey Mission Society
G.K. Chesterton was once asked, along with several other pundits, what book he d choose if stranded on a desert island. While others chose classic works of world literature, Chesterton answered, Thomas Guide to Practical Shipbuilding. Well, if you could choose one book to help you navigate the challenges of leadership in these turbulent times, you re holding it. It s wise, it s deep, it s simple, and it s workable. Unless you enjoy being stuck, buy this, read this, apply this: everyone will be happy you did.
-Mark Buchanan, Author of Your Church Is Too Safe
Gary and Peter manage to distill theory from major works on this topic reinforced by their years of experience and high level of expertise The concepts are very relevant and meaningful across different cultural settings. The book speaks to my context in Beirut, Lebanon, as effectively as it does in other contexts. I wish for every leader at my seminary and at my church to study this book and be challenged and inspired by its content.
-Elie Haddad, President, Arab Baptist Theological Seminary, Beirut, Lebanon
Nelson and Dickens have brought together exceptional church learning and outstanding secular business learning and communicated insights for all Christians who have a servant heart and desire the application tools to lead in powerful ways in their family, church, and community in order to connect others to Christ. This is a must-read for all those who are seeking to have an impact on others for Christ through their actions, words, and deeds.
-Steven D Holmes, President and CEO, VerifEye Technologies, Springfree Trampolines and Chair of the Board of Governors, Tyndale University College Seminary
As someone who over the past 40 years has led churches, businesses, and international development agencies, I welcome a book that will get me beyond the mechanical models of leadership that are so common today and replace it with an understanding of the realities of leading complex people and complex organizations in complex times. Gary Nelson and Peter Dickens bring solid scholarship and decades of real world experience to this discussion.
-Mike Baer, President and CEO of the Third Path Initiative
Leading in Disorienting Times hit me where I live! Nelson and Dickens artfully blend contemporary leadership thought, lived story, and the Canadian context. A relevant and timely contribution to finding our way as we seek to lead our organizations through difficult questions, challenged assumptions, and revolutionary change.
-Melanie Humphreys, President, The King s University, Edmonton, Alberta
Insights help us see more and go further than what we ever could without them. In Leading in Disorienting Times, Nelson and Dickens provide multiple insights and illustrations that help us see the terrain of the land that has so radically changed in our disorienting times. With a breadth that comes from divergent backgrounds, Nelson and Dickens provide compasses and outlines for the journey that lies ahead for all of us. Not only do they provide key markers for this journey, they do so in a format that is compact, concise, and highly readable.
-Jul Meldenblik, President, Calvin Seminary
This book will disappoint readers looking for checklists and recipes. But for readers who want a book that will stir personal reflection and challenge them to integrate their faith and leadership journeys, this book will be a gift.
-Brenda Zimmerman, Director of Health Industry Management Program and Associate Professor of Strategy/Policy at Schulich School of Business, York University and Coauthor of Getting to Maybe and Edgeware .
Its great strength is that it delves into all the current discussions about leadership, but does so with rich case study illustrations. Throughout, it threads the theme of relational leadership that appreciates the complexities of servant leadership today. Its chapters on transformational leadership and complex adaptive systems are superb. These are issues global leaders are addressing, and often what is suggested can have toxic outcomes for the leader and the ministry alike. However, Nelson and Dickens lead the reader forward in a nuanced and creative way.
-Ross Clifford, Principal, Morling Theological College, Sydney, Australia
Some people see leadership as it was in former times. Some see it as it is today. Most important is seeing leadership as it is becoming. This future orientation calls for comfort with the concept of chaordic, which is the simultaneous existence of chaos and order. No one has a crystal clear view of future leadership. It is something we must live into with great wisdom and then appropriately reflect on what we have experienced. Yet there are values that characterize future leadership. The deepest core value is a sense of calling-especially a spiritual calling-to leadership. Nearby is having a passion for something for which leadership is being expressed-a church or other organization. Essential is insightful awareness of the times in which leadership is being provided. In Leading in Disorienting Times Gary Nelson and Peer Dickens help us navigate a journey involving all three of these values.
-George Bullard, President of The Columbia Partnership and General Secretary of the North American Baptist Fellowship
Most of my life has been spent working with younger leaders and those who inspire, encourage, and serve them. I love their passion, vision, and deep desire to be a transformative and redemptive presence in the midst of constant change and a profoundly complex and uncertain world. But how they see it playing out in the midst of the challenges that they face is where vision and reality often collide and go their separate ways. What Nelson and Dickens have deftly achieved through a rich blend of theory, praxis, and their own personal stories and leadership experiences is the provision of a hopeful relational framework for fresh structures and processes to emerge and to bring purpose and rootedness to leading in disorienting times. High value for all leaders.
-John H. Wilkinson, Executive Coach and Strategist, Youth Unlimited Toronto/Youth For Christ Canada
Navigation using the maps of the past is uncertain at best and perilous at worst in a world where the landscape is in a state of continuous and disorienting change. Thankfully, Dickens and Nelson have leveraged their combined and proven leadership experience to provide a steadfast compass that will help leaders wisely and practically pilot their organizations into the future.
-Steve Brown, President, Arrow Leadership and Author of Leading Me
Managerial leadership, the authors insist, will serve adequately neither our churches nor our social institutions in a world of accelerating complexity. The renewing change so urgently required of our churches and societal institutions in post-Christendom culture requires biblically and contextually informed changes of leadership disposition, vision, relational commitments, and motivational instincts-nothing short of comprehensive leadership re-imagination. I savor the prospect of sharing it with my students and colleagues in biblical higher education leadership.
-Ralph E. Enlow, Jr. President of the Association for Biblical Higher Education
This book gives voice to things that many leaders in our generation feel and live. It offers earthly inspiration to keep engaged with transition in order to facilitate transformation. The authors refreshing take on contemporary leadership encourages us to know that in the midst of cultural disorientation, we are not left without compass or companions.
-Anna Robbins, Acadia Divinity College
Peter Dickens and Gary Nelson have articulated, effectively, the concept that leadership is well-advised to think of organizations as living organisms rather than machines. They have applied their respective experiences in the world of health care (Dickens) and the church (Nelson). In so doing, they enunciate the complexity of organizations and the multi-dimensional cross-hatching of the systems within which these organizations exist. Out of these considerations we learn of the ways by which leaders can encounter and creatively reshape the worlds in which organizations exist.
-Lloyd Mackey, Canadian Journalist
This book captures the reality of leadership today and the challenges we face in order to navigate our ambiguous future while remaining committed and passionate in God's mission. With authentic experience, sensitivity, and wisdom, it serves as a guide to promote the adaptive and continuous dialogue leaders need. Like a map it points out where you are, where you want to be,