Download or read book Ecclesial Leadership as Friendship written by Chloe Lynch and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-03-01 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When it comes to talking about the activity of directing the church, the language of leadership and leaders is increasingly popular. Yet what is leadership – and how might theological narratives better resource the discourse and practice of leadership in ecclesial contexts? In identifying and critiquing managerialism as a dominant narrative of leadership in the Western church, this book calls for an alternative approach founded on the concept of friendship. Engaging with the wider field of leadership studies, the book establishes an understanding of leadership activity and brings it into conversation with an incarnational ecclesiology. The result is a prophetic reimagining of ecclesial leadership in terms of a relational, kenotic praxis. This praxis of mutuality and love is framed here in the rich language of Christian friendship. The book also wrestles deeply with the embodiment of such a praxis, making explicit the power behaviours typical of friendship-leadership and offering constructive guidance for practitioners in the task of implementation within a complex and fractured world. This book offers a new vision of the centrality of friendship to leadership of a healthy church community. As such, it will be of great use to scholars of practical theology, ecclesiology and leadership, as well as practitioners in church ministry.

Download or read book Friendship Leadership written by Matt Messner and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2018-11-29 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No one can deny that friendships are powerful relationships of influence. Why not strategically incorporate friendship within a philosophy of leadership? People long for relational models of leadership, yet few specific methodologies have been developed. This book examines the friendship of God with humanity, and the leadership of Jesus with his disciples, to whom he declared, "I no longer call you servants . . . Instead, I have called you friends" (John 15:15). In response to this enduring example of the Divine bringing together both friendship and leadership, this book presents an unexplored model of leadership for the Christian practitioner: Friendship Leadership. The authors of Friendship Leadership share research, historical examples, and their personal experiences with this leadership model, as they describe both the trials and triumphs. Through this process, the book addresses the primary barriers a leader might experience when utilizing the Friendship Leadership model. Finally, the authors offer a guide for how to incorporate friendship into their leadership, strengthening others as they follow the example of our great Leader. The result is a transformational way of leading that nurtures relationships.

Download or read book Doing Good Well written by Dr. Craig A. Bell and published by WestBow Press. This book was released on 2020-03-20 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an attempt to synthesize the logic of mathematics, organizational behavioral/ management policy of an MBA and ecclesial scholarship of a Doctorate of Strategic Leadership into the pages of one book. This book begins with the premise that, similar to corporate leaders, faith-based leaders are also capable of implementing these skills and resources to maximize the efficiency of church organizations. It is critical that they have a full toolkit of resources to leverage when administering their organizations. It also acknowledges and recognizes that a life fully engaged in active ministry doesn’t necessarily allow time to pursue degrees in each of the aforementioned subjects. As a result, Dr. Bell has attempted to create a medium through which ecclesial practitioners and scholars may review these various topics to obtain insight. Similar to survey courses in college, readers should see it as a beginning point for further exploration. Take from it what you will and apply it to your God-given vision. Use it as a springboard to the progressively revealed Will of God for the effective administration of your call.

Download or read book Leaders That Last written by Gary D. Kinnaman and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2003-12-01 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thousands of ministers burn out every year; others fall prey to sexual temptation. With piercing honesty, Leaders that Last dismantles stale stereotypes about pastors and offers hope for handling their recurring, daily struggles. Co-authored by a minister who admits to struggling with periodic bouts of depression, this practical resource offers a hopeful message for pastors of every denomination. Serving a church is a lonely business no matter how big the congregation. A pastor is expected to be nearly perfect, modeling holiness, generosity, and kindness. In need of moral and emotional support, pastors often try to go it alone, satisfied with a collection of acquaintances but no true friends. Starting a Pastors in Covenant support group changes all that. Struggling leaders can throw each other a lifeline when they agree to communicate with caring and candor. Geared primarily for those in ministry, Leaders that Last is an important message from two authors who understand the difficulties that come with ministering 24-7 . . . with no Sundays off.

Download or read book The Routledge Companion to Leadership and Change written by Satinder K. Dhiman and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-03-28 with total page 657 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The unique leadership challenges organizations face throughout the world call for a renewed focus on what constitutes "authentic, inclusive, servant, transformational, principled, values-based, and mindful" leadership. Traditional approaches rarely provide a permeating or systematic framework to garner a sense of higher purpose or nurture deeper moral and spiritual dimensions of leaders. Learning to be an effective leader requires a deep personal transformation, which is not easy. This text provides guidelines in a variety of settings and contexts while presenting best practices in successfully leading the twenty-first century workforce and offering strategies and tools to lead change effectively in the present-day boundary-less work environment. Given the ever-growing, widespread importance of leadership and its role in initiating change, this will be a key reference work in the field of leadership and change management in business. The uniqueness of this book lies in its anchorage in the moral and spiritual dimension of leadership, an approach most relevant for contemporary times and organizations. It represents an important milestone in the perennial quest for discovering the best leadership models and change practices to suit the contemporary organizations. Designed to be a resource for scholars, practitioners, teachers and students seeking guidance in the art and science of leadership and change management, this will be an invaluable reference for libraries with collections in business, management, sports, history, politics, law, and psychology. It will present essential strategies for leading and transforming corporations, small businesses, schools, hospitals, and various nonprofit organizations. It brings the research on leadership and change management up to date, while mapping its terrain and extending the scope and boundaries of this field in an inclusive and egalitarian manner.

Download or read book Towards Friendship Shaped Communities A Practical Theology of Friendship written by Anne-Marie Ellithorpe and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2022-04-13 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique and incisive exploration of the place and nature of friendship in both its personal and civic dimensions In Towards Friendship-Shaped Communities: A Practical Theology of Friendship, distinguished theological researcher Anne-Marie Ellithorpe delivers a constructive and insightful exploration of the place and nature of friendship as innate to being human, to the human vocation, and to life within the broader community. Of particular interest to members and leaders of faith communities, this book responds to contemporary concerns regarding relationality and offers a comprehensive theology of friendship. The author provides an inclusive and interdisciplinary study that brings previous traditions and texts into dialogue with contemporary contexts and concerns, including examples from Indigenous and Euro-Western cultures. Readers will reflect on the theology of friendship and the interrelationship between friendship and community, think critically about their own social and theological imagination, and develop an integrative approach to theological reflection that draws on Don Browning’s Fundamental Practical Theology. Integrating philosophical, anthropological, and theological perspectives on the study of friendship, this book presents: A thorough introduction to contemporary questions on friendship and discussions of co-existing friendship worlds Comprehensive explorations of friendship in first and second testament writings, as well as friendship within classical and Christian traditions Practical discussions of theology, friendship, and the social imagination, including explorations of mutuality and spirit-shaped friendships Considerations for outworking friendship ideals within communities of practice, from the perspective of strategic (or fully) practical theology Perfect for graduate and advanced undergraduate students taking courses on friendship or practical theology, Towards Friendship-Shaped Communities: A Practical Theology of Friendship will also earn a place in the libraries of scholars of practical theology and community practitioners, including ministers, priests, pastors, spiritual advisors, and counselors.

Download or read book The Palgrave Handbook of Servant Leadership written by Gary E. Roberts and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-04-11 with total page 1729 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This reference work offers comprehensive perspectives on servant leadership. Featuring a cadre of leading world-class scholars, practitioners, and contributing authors from diverse fields of inquiry, it aims to collate research on servant leadership with a particular focus on its moral and spiritual dimensions.It is divided into sections that center on topics such as character, philosophical influences, diversity and inclusion, critiques of servant leadership as well as examples of servant leaders Though first introduced in the 1970 by Robert Greenleaf, the field of servant leadership is still lacking consensus on a definition and a theoretical framework. The goal of this reference work is to begin to fill this gap by assembling the scholarship of the top scholars in this field and providing a go-to source for information on the theory and practice of servant leadership. This handbook will serve as an essential resource for researchers, scholars, and students of organizational behavior, human resource management, and business ethics, as well as consultants and business leaders interested in discovering the best leadership models to suit contemporary organizations.

Download or read book Towards a Theology of Relationship written by Michael Berra and published by James Clarke & Company. This book was released on 2024-01-25 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the theme of relationship receiving renewed attention in a variety of areas, theological expressions of the subject are also being brought back into the spotlight. Although the concept of a personal relationship with God is a common Christian expression, it is often poorly defined. Here, Michael Berra draws on the Swiss theologian Emil Brunner to redefine and rehabilitate the analogy of relationship. Basing his study primarily on Brunner's seminal work Truth as Encounter, Berra proposes that relationship ought to be the central motif for the whole of theology. He investigates the theme in light of modern relationship science, arguing that God-human interaction categorically meets the definition of a relationship, and that it is existentially intended to be intimate. Scholars and church leaders will find in Berra's approach a refreshing voice in this dynamic field.

Download or read book Evangelicals Engaging in Practical Theology written by Helen Morris and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-03-30 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book aims to introduce a distinctively evangelical voice to the discipline of practical theology. Evangelicals have sometimes seen practical theology as primarily a ‘liberal’ project. This collection, however, actively engages with practical theology from an evangelical perspective, both through discussion of the substantive issues and by providing examples of practical theology done by evangelicals in the classroom, the church, and beyond. This volume brings together established and emerging voices to debate the growing role which practical theology is playing in evangelical and Pentecostal circles. Chapters begin by addressing methodological concerns, before moving into areas of practice. Additionally, there are four short papers from students who make use of practical theology to reflect upon their own practice. Issues of authority and normativity are tackled head on in a way that will inform the debate both within and beyond evangelicalism. This book will, therefore, be of keen interest to scholars of practical, evangelical, and Pentecostal theology.

Download or read book The Humble Church written by Martyn Percy and published by Canterbury Press. This book was released on 2021-03-31 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this bold and provocative invitation, Martyn Percy imagines what the post-pandemic Church might look like and sets out what it needs to learn. It argues that the Church needs to stop obsessing about itself – its size, its strategies to shore up decline, its waning public influence – and rediscover how to live as the body of Christ. In other words, what does it need to do in order to become more like Christ? As Christ poured out his life for the sake of others, he considers ways in which the Church might imitate Christ in practice today. Whenever Jesus visited anywhere beyond the confines of the Jewish community he immediately became socially useful, and so this extols such virtues as humble service in the community, not because it is an effective way to grow the Church, but because it is faithful to Christ’s own example. Avoiding responses such as exasperation, righteous anger at shortcomings or wishful thinking about returning to the past, he sets out a vision for the Church's future that is both biblical and christological. Incisive, imaginative and engagingly written, this will resonate deeply with many lay and ordained members of the Church.

Download or read book Disclosing Church written by Clare Watkins and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-03-05 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 2006 to 2011 researchers at Heythrop College and the Oxford Centre for ecclesiology and Practical Theology (OxCEPT, Ripon College Cuddesdon) worked on a theological and action research project: "Action Research – Church and Society (ARCS). 2010 saw the publication of Talking About God in Practice: Theological Action research and Practical Theology (SCM), which presented in an accessible way the work of ARCS and its developing methodology. This turned out to be a landmark study in the praxis of Anglican and Catholic ecclesiology in the UK, showing how theology in these differing contexts interacted with the way in which clergy and congregations lived out their religious convictions. This book is a direct follow up to that significant work, authored by one of the original researchers, providing a systematic analysis of the impact of the "theological action research" methodology and its implications for a contemporary ecclesiology. The book presents an ecclesiology generated from church practice, drawing on scholarship in the field as well as the results of the theological action research undertaken. It achieves this by including real scenarios alongside the academic discourse. This combination allows the author to tease out the complex relationship between the theory and the reality of church. Addressing the need for a more developed theological and methodological account of the ARCS project, this is a book that will be of interest to scholars interested not only Western lived religion, but ecclesiology and theology more generally too.

Download or read book The Sunday Assembly and Theologies of Suffering written by Katie Cross and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-07-05 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book draws on a study of the Sunday Assembly- a "godless congregation"- to reflect on how the Church might better deal with suffering, lament and theodicy. Against a backdrop of a shifting attitudes towards religion, humans are now better connected than ever before. It is no exaggeration to suggest that we carry the suffering of the world in our pockets. In the midst of these intersecting issues, the Sunday Assembly provides insight into how meaning-making in times of trauma and crisis is changing. Drawing on practical theology and using ethnographic tools of investigation, this book includes findings from interviews and observation with the Sunday Assembly in London and Edinburgh. It explores the Sunday Assembly’s philosophy of "celebrating life," and what this means in practice. At times, this emphasis on celebration can result in situations where suffering is "passed over," or only briefly acknowledged. In response, this book considers a similar tendency within white Protestant churches to avoid explicit discussion of difficult issues. This book challenges churches to consider how they might resist the avoidance of suffering through the practice of lament.The insights provided by this book will be of particular interest to scholars of Religious Studies, Practical Theology, Secularism and Atheism/Non-religion.

Download or read book Tragedies and Christian Congregations written by Christopher Southgate and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-09-26 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When tragedy strikes a community, it is often unexpected with long-lasting effects on the people left in its wake. Too often, there aren’t adequate systems in place to aid those affected in processing what has happened. This study uniquely combines practical theology, pastoral insight and scientific data to demonstrate how Christian congregations can be helped to be resilient in the face of sudden devastating events. Beginning by identifying the characteristics of trauma in individuals and communities, this collection of essays from practitioners and academics locates sudden trauma-inducing tragedies as a problem in practical theology. A range of biblical and theological responses are presented, but contemporary scientific understanding is also included in order to challenge and stretch some of these traditional theological resources. The pastoral section of the book examines the ethics of response to tragedy, locating the role of the minister in relation to other helping agencies and exploring the all-too-topical issue of ministerial abuse. Developing a nuanced rationale for good practical, pastoral, liturgical and theological responses to major traumas, this book will be of significant value to scholars of practical theology as well as practitioners counselling in and around church congregations.

Download or read book Servants and Friends written by Skip Bell and published by . This book was released on 2014-05-01 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Poetry Practical Theology and Reflective Practice written by Mark Pryce and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-03-13 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking study offers an innovative critical analysis of poetry as a resource for reflective practice in the context of continuing professional development. In the contemporary drive in all professions for greater rigour in education, training, and development, little attention is paid to the inner shape of learning and meaning-making for individuals and groups, especially ways in which individuals are formed for the task of their work. Building on empirical research into the author’s professional practice, the book takes the use of poetry in clergy continuing ministerial development as a case-study to examine the value of poetry in professional learning. Setting out the advantages and limitations of poetry as a stimulant for imaginative, critical reflexivity, and formation within professional reflective practice, the study develops a practical model for group reflection around poetry, distilling pedagogical approaches for working effectively with poetry in continuing professional development. Drawing together a number of strands of thinking about poetry, Practical Theology, and reflective practice into a tightly argued study, the book is an important methodological resource. It makes available a range of primary and secondary sources, offering researchers into professional practice a model of ethnographic research in Practical Theology which embraces innovative methods for reflexivity and theological reflection, including the value of auto-ethnographic poetry.

Download or read book John of the Cross written by Edward Howells and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-04-12 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the life and teaching of John of the Cross, the Spanish mystic who remains a major source of Western thought on spirituality, theology and mysticism. Leading academics discuss the importance and legacy of John from historical, theological, philosophical, pastoral, ecumenical, psychological and literary perspectives. The book focuses on his place in Carmel, his understanding of desire, and the role of transformation in his theology. Approaching John in the context of the late medieval mystical tradition, it offers a timely re-evaluation of his work and a significant reassessment of his relevance in the context of current debates.

Download or read book Good News Parish Leadership written by Michael L. Papesh and published by Twenty-Third Publications. This book was released on 2008 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For many Catholics today, the leaders described above don't exist. For just as many, "parish leadership" does not equal "good news." But Father Michael Papesh believes it certainly CAN, and here he offers guidelines, tools, and ideas for making it happen. By sharing pastoral leadership and structuring power distribution, he says a parish can enjoy, be, mirror, proclaim, and bring to the world the transforming goodness of God. And thus he offers a "whole system" model for pastoral leadership that is theologically grounded in the hospitality of God as revealed through the ministry of Jesus.