The Narrow Path to Expansive Vision

RD Oostra

Description

How does a leader follow a narrow-path (yet not narrow-minded) life in an “all about me” world? Follow the greatest leader in history: Jesus Christ.

"You can buy The Narrow Path to Expansive Vision online at any major online bookstore, or through the Westbow website."

We live in a country deeply divided politically and culturally, and the chasm widens and deepens with each passing day. As a society, it seems like there is an increasing tendency to follow the wrong things and the wrong people. So where do we turn to find a leadership example in an “all about me” world? How do you live and lead a narrow-path (yet not narrow-minded) life in a wide-path world and society? You turn to the greatest leadership example in history: Jesus Christ.

This may seem like an obvious answer, but it is not. In conducting original research for the book The Narrow Path to Expansive Vision, RD (Randy) Oostra completed a national online survey of business leaders, including those who identified as Christian leaders. One question on the survey asked those who identified as Christian leaders to name their top three leaders of all time. Only 13 percent mentioned Christ as one of their top three leaders. In addition, only 43 percent of these Christian leaders considered themselves to be servant leaders.

As The Narrow Path to Expansive Vision unfolds, it weaves a narrative of Randy’s personal journey growing up in a rigorous Dutch Reformation background to his life as a CEO of a national health and well-being organization. Randy tells his story of how he has lived in and navigated through the science-based world of health care, as well as his frustrations with a Church leadership that frankly has not always been helpful in meeting the challenges he faced as a business leader, and in life in general. Based on these experiences, Randy offers a foundational approach to leadership inspired by the example of Christ. It is a hopeful message that both believers and non-believers will find meaningful and useful.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Christian Living
• Inspirational
• Philosophie et théologie
• Servant leadership

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 08 décembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664283237
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE NARROW PATH TO EXPANSIVE VISION
Essays on following the light of the greatest leader who ever lived—Jesus Christ
 
 
 
RD OOSTRA
 
 

 
 
Copyright © 2022 RD Oostra.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.
 
 
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
844-714-3454
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973 1978 1984 2011 by Biblica, Inc. TM. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6642-8324-4 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-8325-1 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-8323-7 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022920666
 
 
 
WestBow Press rev. date: 12/8/2022
CONTENTS
Introduction
PART I: SEEKING A NARROW PATH IN A WIDE-PATH WORLD
1     “The Gospel according to Me”
2     Integrating Science and Scripture
3     Saying You Are a Christian Leader and Being a Christian Leader May Not Be the Same Thing
4     The Slippery Slope to Wide-Path Leadership
5     Moving Forward through the Tension
PART II: FINDING MYSELF, LEADING OTHERS
6     Finding Purpose
7     Living Mission
8     Servant Leadership: The Last Is First; the First Is Last
9     Leading Change
10   Leadership Development: Fishers of Men
11   Cultivate and Communicate: Spread the Good News
12   Gaining and Maintaining Perspective
13   Toward a Christ-Inspired Leadership Approach
Prayer/Poem: “As We Rise Each Day”
Appendix: Bible Verses to Consider as a Christ-Inspired Leader
Endnotes
To our parents, who taught us the importance of faith, family, and hard work.
To two pastors, Lee Powell and Chad Gilligan, whose thoughts and words are woven into this book. Two men who were the best we have experienced in helping make Sunday sermons relevant to our daily lives.
To our family, Drew, Katelyn, Annalyn, Ellerie, Tyler, Jodi, Carson, Caitlin, and Oliver. You have given us joy beyond words.
To our friend, editor and writer Tim Langhorst, whose talents, insights, and passion are truly amazing and whose fingerprints are on every word.
To my wife, Barbara, your love, friendship, counsel, and warm heart have made our forty-plus-year journey together beautiful.
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and nar row the road that leads to life, and only a few fin d it.
—Matthew 7:13–14
INTRODUCTION
Finding the Leadership Example of Christ in an “All about Me” W orld
Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
—Psalm 119:105
I grew up during the late 1950s and 1960s in a rural community in northwest Iowa called Sioux Center. My mom was a Dutch immigrant, and my dad was a first-generation Dutch immigrant. Given that they were the oldest children of their families, they were both required to work from a young age, and as a result, they never had an opportunity to get a formal education. They were farmers and service workers who were focused on work and didn’t really travel outside the community, and in doing that, they provided us with a wonderful life. My wife, Barbara, grew up in the same area, although we didn’t actually meet until several years after college. Her brother still owns a farm in Boyden, Iowa, passed down from generation to generation for more than one hundred years. Like our parents, we stayed pretty close to home in our younger years.
We lived in a very sheltered, doctrine-driven world. Pretty much everyone in our area lived that way. Our life was one of Protestant work ethic and Calvinism. As Dutch immigrants, we studied the five core points of Calvinism, which stated: people are simple and flawed, with sinful motives at the core; God chooses those people who will be saved; not everybody is going to be saved; once saved, you are always saved; and those who have genuine faith and who are in a state of saving grace can never lose their salvation.
Biblical scholars have debated this doctrine over time, and several points, such as unconditional election and limited atonement, are considered highly controversial, and those are points I certainly have struggled with throughout my life. But as kids from a Dutch reformation background, we learned and lived these principles. Little did we know that growing up on this narrow path would present numerous challenges as we moved through life. Clearly, not everyone grew up like we did.
Let’s be clear. This book is not about growing up in a religious community. It’s not to criticize my upbringing; I am actually incredibly thankful for it. It is about my faith and leadership journey in the midst of all the noise in everyday contemporary life and seeking a path to being the person, and the leader, I hoped to be. For me, that was following the leadership example of Jesus Christ.
These principles provide a point of reference, a foundation, for decisions made in life and as an adult working together with all faiths as a business and community leader. In following this biblical frame of reference, in Barb’s and my experience, we believed in and practiced—and continue to do so—a Protestant work ethic that included temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, and justice.
As we grew up, we naively thought everybody was the same way we were. We didn’t get much education on what we would encounter when we ventured outside our community. But what we found is that having a strong doctrinal focus, a Christian framework, which helped us think about what we believed in as Christians, doesn’t always translate well in a modern society and as a leader in the business world or in the community.
And we sadly found most churches were not helpful.
The challenge for me is and has always been, “What do you believe?” And how do we define, and then live, the narrow path? In Matthew 16:15, Christ asks “Who do you say I am?” It is a question that humans have been trying to answer for thousands of years. Through this book, and through my life’s journey, I will be offering some possible answers to that question. However you personally might answer this question, there is one thing that you can’t deny. Jesus is as relevant today as he was while he lived—perhaps more so. And he will continue to be for millennia to come.
The dilemma for so many Christians then becomes, how do you understand and then find that bridge that helps ease the tension between the Christian life and the secular world—and, honestly, the tension raised between being a Christian and the organized church and church leadership? As we have moved around, that tension has only become worse for us. For some, this tension is a challenge, but others ignore it either by not thinking about it or avoiding thinking about it, and by compartmentalizing their faith and their work.
In the course of my career as a leader in health care administration in various communities in our country, and most recently as the president and CEO of a national health and well-being organization with more than forty thousand employees serving communities in twenty-eight states, there isn’t any education out there I know of that helped us effectively translate Christian belief into a leadership approach that works at the office and keeps faith tenets unchallenged. I know that may sound critical, but my experience with multiple churches, pastors, and the endless content on podcasts, news articles, the internet and social media, and other media all seem lacking when helping to make meaningful connections between our faith and leadership.
There was an occasion a couple of years ago when I was working on several presentations at one time. I had a presentation to a business community in one neat, tall pile, and a stack of files for my Bible study group in another neat and very tall pile. And then the two piles teetered and fell into one combined mess. I was immediately upset that the piles had fallen together, but as I sat back in my desk chair, it struck me hard how these two piles were really one. The good to great philosophy of leadership from Jim Collins collided with Jeremiah’s scribe, Baruch, who in Jeremiah 45:5 was charged to “seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them.” This was not the orderly world from my youth.
What had happened seemed like a tremendous metaphor for the separateness of leadership and faith that has frustrated me throughout my career, and it struck a chord.
This epiphany is one main reason for this book. This is not a book about Calvinism but