Leadership, God’s Agency, and Disruptions
Confronting Modernity’s Wager
- Church Leadership & Ministry
- Publisher: Cascade Books (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2021
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Publisher's Description
Leaders in congregations and Christian organizations wrestle with an unraveling of the world in which they have little experience and training. While they are offered unending resources by experts on leadership, some with claims to biblical blueprints, the challenges seem mismatched to those methods. Branson and Roxburgh frame the situation as one in which "modernity's wager"--the conviction that God is not necessary for life and wisdom and meaning--has defined the Western imagination. Because churches and leaders are colonized by this ethos, even when God is named and beliefs are claimed, approaches to leadership are blind to God's agency. Branson and Roxburgh approach this challenge as a work in practical theology, attending to our cultural context, narratives of God's disruptive initiatives in Scripture, and a reshaping of leadership theories with a priority on God's agency. With years of experience as teachers, consultants, and guides, they name practices which lead to more faithful participation. Leadership, God's Agency, and Disruption is wide-ranging in cultural and biblical scholarship, challenging in its engagement with numerous leadership studies, and practical with its focus toward the on-the-ground life of churches and organizations.
Endorsements (4)
“What does theology look like after the so-called ‘practical turn’? If some might still think such a ‘turn’ is optional, this book calls that bluff: scriptural reading and theological reflection are situated in a dynamic ‘in-between space’ that enables ongoing inquiry into and discernment about God’s agency in a fluid world through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. This is not about divine usefulness but about Christian leadership and discipleship being continually renewed and reformed by what God is doing.”
“Leadership, God’s Agency, and Disruptions is a wonderfully brilliant book by two world class thinkers on leadership. Read it and allow the leadership you have known to be unraveled. Know that, by the time you’re finished reading, you’ll be re-constructed as a Christian leader. Instead of techniques, you’ll be given a new way of being that is found in the very center of God’s agency, not your own.”
“In a noisy field of Christian leadership books touting the secrets to effective ministry, Branson and Roxburgh have raised a clarion call to reorient leadership around God’s agency rather than management techniques. Its biblical depth and theological rigor may make you doubt you’ve ever read a book that deserves to be called a ‘theology of leadership’ before. This masterpiece of practical theology is now my go-to recommendation on leadership for teachers and practitioners.”
“There are many books that offer descriptors of that which is wrong with the church in the Western world. Few, however, offer a way forward that is not merely a reflection of the current fixation of the West with methods, techniques, and programmes. . . . Mark and Alan’s offering brings together a well-tuned intellectual and academic perception, practical engagement in ministry, and a significant insight into what the journey ahead might be.”
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